Free Republic

In the Leftist controlled media stories are shouted if they are helpful to Democrats, whispered if they are bad news for Democrats... ".. why a new poll a new poll commissioned by the American Life League (ALL) is so important. The poll conducted between August 15 and 19 spoke to 900 self-identified Catholic registered voters. There are few English language superlatives that can accurately portray the findings of this survey. “Earth shaking” “Sea Change” “Devastating” read them and take your pick. The story was whispered on a recent NPR segment and here’s why. A stunning 27% of Catholics told the...

Timothy Cardinal Dolan will deliver the benediction at the Republican Party convention but, in a slight to Catholics, pro-abortion President Barack Obama rejected Cardinal Dolan’s similar offer of a prayer at the Democratic convention.Dolan told Democrats he would be “grateful” to deliver a blessing in Charlotte, according to the New York Post, but Obama turned him down.Dolan — considered the top Catholic official in the nation, as head of the Archdiocese of New York and president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops — tipped off Democrats a few weeks ago that he had agreed to deliver the prime-time benediction at...

Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (Washington, DC)Photo by Shubert Ciencia Catholics are a major voting block, and one that can’t be pigeonholed by Republicans or Democrats. A recent NPR segment compared Vice President Joe Biden with the presumptive Vice Presidential nominee, Congressman Paul Ryan. Both are Catholics, but their worldview is not the same.Stephen Schneck, a political scientist at Catholic University, said that Biden comes from a more traditional generation of Catholics. “This is the Catholicism of our old ethnic neighborhoods, and our union halls, and St. Christopher medals on the dashboard sort of thing,”...

...Platform is clear: "Faithful to the 'self-evident' truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to unborn children." ... opponents of the fundamental Human Right to Life of our youngest neighbors in the first home of the human race control much of the media. So, this heroic action by the Republican Platform Committee is reported in...

After Mass on Sunday, North Carolina pastor Rev. Andre Mangango was approached by a man who, a day earlier, was introduced as Mitt Romney’s running-mate for the 2012 presidential election.“I am Representative Paul Ryan and this is my son,” the man said.Ryan reportedly attended the 7:30 mass that morning with a group of Secret Service agents at St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church in Charlotte, North Carolina prior to campaign events later that day in the state.“Our rights come from nature and God, not government,” Ryan said, in his post-nomination speech. “We promise equal opportunity, not equal outcomes.”Those words characterize Ryan’s understanding...

***Those who oppose the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage are organizing, putting them at odds with bishops.*** [BIG SNIP] ......Groups of lay Catholics and former priests have spoken out against the bishops' campaign. Some parents and students also have criticized the church's move to talk about marriage in [archdiocesan] high schools. Active Catholics have met in Protestant churches to talk about how to defeat the amendment. Catholics and other faith groups have held meetings in their homes, like the one at Burg's house, where representatives for the anti-amendment Minnesotans United for All Families encourage them to hold conversations...

Catholic News Agency (CNA) Paul Ryan urges Catholics to act before religious freedoms erodeBy Michelle Bauman Vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan at a rally in Manassas, Va. Credit: Flickr.com-djbrandt (CC BY 2.0)Washington D.C., Aug 17, 2012 / 04:35 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Presumptive Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan says Catholics must act now to protect their right to religious freedom from being diminished in American society. “This is a time where people of all faiths – especially Catholics – have to stand up and speak for our rights,” he said. “And if we do, we will rekindle civil society.” In...

This week, one of the leading pro-life groups for Catholics made the decision to put its imprimatur on the presidential ticket of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, saying it is the right vote for pro-lifers. On the heels of Romney’s picking a pro-life running mate in Rep. Paul Ryan, Brian Burch of Catholic Vote told his supporters, “Mitt Romney made his choice. Today we are making ours.” “CatholicVote.org is proud to announce that we are enthusiastically endorsing Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in the 2012 presidential race,” Burch said. “The decision to endorse Romney for President was made after Governor...

Breaking Bread With the Enemy: The Al Smith Dinner August 9, 2012 By Kathy Schiffer 72 Comments “So he’s given us a year to figure out how to violate our consciences…”“You’ve got a dramatic, radical intrusion of a government bureaucracy into the internal life of the church…”–Most Rev. Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New YorkCardinal Egan welcomes President George W. Bush and Al Gore Cardinal Timothy Dolan has been an outspoken critic of the health care mandate imposed by the Department of Health and Human Services, requiring all businesses (even Catholic organizations) to offer free contraception and abortifacients as part of...

Dear Friend of CV, Mitt Romney made his choice. Today we are making ours. CatholicVote.org is proud to announce that we are enthusiastically endorsing Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in the 2012 presidential race! Donate now to help Catholics elect Romney-Ryan in 2012! The decision to endorse Romney for President was made after Governor Romney announced Saturday that he had selected Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate. Congressman Ryan is a superb choice. He is a committed Catholic and a candidate willing to engage in the much-needed debate about the role of government in our society - including...

