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Legatus Honors President Bush, Cardinal George Newt Gingrich to Present New Film About John Paul II By Genevieve Pollock DANA POINT, California, FEB. 4, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Catholic business executives of Legatus are gathering today to honor former President George W. Bush and Cardinal Francis George, hear Newt Gingrich's conversion story and watch his new film. These are just some of the highlights of the Legatus annual summit in Dana Point, the group's executive director, John Hunt, explained to ZENIT. Legatus announced last month that the former U.S. president is attending the summit, which began today and will end Saturday, to...

Friday February 5, 2010 CCHD Scandal Picks Up Steam as Bishops React By Patrick B. Craine and John-Henry WestenWASHINGTON, D.C., February 5, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Various offices of the U.S. Bishops Conference (USCCB) have reacted to the two new reports issued by the Reform CCHD Now coalition (RCN) this week, but the reactions, claims RCN, have not addressed the core message of their reports.  While RCN has offered evidence that 31 CCHD grantees are partnered with a pro-abortion and homosexualist group, the Center for Community (CCC), and that two USCCB officials have served on the same group's board, the...

Further Updates on the Bishops' Scandal

Washington D.C., Feb 2, 2010 / 07:48 pm (CNA).- Researchers examining the activities of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and its grantees have raised questions about its connections with a network of community organizing groups involved in homosexual issues and abortion advocacy, including opposition to the Stupak Amendment. The Reform CCHD Now Coalition’s research was primarily conducted by the American Life League (ALL) and adds to the findings of the Bellarmine Veritas Ministry (BVM), a group which has examined CCHD-funded organizations involved in activities contradicting Catholic teaching. One group that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has come...

lifenews.com - Printer Friendly Page© V2.0 - CJ Website Designwww.cj-design.comCatholic Campaign for Human Development's Ties Pro-Abortion Group Blasted by Deal HudsonFebruary 2, 2010LifeNews.com Note: Deal W. Hudson is the director of the Morley Institute for Church & Culture and InsideCatholic.com, and is the author of Onward, Christian Soldiers: The Growing Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States (Simon and Schuster). Email RSS Print More startling evidence has been unearthed about the Catholic Campaign for Human development that shows a disturbing pattern of cooperation between the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and groups that advocate abortion and same-sex...

Pope Benedict XVI confirmed plans for his visit to Great Britain in September-- and offered some unusually blunt reflections on the situation facing the Church there-- in a February 1 address to a group of visiting British bishops. The Pope told the bishops, who were in Rome for their ad limina visit, that he looked forward to his trip to their country. Although he did not mention specific dates, informed Catholic sources in London have confirmed that the trip will take place in September. The Pontiff went on to say that the Church leadership in England and Wales "needs to...

I am hearing, on reliable authority, that the Cardinal Archbishop of Los Angeles, Roger Mahony, has approved a coadjutor bishop recently selected for him by the Holy See. This news – and the name – will be publicly announced “soon.” This new bishop, once announced and appointed, will automatically succeed Mahony as the Archbishop of Los Angeles as soon as Mahony retires, presumably before Mahony’s mandatory retirement at age 75 (February 27, 2011). Mahony has said that the current class of seminarians will be the last one he personally ordains. Some of the faculty at St. John’s Seminary – where...

Thursday January 14, 2010 Archbishop Burke Charges Politicians to Put "God First" By Matt Anderson PHOENIX, AZ, January 14, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a homily delivered to lawyers and politicians at the annual Red Mass in Phoenix, AZ on Tuesday, Archbishop Raymond Burke emphasized the sacred nature of a vocation to public service, reports the Catholic News Agency. The Red Mass, a tradition which started in the middle ages, is celebrated every year around the second Sunday in January to remind those in public positions of authority that true justice is found only in God. Burke became well-known in 2004...

www.catholicnewsagency.com Attacks in Malaysia designed to 'annihilate' Christians, warns Vatican official Rome, Italy, Jan 11, 2010 / 12:59 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Robert Sarah, secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples said last week that the recent attacks against Christians in Malaysia are designed to annihilate and reject “those who believe in Christ.” The archbishop made his statements on Vatican Radio after Muslim extremists firebombed four Christian churches on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. The attacks came after a controversy over whether to allow Catholics to use the term “Allah,” a traditional Malay word, in referring...

