Free Republic

Catholic politicians who unambiguously support a woman's right to choose should not receive communion, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted said Wednesday. But he declined to say he would deny communion to politicians who do not follow church teaching on abortion. Asked directly about what he would do if Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic candidate for president who is a Catholic and supports abortion rights, came to him for communion, the leader of the Diocese of Phoenix said, "I would hope that would not happen." "If he asked about it," he said, "I would tell him he should not receive communion."...

Demanding that Catholic and other religious leaders include gays in the full life of the church, pastors on Tuesday nailed their controversial "Phoenix Declaration" to a symbolic door they want opened to allow gays to fully experience "God’s unconditional love." Their gesture sought to recreate what Reformation founder Martin Luther did in 1517 in nailing the "95 Theses" to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, to protest Catholic practices and abuses. Members of No Longer Silent/Clergy for Justice capped a news conference in Phoenix with the gesture to react to Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted’s ordering nine...

Some 4 1/2 months into his tenure, Bishop Thomas Olmsted has left no doubt that he is what the Vatican ordered when he was named to head the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix. A rapid series of recent diocesan actions underscores that Olmsted is a loyal and ardently faithful servant to Pope John Paul II, with whom the bishop once regularly worked during assignments with the Curia in the early 1980s. The pope tapped the 31-year priest last fall to leave his bishop's job in the Diocese of Wichita, Kan., to come to Arizona to rebuild a church rocked by...

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted doesn't want gays and lesbians in his church. The leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix made that abundantly clear this week when he ordered nine priests to remove their names from a statement they signed last year affirming gay rights and denouncing discrimination against them. Disguising homophobia as a religious mandate is nothing new, but coming from the new bishop it is at best unsettling. Because if the Bible bans homosexuality, then it also: o Demands that a bride found not to be a virgin be executed by stoning. o Forbids divorce and remarriage...

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted privately has ordered nine Catholic priests to withdraw their support from an interfaith statement supporting gay rights. Two of the nine priests who signed the Phoenix Declaration in January 2003 confirmed they received "personal and confidential" letters from the bishop last week. In the letter, Olmsted tells the priests and one religious brother to remove their names "under obedience" to him. No consequences are spelled out for those who decline. A copy of the letter was not available, and, as of Tuesday, none of the priests had asked that their names be removed. Olmsted said the...