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The Democrats very public battle over battle abortion in the health care bill may cost them valuable support of Catholics in 2010. From the Politico By teeing up a public battle over abortion in the health care bill now before the Senate, congressional Democrats could be risking more than just the fate of the legislation.

By teeing up a public battle over abortion in the health care bill now before the Senate, congressional Democrats could be risking more than just the fate of the legislation. Hanging in the balance are millions of Catholic swing voters who moved decisively to the Democrats in 2008 and who could shift away just as readily in 2010. According to exit polls, President Barack Obama won the support of 53 percent of Catholic voters, a seven-point increase over the showing of the Democrats’ 2004 nominee, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), a Catholic. Among Latino Catholics, who are often more conservative than...

A New Grassroots Political Organization Makes Its Mark by Deal W. Hudson    11/06/09 The election results of November 2 were not merely the spontaneous reaction of Republicans to the bad economy and liberal excesses of the Obama administration. The four pro-life, conservative GOP candidates in Virginia and New Jersey were elected in a groundswell of religious and social conservatives, many of them independent voters who had voted for Obama only a year ago. A new grassroots organization played a major role in getting these voters to the polls -- the Faith & Freedom Coalition was founded by Ralph...

  Once, when asked his philosophy, Franklin Roosevelt answered simply, "I am a Christian and a Democrat."   As always with Roosevelt, there was more to it than that. He was not just a Christian, but a Protestant, an Episcopalian, a descendant of Huguenot and Yankee New Englanders on his mother's side. And he was not just a Democrat, but a New York Democrat, whose leaders and most faithful voters were overwhelmingly Catholic, especially Irish Catholic. There was a tension, always, between this Protestant patrician and his Catholic party, a tension that this congenial country squire and shrewd politician...

Most Rev. Salvatore Cordileone Proposition 8, the California constitutional amendment that deprived gay men and women of the right to marry one another, was perhaps the ugliest and most divisive electoral moment since Proposition 187, which denied illegal immigrant children access to health care and public education. All across the state, gay men, lesbians, and their friends picketed hostile churches and boycotted businesses that backed the amendment. And as they contemplated their fate, they asked themselves: Who did this to us? Was it the Mormons? The National Organization for Marriage? Black voters? White evangelical megachurches? Now, eight months after...

Because Deal Hudson was director of Catholic outreach for George W. Bush's 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns, I was interested in hearing his take on the Obama administration's Catholic outreach for my God & Country column in tomorrow's U.S. News Weekly. Hudson thinks Obama's "common ground" talk on abortion is disingenuous—the president has rolled back the ban on federal funding for abortion providers abroad, supports rescinding the federal ban on government-funded abortion in the District of Columbia, and hasn't ruled out covering abortion through healthcare reform—but is nonetheless impressed by the administration's ongoing Catholic PR blitz. And Hudson is disturbed...

President Barack Obama Washington D.C., Jul 24, 2009 / 04:16 am (CNA).- Catholic commentator Deal Hudson says the Obama administration is engaging in "smart" outreach to Catholics by offsetting concerns about abortion with unifying rhetoric and compelling stories. In his view, this outreach also benefits from Republican inaction towards Hispanics and Catholics.Speaking with U.S. News & World Report writer Dan Gilgoff, Hudson questioned President Barack Obama’s "common ground" rhetoric about abortion."It's very smart for Obama to actually take the advice of his Catholic outreach team. They have done a good job navigating the challenges they face among Catholics over...

In the late afternoon of July 10, President Obama met privately with Pope Benedict XVI for just over 30 minutes. According to official Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi, S.J., "The president explicitly expressed his commitment to reducing the numbers of abortions and to listen to the church's concern on moral issues." On July 13 in a Senate committee hearing, Sen. Barbara Mikulski was forced to admit under persistent questioning by Sen. Orrin Hatch that the new health-care bill includes abortion coverage. Planned Parenthood's Guttmacher Institute estimates government funding of abortion increases abortion by 20 to 35 percent. There were 1,206,200...

SAN DIEGO — Catholic Answers is challenging a 2008 Internal Revenue Service ruling that it interfered in the 2004 presidential election by recommending Catholic presidential candidate John Kerry be denied Communion. But one expert on free speech at the University of Notre Dame, Lloyd Mayer, associate professor of law, is worried that this may be “the right principle but the wrong case.”The IRS at first levied an income tax of $102.23 on the San Diego apologetics organization, but returned the money, without reversing its ruling, after Catholic Answers appealed it. Said Catholic Answers’ founder and president, Karl Keating: “It’s the...