Catholic Campaign for Human Development Still Funding Abortion Promoter by Deal W. Hudson    1/11/10 Only a few months ago, it was revealed that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development was funding organizations actively promoting abortion and same-sex marriage. As a result, several organizations were defunded, and the CCHD was declared back on track. But with regard to at least one CCHD grantee, The San Francisco Organizing Project (SFOP), that doesn't appear to be the case. Last fall, Bellarmine Veritas Ministry caught SFOP receiving a $200,000 grant for a clinic offering both birth control and emergency contraception.CCHD and the Archdiocese...

Virginia bishop Charlene Kammerer urges everybody to read and study this toxic letter here: http://www.vaumc.org/Page.aspx?pid=1016 The letter itself is here: http://hopeandaction.org/main/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Adopted-Pastoral-Ltr-GRC-11_03_09-no-line-s.pdf Full text: God’s Renewed Creation: Call to Hope and Action A Pastoral Letter from the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church1 God’s creation is in crisis. We, the Bishops of The United Methodist Church, cannot remain silent while God’s people and God’s planet suffer. This beautiful natural world is a loving gift from God, the Creator of all things seen and unseen. God has entrusted its care to all of us, but we have turned our backs...

www.catholicnewsagency.com Bishop Vasa explains use of excommunication and communion denial Bishop Robert Vasa Bend, Ore., Jan 7, 2010 / 04:17 am (CNA).- A bishop’s power of excommunication in grave cases is like that of a doctor who cuts off a diabetic patient from sugar, Bishop of Bend, Oregon Robert Vasa has said. Explaining the practice, he noted that excommunication is an act of charity intended to instruct a wayward Catholic about the gravity of his or her situation.Writing in his Jan. 7 column for the Catholic Sentinel, Bishop Vasa noted that bishops are “extremely reluctant” to take the step...

Was 2009 a Turning Point? December 31st, 2009 by Russell Shaw Was 2009 a turning point for the American bishops, marking a tougher and more realistic approach on their part to the myriad problems, internal and external, besetting the Catholic Church in the United States? It’s too soon for final conclusions, but, on the evidence, history may judge the year just past in exactly those terms.Two episodes in particular suggest as much.One is the remarkable fact that some 80 American bishops, acting on their own, spoke up last spring to protest Notre Dame’s invitation to President Barack Obama to receive...

DATE: December 19, 2009 FROM: Sr. Mary Ann Walsh O: 202-541-3200 H: 301-587-4762 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Federal government must not expand its role enabling abortions Bill should not go forward unless and until problems remedied Protection of life, conscience rights; fairness to legal immigrants; affordability top issues WASHINGTON--The Senate health reform bill should not move forward in its current form, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, New York, and Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City said December 19, as senators proceeded closer to a vote. Cardinal DiNardo chairs the bishops' Committee on Pro-life Activities....

Last month's passage of a sweeping ban on federal funding for abortion in the House healthcare bill caught most of Washington by surprise. The Democratic House leadership is closely aligned with the party's pro-abortion rights base, which alleged the ban would roll back abortion access for many women by keeping coverage for the procedure out of federally subsidized healthcare plans. And for abortion rights activists, the central role of the Roman Catholic bishops in pressing House leaders to allow a vote on the ban, known as the Stupak-Pitts amendment—and in helping prod 64 Democratic congressmen to support it—was as galling...

Dear Bishop ________, Groups claiming the title “Catholic” are working effectively to support legislation which violates core Catholic social teachings. They do not represent Catholic morality. But they claim to represent YOU. “Catholics across the political spectrum should lend their full-throated support to this [Health Care Reform] legislation. The bishops' stamp of approval means that this bill is unambiguously pro-life, and we will vigorously oppose those who suggest otherwise.” Chris Korzen Catholics United http://www.catholics-united.org/> Here, Chris Korzen is speaking of the Health Care Reform that passed the House in November which --- despite the Stupak Amendment --- is still objectionable...

