Free Republic

In subtle but profound ways, Pope Francis is making great changes in church government, moral theology, and Catholic life. That’s the opinion of Rev. Charles E. Curran, who shared his views on these topics in an April lecture entitled “Pope Francis, Reform, and Moral Theology,” hosted by New Ways Ministry. The occasion for Curran’s talk was the first Fr. Robert Nugent Memorial Lecture, honoring New Ways Ministry’s co-founder who passed away in 2014. Curran described his friend, Fr. Nugent, as a “marvelous combination of pastoral, spiritual, and intellectual qualities.” More than 150 attendees gathered at the Bon Secours Retreat and...

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. yesterday defended a recent string of legal opinions refuted by the courts that have cast a shadow over his exit from state Democratic politics after 47 years. "If we thought we were wrong, we would have never, never, never approved it," Mr. Curran, 75, told The Washington Times. "If we see the legislature is going down the wrong road, we say so. We stop them or help them change." However, Mr. Curran's legal advice supported the Democrat-controlled legislature's moves to force Wal-Mart to pay for employee health benefits, to fire the utility-regulating Public...

MARYLAND'S Democratic attorney general, J. Joseph Curran Jr., who over the weekend revealed his plans to retire after a political career spanning nearly half a century, is the sort of public servant who gives old-fashioned liberalism a good name. Many of the stands he championed -- racial tolerance, gun control, abortion rights, consumer protection -- are Democratic Party orthodoxy today. That wasn't so in all cases several decades ago when Mr. Curran, then a state lawmaker, first embraced them. In 1967, for instance, when he advocated open-housing laws requiring colorblind home sales, his house in Baltimore was picketed. A year...

The Anti-Smoking Nazis are at it again. This time, Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. and 31 other State Attorneys General have sent a written request to Paramount Pictures asking that an anti-smoking public service announcement (PSA) be included in all DVD movies that depict smoking. Yeah, like there isn’t already enough junk to deal with on a DVD or VHS before I finally get to see the movie. Here’s an excerpt from the written request: Dear Mr. Grey We the undersigned Attorneys General write to request that Paramount Pictures demonstrate a commitment to protect the health of our...

NEWPORT - A former Millerstown police chief was arrested at the Canadian border last night about 10 hours after he shot and killed his estranged wife at her job, according to police in Northumberland County. Richard C. Curran, 31, of Shamokin, was arrested about 9 p.m. when he failed to declare firearms that were inside his vehicle at a Niagara Falls border crossing, Coal Twp. police said. Around 11 a.m. yesterday, Curran confronted his estranged wife at her job at Shamokin Area Community Hospital, police said. He is accused of shooting Tina Curran, 31, of Mount Carmel, several times and...

New information about the fallout from a March 2000 Washington Post article in which Katie O'Malley, the wife of Baltimore's mayor, brought up the topic of rumors that her husband had been "running around for years." The Washington Post was published on a Friday.  The following Monday, Katie O’Malley’s brother, J Joseph Curran III, better known as "Max" Curran wrote an email from his state computer at the Maryland Public Service, where he serves as a commissioner.  The email was addressed to the mayor’s close friend, and deputy mayor, Michael Enright, at Enright’s city hall email address. In that email,...

After waging a successful campaign to extend the deadline for accepting overseas military ballots, Republicans turned their attention to the prison vote Friday, vowing to challenge the legitimacy of all absentee ballots received from any Pennsylvania correctional facility. "We have every reason to believe that there has been gross abuse of the absentee ballot process in the prison system," said U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-7, of Thornbury. While waiting to begin a press conference outside Philadelphia’s Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility Friday afternoon, Weldon said he watched the crime he was prepared to speak about unfold before his eyes. "Four girls walked...

It's been three weeks since the conclusion of Mary Jo White's independent investigation clearing Bishop Howard Hubbard of any wrongdoing. But now, attorney John Aretakis is attacking the Albany Diocese once again, and it's contained in a 34-page lawsuit. Aretakis is holding a meeting with reporters this afternoon announcing the new lawsuit that's being filed in Boston, but names Bishop Howard Hubbard and the Albany Diocese as defendants. Area resident David Leonard, now an adult, said he was sexually abused by a Boston area priest as a young boy. He also said he was manipulated into a homosexual relationship as...