Another good one! Linked below.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI stressed the church's opposition to abortion and stem cell research in his first meeting with President Barack Obama on Friday, pressing the Vatican's case with the U.S. leader who is already under fire on those issues from some conservative Catholics and bishops back home...Afterward, the Vatican said the leaders discussed immigration, the Middle East peace process and aid to developing nations. But the Vatican's statement also underscored the pair's deep disagreement on abortion. "In the course of their cordial exchanges, the conversation turned first of all to questions which are in the interest of...

Without a Doubt Why Barack Obama represents American Catholics better than the pope does. By Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Jul 9, 2009 Tomorrow Pope Benedict XVI and President Barack Obama meet for the first time, an affair much anticipated and in some circles frowned upon by American Catholics in the wake of Obama's controversial Notre Dame commencement speech in May. Conservatives in the church denounced Obama's appearance as a nod by the premier Catholic university to a conciliatory politics that heralds the start of a slippery moral slope.

President Barack Obama sat down with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Friday for frank but constructive talks between two men who agree on helping the poor but disagree on abortion and stem cell research. "It's a great honor," Obama said, greeting the pope and thanking him for this first meeting, which lasted 30 minutes. They sat down at the pontiff's desk in the Papal Library and exchanged pleasantries before the media were ushered out of the ornate room. The pope was heard asking about the Group of Eight summit, the meeting of developed nations that concluded before Obama...

This has been a tough stretch for conservative Christians in America, especially of the Catholic variety. Notre Dame welcomed Barack Obama at commencement with open arms and an honorary degree after a number of bishops and conservative activists decreed that the nation's preeminent Catholic university had forfeited its bona fides with the invitation. The president has said that the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) is not a priority, promised that "robust" conscience protections for health care workers are coming, and pushed for a package of abortion-reduction legislation that should be unveiled by summer's end. And just this week, Pope Benedict...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — President Barack Obama sat down with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Friday for a meeting in which frank but constructive talks were expected between two men who agree on helping the poor but disagree on abortion and stem cell research.

Newsweek took their criticism of Pope Benedict XVI to the next level on Thursday- not only did guest columnist Kathleen Kennedy-Townsend affirm that the pontiff could learn from President Obama (something Newsweek and their partners at the Washington Post agreed upon back in April), but also blasted the Bishop of Rome and the Catholic hierarchy for their supposed “disdain” towards women and homosexuals. The former lieutenant governor of Maryland began her column, titled "Without a Doubt: Why Barack Obama represents American Catholics better than the pope does," with the context of the pope’s upcoming meeting with the American president,...

President Obama's 45-minute sit-down with reporters from the Roman Catholic news media came just as the Fourth of July weekend was about to open, the only reason I can see that it hasn't gotten a lot more attention. I counted a half-dozen surprises from the interview, occasioned by the president's first meeting with Pope Benedict XVI this week. 1. Obama appeared to buck the White House line on abortion. As they've met with abortion-rights supporters and opponents in crafting a "common ground" plan on reproductive issues, Obama aides have been careful to say that the administration is not trying to...

U.S. President Barack Obama holds a roundtable briefing with journalists from the Catholic press and the Washington Post in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington July 2. The briefing was held in advance of the president’s scheduled meeting with Pope Benedict XVI July 10 at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Lawrence Jackson, White House) WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama told a round table of religion writers July 2 that he continues to be profoundly influenced by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, whom he came to know when he was a community organizer in a project partially...

When Pope Benedict XVI greets U.S. President Barack Obama at the Vatican on July 10, the symbolism and sheer star power of the encounter will keep the pundits chattering away. The photo op alone is worth a thousand words: The 82-year-old man in white, the world's most recognizable religious leader and head of its largest single denomination comes face-to-face with the charismatic first black President of the world's last superpower. And the scheduling efforts of both the Vatican and the White House suggest a shared appreciation of the symbolic weight the first encounter between Obama and Benedict could carry. It...

The divide in practicing versus non-practicing Catholic voters (Gallup). Another questioner asked the president if he felt as if he had been dragged into a longtime family feud among Catholics, liberal and conservative. For the second time during the discussion, President Obama mentioned the influence of Cardinal Bernardin. “When I was first becoming interested in social justice issues, the American bishops were talking about nuclear freezes and sanctuary for illegal immigrants and protesting U.S. policy in Latin America,� said the president. “And there was, I think, a very different set of perspectives that were represented, arising out of the Second...