Monday December 14, 2009 Author Calls on US Bishops to Reform Catholic News Service (CNS) - Part 2 Many parishes "force feed" subscriptions to the diocesan newspaper upon their parishioners See Part 1  Commentary By Louie VerrecchioWASHINGTON, DC, December 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - CNS' cavalier attitude toward orthodoxy is not confined to its recent treatment of the life issue alone. Some other examples, just to name a few:In 2005, CNS issued a glowing review of the movie "Brokeback Mountain" and rated the homosexual propaganda piece as suitable for a "limited adult audience." Following the backlash of outraged readers, CNS eventually changed...

Friday December 11, 2009 Author Calls on US Bishops to Reform Catholic News Service (CNS) - Part 1 Says powerful USCCB news agency rebuked by Archbishop Burke for good reason Commentary By Louie VerrecchioWASHINGTON, DC, December 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Wouldn't it be wonderful if the Christian faithful had ready access to reliable media sources that consistently address important issues truthfully and completely while also communicating the authentic doctrine of the faith so dependably that the information provided could be received with complete confidence?   The Second Vatican Council thought so.  In the Decree on the Media of Social...

The Servant of God John Paul II warned of what happens at the “…level of politics and government…” when “…the original and inalienable right to life is questioned or denied on the basis of a parliamentary vote or the will of one part of the people-even if it is the majority”. He warned that “… democracy, contradicting its own principles, effectively moves towards a form of totalitarianism. The State is no longer the "common home" where all can live together on the basis of principles of fundamental equality, but is transformed into a tyrant State, which arrogates to itself the...

After the dreary wilderness years of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, when many Catholic bishops in the United States practiced a kind of know-nothingism in their silence and lack of real leadership on life issues, such as abortion, things are quickly changing. Individually and corporately, the American bishops are really starting to lead the Church determinedly in the right direction: the battlefront. Everyone knows that the white-hot center of this present generation's battle is abortion, and in increasing numbers, many of today's stalwart bishops are leading from the front, showing the way forward and, by their own example of fearless...

Amendment precludes use of federal dollars for elective abortion coverage Bishops want Stupak-style House amendment included in Senate bill Oppose making people pay for other people’s abortions WASHINGTON—The U.S. bishops have voiced support for the Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment to the Senate health reform bill and have asked voters to back it. The bishops took the position in a Dec. 7 letter to all U.S. senators, after Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE), Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Robert Casey (D-PA) proposed an amendment to prevent the health reform bill from using federal funds to pay for health plans that include elective abortions. The ban...

Denver, Colo., Dec 7, 2009 / 03:11 am (CNA).- In an exclusive interview with Catholic News Agency, Archbishop of Denver Charles J. Chaput has explained his reasons for signing the Manhattan Declaration. He said the Declaration should “galvanize” Christians and others in defense of pro-life issues, the nature of marriage and religious freedom. “I was glad to be invited to sign the declaration, and glad to sign because I believe in its content,” Archbishop Chaput told CNA.  He described it as a “straightforward” statement defending the sanctity of life, religious liberty and the definition of marriage as a union of husband...

Archbishop Robert J. Carlson St. Louis, Mo., Nov 30, 2009 / 06:17 pm (CNA).- In a statement Monday, Archbishop Robert J. Carlson of St. Louis responded to a demonstration held outside the city's cathedral by a gay rights group protesting the use of archdiocesan funds to defend traditional marriage in Maine. Catholics have an obligation to “carry out Christ's teachings, whether in the privacy of our own home or in the public square,” stated the prelate on the Archdiocese of St. Louis website.On Sunday, gay rights organization Show Me No Hate protested the donation of $10,000 that the Archdiocese...

Bill O'Reilly Interviews Rhode Island Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, who told Patrick Kennedy, son of the late Ted Kennedy, that he may not receive communion - 11/24/09

The Spanish Catholic Church will deny communion to members of parliament who have voted in favour of a bill to make abortion more readily available, the spokesman of Spain’s Bishops’ Conference said on Friday. “This is a warning to Catholics, that they can’t vote in favour of this and that they won’t be able to receive communion unless they ask forgiveness,” Rev. Juan Antonio Martinez Camino told a news conference in Madrid. “They are in an objective state of sin.”