Tomorrow morning at 10:45 Eastern time, the president is hosting a round table at the White House for members of the Catholic press. The National Catholic Register’s publisher, Father Owen Kearns, will be among eight religion reporters and editors in attendance at that gathering. The purpose of the gathering, according to Chris Hensman, press secretary with the National Security Council, is a “preview of the president’s upcoming visit with Pope Benedict XVI.� The president is meeting with the Pope on July 10. Father Kearns just received the invitation to the meeting yesterday via e-mail. At this point, there isn’t a...

The Roman Catholic bishops who attacked President Obama's recent appearance at Notre Dame and who've called for pro-abortion rights politicians to be denied communion constitute a minority. Most of the roughly 275 U.S. Catholic bishops have kept quiet about both controversies. Liberal Catholics claim this silent majority disagrees with strident public pronouncements from outspokenly conservative bishops. Most U.S. bishops, they say, think Notre Dame was right to invite the president—and that Catholic elected officials should receive communion regardless of their stance on abortion. Catholic scholar David O'Brien makes the case in the latest National Catholic Reporter: As Catholic bishops gather...

MANY WHO read this piece will probably say I'm being excessively cynical. I plead guilty. But merely because they're right doesn't mean that I'm wrong. So here goes: I strongly suspect that President Obama's speech at Notre Dame's commencement was an attempt to separate Catholics from the teachings of their church.... In the absence of any rational explanation for wanting the debate to go on, and excluding an irrational one, I'm ultimately led to a rational, if sinister, motivation on the president's part.

Many are questioning why officials at the University of Notre Dame are inviting the most pro-abortion president in our history to receive an honorary doctorate of laws. Doesn’t this make a mockery of Notre Dame’s historic role as the premier Catholic university in America? Doesn’t this create a scandal for the Catholic faithful as well as for the larger community of Americans who are not Catholic? Much of the fierce public debate has centered on why Notre Dame would extend such an honor. The divisions exposed by this invitation are deep and worrisome. What we need to ask is why...

Catholic officials have launched a fresh initiative to influence secular law according to the religious teachings of the Catholic Church, with marriage equality firmly in their sites. Church officials in Maine, the fifth and most recent state to offer marriage equality to gay and lesbian families, seek to bring those families’ rights to a popular vote, in hopes of seeing marriage equality repealed, as happened in California last year when, after a bruising and extremely expensive campaign to rescind family rights for gays and lesbians, voters narrowly passed Proposition 8. An Associated Press story from May 10 quoted Maine’s Secretary...

Tennessee-born beauty Cybill Shepherd definitely isn’t one to waste words -- and had she no qualms in speaking out about who she thought was to blame for the passing of Proposition 8 in California's last election, which led to gay and lesbian marriage rights being overturned.

I know I’ve said this before on the site, and I know many devout Catholics’ experiences are different, but having grown up in the Church, there’s nothing here that surprises me. Most Catholics I know treat the Church’s commands as essentially hortatory, to be politely ignored when need be — as in the case of torture — which is why I can’t quite fathom the outrage over a pro-choicer as adamant as The One speaking at Notre Dame. His job approval this month among Catholics is 70 percent, and 65 percent among those who attend church weekly. They’re fighting a...

Gallup Poll Daily tracking during President Obama's first 100 days in office finds broad support for him among Americans affiliated with most major U.S. religions. U.S..........

Denver, Colo., Apr 29, 2009 / 09:44 am (CNA).- After the U.S. Senate voted 65-31 to confirm Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic who strongly supports legal abortion, as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, pro-Obama and pro-life Catholics collided over the consequences of the appointment. Pro-lifers are promising to battle against the pro-abortion Dawn Johnsen, who awaits confirmation for the Office of Legal Counsel. “Catholics United,” a group that has so far justified all of President Obama’s pro-abortion decisions, issued a statement congratulating Sebelius and applauding the U.S. Senate “for today's decisive action.” Catholics United executive director Chris Korzen, who...

Gavin Newsom, the divorced San Francisco mayor who provoked a constitutional crisis in 2004 by granting marriage licenses to 4,000 same-sex couples, has made it official: he is running for governor in the 2010 elections. Newsom, 41, a graduate of Santa Clara University who has described himself as a “lifelong Catholic,” chose to use a YouTube video, Facebook and Twitter to make the announcement on Tuesday. In the YouTube video, Newsom says, “I'm a candidate for governor of California because I know we can do better." Newsom’s 2004 decision to grant marriage licenses to 4,000 same-sex couples in San Francisco...

(CNSNews.com) - Georgetown University says it covered over the monogram “IHS”--symbolizing the name of Jesus Christ—because it was inscribed on a pediment on the stage where President Obama spoke at the university on Tuesday and the White House had asked Georgetown to cover up all signs and symbols there. As of Wednesday afternoon, the “IHS” monogram that had previously adorned the stage at Georgetown’s Gaston Hall was still covered up--when the pediment where it had appeared was photographed by CNSNews.com.

"Notre Shame", as it has become known, is turning into one of the biggest PR disasters of Barack Obama's presidency and is quickly eroding his fragile support among American Catholics. Every day for the past month, it seems, another Catholic bishop has attacked the decision by Notre Dame University to invite the rabidly pro-choice Obama to give its commencement address and receive an honorary degree. Yesterday the new Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, added his condemnation.

SNIPPET: "Georgetown University says it covered over the monogram “IHS”--symbolizing the name of Jesus Christ—because it was inscribed on a pediment on the stage where President Obama spoke at the university on Tuesday and the White House had asked Georgetown to cover up all signs and symbols there." SNIPPET: "Roman Catholics traditionally use “IHS” as an abbreviation for Jesus’ name." SNIPPET: "Although the monogram was removed from the wooden pediment on the Gaston Hall stage where it would have been directly above and behind President Obama as he spoke, the letters “IHS” are posted elsewhere around the hall approximately 26...

Barack Obama [was elected] with the help of a majority of Catholic voters, but it didn't mean that Catholics, who in recent years had mostly sided with the GOP because of social issues, had any illusions about Obama's stance on such sensitive matters. ... [I]t didn't come as a surprise to Catholics when, on the morning of March 9, the President signed an executive order allowing research on embryonic stem cells to go forward after an eight-year halt. Obama's forceful explanation for his decision, however, took them aback. The previous ban on research, Obama declared, was "a false choice between...

Barack Obama won the White House in November with the help of a majority of Catholic voters, but it didn't mean that Catholics, who in recent years had mostly sided with the GOP because of social issues, had any illusions about Obama's stance on such sensitive matters. They fully expected that he would overturn the so-called Mexico City policy restricting family-planning funding overseas, reverse George W. Bush's ban on federal funding for embryonic-stem-cell research and move to rescind a last-minute Bush Administration "conscience clause" rule for medical providers, the latter of which he will probably do as early as next...

As Easter approaches, in addition to looking upward, Catholics would be wise to look inward this year, and ask themselves one very important question: Who are we? Many Catholics are angry that the University of Notre Dame, a private Catholic institution with a 90% Christian enrollment and a crucifix in every classroom, has asked President Obama to speak at its coming commencement. Francis Cardinal George, archbishop of Chicago, called the invitation an "extreme embarrassment" to Catholics, who consider right-to-life issues among the most fundamental to their faith. Archbishops in Milwaukee and Newark made similar statements. And pro-life students at Notre...

The Lockhorns' marriage is like a "Don't Sweat the Details" Catholic's spirituality. This “Get Religion� writer calls a recent Gallup Poll further confirmation that there are four Catholic voter blocs. He identifies them this way: —“Ex-Catholics. Solid for the Democrats.� —“Cultural Catholics who may go to church a few times a year. This may be an undecided voter, but this vote leans to Democrats.� —“Sunday-morning American Catholics. This voter is a regular in the pew and may even play some leadership role in the parish. This is the true Catholic swing vote.� —“The ‘sweats the details’ Roman Catholic who goes...

Why Obama Is Losing a Faith By Michael Gerson Wednesday, April 1, 2009; Page A21 A number of Catholic thinkers set out a "pro-life, pro-Obama" position -- disagreeing with Obama's pro-choice views but trusting in his moderate instincts and conciliatory temperament. So far, Obama has done little to justify this faith. His initial actions on life issues -- Obama's Catholic supporters would feel betrayed and discredited -- and rightly so. The Catholic hierarchy and Catholic health professionals would feel assaulted by the president -- and they would be correct. And President Obama would not need to worry about future invitations...

This is an issue conservative Catholics need to confront. Grandma was at service having a conversation with a fellow parishioner. Inevitably, the conversation turned political. When she mentioned Obama's complete lack of credentials and experience, the old school Dem said to her, "well, I've voted Democrat all my life!" The comment required some thought, but I think I found the answer. There's the thought that young would-be Marxists are voting Obama because he's "young, fresh" in their minds. This is debatable. But how do we explain so many older voters for him? For senior Catholics in particular, I think this...

Vanderburgh County Right to Life in Evansville, Indiana, will soon host the largest pro-life banquet in the nation -- but at least one invited high-profile guest won't attend. The sold-out event will attract about 4,500 people, and among guest speakers are former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Republican Party chairman Michael Steele. Steele, a Roman Catholic who has stated that he is pro-life, recently declared in a Gentlemen's Quarterly article that abortion is an "individual choice." (See earlier article) Now, Bishop Gerald Andrew Gettelfinger of the Diocese of Evansville is declining to attend. Mary Ellen Van Dyke, executive director of...