With the House debate on health care at its hottest, the U.S. Catholic bishops issued a stunning ultimatum: Impose an absolute ban on tax funds for abortions, or we call for defeat of the Pelosi bill. Message received. The Stupak Amendment, named for Bart Stupak of Michigan, was promptly passed, to the delight of pro-life Catholics and the astonished outrage of pro-abortion Democrats. No member was more upset than Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, son of Edward Kennedy, who proceeded to bash the Church for imperiling the greatest advance for human rights in a generation. Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin...

Methodist Bishops Urge Surrender in Afghanistan Mark Tooley November 25, 2009 The following article originally appeared on the Front Page Magazine website, and is reproduced with permission. Nearly half of the bishops of the United Methodist Church, America’s third largest (though declining) denomination, are demanding that the U.S. withdraw from Afghanistan by next year. “We believe there is no path to military victory in Afghanistan,” harrumphed the bishops in their November letter to President Obama. But it’s not clear that these bishops ever wanted a “victory” in Afghanistan. After 9-11, the Council of Bishops declined to condemn al Qaeda or...

Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska explained in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com today his reasons for dropping the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) collection in his diocese, saying that CCHD head Bishop Roger Morin was "a little bit too dismissive" of concerns brought against the organization. Bishop Bruskewitz is one of four bishops confirmed so far to have chosen not to take up the collection this year for the national CCHD, the USCCB's domestic anti-poverty arm. "We question the ideology of [CCHD]," the bishop explained in the interview, "and ... we are shocked at the scandalous participation with the...

Yesterday, the Helpers of God's Precious Infants of Michigan held it's fourth and final prayer vigil of 2009. Holy Mass It began with 7:30am Mass at St. Joan of Arc in St. Clair Shores, celebrated by Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of the Archdiocese of Detroit. The parish children's choir had practiced for weeks to provide the music.  On this Feast of the Presentation of Mary, the archbishop told the roughly 650-700 in attendance that Mary, "stands with us in our work to serve the gospel of life".  At the conclusion of Mass, Archbishop Vigneron told the crowd how proud...

www.catholicnewsagency.com USCCB: Senate health care bill 'morally unacceptable' Washington D.C., Nov 20, 2009 / 08:02 pm (CNA).- As the Senate prepares for the discussion of its health care reform bill this weekend, several bishops have sent the Senators a letter on behalf of the USCCB, calling the current version of the health care bill both “a huge disappointment” and “morally unacceptable.”The letter, signed by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Chairman of the Committee on Pro-life Activities; Bishop William F. Murphy Diocese of Rockville Centre, Chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development and  Bishop John Wester, Chairman of the...

Top Stories for Thursday, November 26th, 2009: The Basilica of St. Thomas the Apostle, Chennai, India. According to tradition, St. Thomas the Apos­tle traveled to India in 52 A.D., and was martyred and buried here in 72 A.D. Since then his tomb has been venerated by the faithful, and a succession of magnificent churches have been built over it since at least the sixth century. The present basilica was constructed from 1893-1896 under the direction of Captain J.A. Power, a retired officer of the Royal Engineers and a parishioner. Says Bishops Must Unify Catholics By PAUL LIKOUDISBALTIMORE — In...

The White House is on a collision course with Catholic bishops in an intractable dispute over abortion that could blow up the fragile political coalition behind President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. ...an official of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said Sen. Harry Reid's bill is the worst he's seen so far on the divisive issue. [snip] So far, Reid has steered the Senate bill in a direction that abortion rights supporters can live with: allowing coverage for abortion in federally subsidized health care plans, provided that beneficiaries' own premiums are used to pay for the procedure. But abortion...

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Fallout continues from the spring controversy over the University of Notre Dame awarding an honorary degree to President Barack Obama, who supports abortion rights. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops went behind closed doors at their fall meeting Wednesday to discuss, among other issues, what action they should take to increase oversight of the nation's more than 200 Roman Catholic colleges and universities. Chicago Cardinal Francis George, president of the bishops' conference, revealed this week that he had formed a task force charged with reviewing the issue. Its research included a look at what church law says...