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — President Barack Obama’s planned visit to the University of Notre Dame this spring has triggered a national debate over whether such a prominent supporter of abortion rights should be welcomed at one of America’s premier Catholic universities.Obama’s decision to speak at the May 17 commencement is generating strong feelings on all sides. Supporters say he should be welcomed as the nation’s leader, and opponents say he should be shunned because of his views.

He garnered the majority of Catholic votes in the 2008 election, but a number of Catholic groups now say President Obama is showing a complete lack of regard for their beliefs. They count his decisions to lift restrictions on abortion and stem cell research among the most offensive. "As far as the Catholic church goes, there's no bigger priority for Catholics than human dignity and human life," said Cathy Ruse, senior fellow at the Family Research Council said. "And the Obama administration has just been an assault on those values again and again in just two months." But some American...

He garnered the majority of Catholic votes in the 2008 election, but a number of Catholic groups now say President Obama is showing a complete lack of regard for their beliefs. They count his decisions to lift restrictions on abortion and stem cell research among the most offensive. "As far as the Catholic church goes, there's no bigger priority for Catholics than human dignity and human life," said Cathy Ruse, senior fellow at the Family Research Council said. "And the Obama administration has just been an assault on those values again and again in just two months."

Sebelius nomination ‘source of greatest embarrassment,’ Archbishop Burke says Kathleen Sebelius / Archbishop Burke San Diego, Calif., Mar 14, 2009 / 06:08 am (CNA).- Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services is "sad" and "the source of greatest embarrassment" because she has repeatedly betrayed her Catholic faith through her "well known" support for legal abortion, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke has commented.The archbishop, formerly of St. Louis, Missouri, is now Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. His duties in that office include ensuring that the Church operates correctly under canon law.In a written...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Douglas Kmiec essentially voided his Catholic and pro-life credentials during the president election with his steadfast defense of Barack Obama despite his clear pro-abortion views. Now he's given pro-life advocates no reason to take him seriously by explaining away Obama's pro-abortion actions as president.Kmiec is more impressed by Obama's words claiming to want to reduce abortions than his deeds of promoting more abortions at every turn."I am especially pleased that the President deliberately highlighted at the national prayer breakfast the abortion reduction expectations he has for this Office," he told U.S. in an email on...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's lifting of restrictions on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research puts him at odds with Pope Benedict and the American Roman Catholic Church. After Obama signed the order on Monday, the Vatican and U.S. Church leaders condemned the move. One commentator said the test of "a real democracy" was its defense of the most defenseless. Obama's executive order reversed and repudiated restrictions placed on the research by his predecessor, George W. Bush, freeing labs across the country to start working with the cells, which can give rise to any kind of...

When I found out Doug Kmiec had shot out an article for Time magazine in the wake of Pelosi's meeting with Pope Benedict, I geared myself up for yet another point-by-point critique of his flawed arguments. This time, however, I don't even need to take the trouble, because the entire premise of Kmiec's latest piece is factually in error. To see why, first I will summarize Kmiec's argument. Kmiec says: "If you read [the pope's statement to pelosi] carefully, the statement is actually quite radical — perhaps unintentionally so. The brief message — just two short paragraphs — draws...

Diocese of Scranton Bishop Joseph F. Martino accuses Sen. Bob Casey of “cooperating with … evil” by refusing to back legislation to block U.S. tax dollars from flowing to foreign family planning groups that refuse to renounce abortion. In a Jan. 30 letter to the senator, the bishop also calls on Mr. Casey to live up to his Catholic faith and “oppose abortion and other clear evils, including contraception.” Bishop Martino left unclear whether Mr. Casey should be denied the Catholic sacrament of Communion, a suggestion he made during the presidential election about politicians who support abortion. Mr. Casey opposes...

Screenshot of NBC's Super Bowl website. NBC has refused to air CatholicVote.org’s new pro-life ad during its broadcast of this Sunday’s Super Bowl game. According to a Jan. 29 press release from CatholicVote.org, “After several days of negotiations, an NBC representative in Chicago told CatholicVote.org late yesterday that NBC and the NFL are not interested in advertisements involving ‘political candidates or issues.’” Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote.org, said in the press release, “There is nothing objectionable in this positive, life-affirming advertisement. We show a beautiful ultrasound, something NBC’s parent company GE has done for years. We congratulate Barack Obama on...

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