Printer Friendly Format World Hungarian bishop who froze in communist prison beatified as martyr By Catholic News Service Posted: 11/13/2009 ESZTERGOM, Hungary (CNS) -- Hungarian Bishop Zoltan Meszlenyi, who froze to death in a Hungarian prison in 1951, has been beatified as a martyr for the faith. "His readiness to apply the church's love was shown clearly when he was dragged away and kept in inhuman conditions, barefoot through the winter, in solitary confinement without medical help," said Cardinal Peter Erdo of Esztergom-Budapest, who preached the homily at the Oct. 31 beatification Mass in Esztergom. "For many years, a...

FORT WAYNE — Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, bishop of Harrisburg, Pa., has been appointed the bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. He was introduced by Bishop John M. D’Arcy and greeted those gathered for the 8 a.m. Mass at the St. Mother Theodore Guérin Chapel. A news conference is scheduled at 10:15 a.m. at the diocesan offices in Fort Wayne. The conference can be accessed live on the Web by clicking here.

Here's more good and encouraging news from the episcopal front, this time coming from Spain, where the Catholic bishops there are girding for battle with the country's leftist, pro-abortion government. When Nancy and I were most recently in Spain, for two weeks in September, I spoke at length with as many Spaniards as I could about what they see happening in the Church over there. In addition to their general pessimism about how apathetic most Spanish Catholics tend to be about the Faith, they also seemed very heartened by the muscular efforts many Spanish bishops, priests, and laypeople have been...

Are our bishops all Republicans?! By Phil Lawler | November 12, 2009 1:14 PM On the Commentary blog, Eduardo Peñlaver reports that he is uncomfortable with Bishop Tobin's public denunciation of Patrick Kennedy.Bishop Tobin’s attitude towards being Catholic — accept teachings X, Y, and Z, or go to another institution that does not affirm them — strikes me as nothing if not supremely un-Catholic in its ethos.Peñlaver's argument is profoundly confused, I think. But it is not an unusual one; you'll find roughly the same reasoning put forward by many other liberal Catholics. And Peñlaver is not an unintelligent observer...

I'll tell you what. I am stoked to see the new wave of American bishops taking courageous, articulate, and effective public stands against evil in its many forms. This is exactly what the Heavenly Doctor ordered (John 10:11-15), and it's something I haven't seen, at least not like this, not in such numbers, in my nearly 50 years of being Catholic. Thank God Almighty that more and more of our bishops are standing up like men to fight the good fight. May the Lord strengthen them! Those thoughts were prompted by an article I saw just now at the St....

Among those Catholics in public life who openly defy the clear teaching of the Catholic Church concerning the inviolable dignity of every human life from conception to natural death is Representative Patrick Kennedy. The son of the late Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy, he represents Rhode Island’s First Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. We bring to our readers the full text of a letter which Congressman Kennedy received from his Bishop, Thomas J. Tobin. This letter was in response to Kennedy's public defiance against the truth revealed in the Natural Law, confirmed by science, affirmed in Scripture...

I expect political hardball on any legislation as important as the health care bill. I just didn’t expect it from the United States Council of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Who elected them to Congress? The role the bishops played in the pushing the Stupak amendment, which unfairly restricts access for low-income women to insurance coverage for abortions, was more than mere advocacy. They seemed to dictate the finer points of the amendment, and managed to bully members of Congress to vote for added restrictions on a perfectly legal surgical procedure. And this political effort was subsidized by taxpayers, since the Council...

Published on RHRealityCheck.org (http://www.rhrealitycheck.org) Do Catholic Bishops Run the United States Government? By Jodi Jacobson Created Nov 7 2009 - 11:11pm Tonight, with the aide of some 60 Democrats, women's rights were effectively negated by the US Congress as the House passed the Stupak amendment to HR 3200, the Affordable Health Care Act of 2009. More in-depth analysis of how we got here is forthcoming. But one thing is clear: The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) apparently is running the US government, aided by a cadre of "faith-based advocacy groups," the House Democratic leadership, the White House and...

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops dismissed the House Democrats’ plan to try to isolate funding for abortion in the health care bill as a “money-laundering system” that would do nothing to stop federal funding of abortion, an issue that could potentially derail health care reform. The plan, known as the Ellsworth amendment after its author Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.), attempts to serve as a compromise between pro-life Democrats led by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich) and the party’s liberal, pro-abortion leadership. All of the health care bills currently before Congress allow for taxpayer funding of abortion.... The U.S. Conference of...

Cardinal: Pumpkins, Not Crucifixes? Responds to European Court Decision on Schools VATICAN CITY, NOV. 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- In European schools, crucifixes are prohibited but Halloween pumpkins are promoted, observed Benedict XVI's Secretary of State. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone stated this in response to the Tuesday decision of the European Court of Human Rights, which called for the removal of Christian symbols from public school classrooms. "This Europe of the third millennium only leaves us the pumpkins of the feasts repeatedly celebrated and takes away from us our most cherished symbols," said the cardinal in an article published in L'Osservatore Romano. He...

COLUMNS Monday, 02 November 2009 The Bishops Go On Offense By Robert Royal    A Notre Dame professor reminded me this week of an old football saying: offense sells seats, but defense wins games. Painfully true about the problems of the Irish this year, but I’ve never thought much of that proposition. Taken to its logical extreme, the most you could hope for relying solely on defense is 0-0 ties. Far preferable is the profound and incarnational wisdom of the coach who said that “prayers work better when the linemen are big.�I’ll drop the football metaphors, not least because, in...

Italy's bishops are saying the European Court of Human Rights is guilty of a partial and ideological outlook with its Tuesday decision that crucifixes in public school are a violation of freedom. The Vatican and the Italian government expressed dismay with Tuesday's decision and Italian bishops expressed their own perplexity. The court ruled in favor of an Italian citizen of Finnish origin who complained in 2002 that the state school where her two children studied violated their freedom by displaying crucifixes. The school's administration refused to remove them, contending that the crucifix is part of Italian cultural patrimony; Italian courts...

HINSDALE, Illinois, November 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A congregation of US Dominican nuns has publicly apologized for the scandal caused by one of its members acting as a volunteer escort at a Chicago area abortion facility, who now faces severe canonical penalties including excommunication and the possibility of dismissal.    LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) first broke the story about Sr. Donna Quinn, O.P., a Dominican nun who is outspokenly in favor of legalized abortion, who had been identified by pro-life witnesses as an escort for the ACU Health Clinic.Sr. Quinn's religious community, the Wisconsin-based Sinsinawa Dominican Congregation, admitted in a press release posted...

Tuesday November 3, 2009 Planned Parenthood's President Lashes Out at USCCB By James Tillman   WASHINGTON, DC, November 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, sent an email to her supporters on Monday, complaining of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) campaign against the abortion-funding health care bill. Richards begged for quick action from abortion supporters to counter the bishops' influence and push the bill through Congress.Richards' attack was spurred by the nation-wide campaign the USCCB has recently launched, seeking to mobilize parishioners and clergy to call their representatives and...

Cited by some U.S. bishops, the Catholic principle of subsidiarity is providing a new wrinkle in the health care debate The debate over health care reform is igniting another, related discussion: What is the proper role of government in the lives of a country's citizens? The Catholic Church endorses no specific political or economic system -- thus bishops and Catholic thinkers are drawing on Catholic social teaching to support sometimes conflicting solutions to find affordable health care for Americans without health insurance, who number 46.3 million according to the U.S. Census Bureau. There's little debate in the Church that some...

New York City, N.Y., Oct 30, 2009 / 11:14 am (CNA).- The New York Times declined to publish an op-ed presented by the Archbishop of New York, Most Reverend Timothy M. Dolan, in which he made the point that the “Gray Lady” has been reporting stories with a strong anti-Catholic bias. In his new blog on the archdiocese’s website, Archbishop Dolan explains that his article was submitted in a slightly shorter form to the New York Times as an op-ed, but the Times declined to publish it. In the blog version, Archbishop Dolan says that next to baseball, “sadly, America...

Wow! This is big news. For months the bishops have been threatening to oppose the healthcare legislation as long as it included abortion funding. But I didn't expect this. Wonderful news. Catholic.org reports: An E-mail directive has been sent from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Pro-Life Activities Secretariat mobilizing every parish in the United States of America. It contains an urgent message which is to be distributed in every parish this weekend and announced at every single Mass. This massive and urgent appeal may be unprecedented in our history as Catholics in America. It is an effort to...