FEAST OF ST. MAXIMILLIAN KOLBELast week I was out in Anaheim for the annual Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus. It was, as usual, a most uplifting and inspirational event.In his rousing address to the thousands of delegates, representing 1.8 million knights, Dr. Carl Anderson, the Supreme Knight, exhorted us to a renewed sense of faithful citizenship, encouraging us not to be shy about bringing the values of faith to the public square. This duty, he reminded us, came not just from the fact that we are Catholic, but also from the fact that we are loyal Americans.He then...

Michael Sean Winters, blogging for the National Catholic Reporter, has written a lengthy piece asserting that Paul Ryan’s “dissent” from “Catholic Social Teaching” makes him a not very good Catholic and a “dangerous” choice for vice president. Others are far more qualified than I to discuss Catholic social teaching and Ryan’s understanding of it (see, e.g., Michael Novak, “Jesuits Rebuke Ryan,” and George Weigel, “Ryan vs. Georgetown”). But Mr. Winters begins his piece with an account of William F. Buckley Jr.’s “dissent” from Catholic social teaching, and that account is wrong in nearly every particular. That, I am qualified to...

Forget about whether he should be elected vice president. Should Rep. Paul D. Ryan be excommunicated? I have been perusing blogs and comments thereon that suggest the prospective Republican veep candidate is not only a bad man but also a bad Catholic. It’s the latest installment of a tiresome debate between liberal and conservative Catholics about which faction’s favored politicians are truer to the teachings of Mother Church. As columnist Michael Sean Winters points out, Ryan’s claim that his political philosophy is conversant with Roman Catholic social teaching is hard to swallow.

The panic of the Left over Mitt Romney’s selection of Wisconsin conservative Paul Ryan is evident and well founded, because of Ryan’s perfect pro-life credentials. The Democrats have always loved abortion. It has been the way they could mesmerize women into supporting them. This is why the results of a largely ignored May 2012 Gallup survey, combined with the selection of Ryan, delivers a hammer blow to Barack Obama. In his fear and distress Obama has launched an attack on Ryan’s perfect pro-life record which will backfire – big time. Right now Paul Ryan is an unknown quantity to a...

The Al Smith dinner: the cardinal and the tax collector By Phil Lawler (bio - articles - send a comment) | August 09, 2012 9:36 AM Jesus ate with tax collectors. And Cardinal Dolan plans to eat with President Obama—who, Chief Justice Roberts tells us, has imposed a “tax” on employers who refuse to subsidize contraception. But there’s a difference.When Jesus sat with tax collectors, the dinners were private. They were not “photo ops” for political candidates. The Lord could speak directly to the hearts of his dining companions, and convert them. Remember, St. Matthew left the tax-collecting business to...

Washington (CNN) – Mitt Romney’s selection of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his vice presidential running mate promises to cast a spotlight on American Catholicism in an election year when the tradition has already been a major focus. Ryan, a Catholic who chairs the House Budget Committee, is better known for his outspoken fiscal conservatism than for leading on conservative Catholic social causes like opposing abortion and gay marriage. But Romney called attention to Ryan's religion Saturday in introducing him as his running mate: "A faithful Catholic, Paul believes in the worth and dignity of every human life," Romney said....

“This is a big moment for Catholic voters to step back from their party affiliation,” Baltimore archbishop William E. Lori tells me from the Knights of Columbus annual convention in Anaheim, Calif.For Catholic voters in November, Lori advises, “The question to ask is this: Are any of the candidates of either party, or independents, standing for something that is intrinsically evil, evil no matter what the circumstances? If that’s the case, a Catholic, regardless of his party affiliation, shouldn’t be voting for such a person.”At the convention this week, the message wasn’t just coming from Lori, the chairman of the...

President Obama has declared war on religion by forcing religious institutions to go against their faith. Mitt Romney will stand up and protect religious freedom whenever it is threatened.

The ACLU has filed a brief in support of the HHS mandate, comparing Catholics to racists. The ACLU and the ACLU of Eastern Missouri recently filed an amicus brief supporting the mandate which requires employers to provide insurance coverage for abortifacients, contraception, and sterilization procedures without a co-pay. The case, O’Brien Industrial Holdings v. Department of Health and Human Services, is a challenge by a private company which argues that the contraception rule is a violation of religious liberty. In its brief, the ACLU compares Catholics to racists, arguing that declaring that you don’t want to support the killing of...

...I write this article as a private citizen. I still have a right to speak out on such matters, thank God. And this website had enough foresight to organize itself as a "for profit" business. It has avoided the growing hostility toward Christians who speak out. What I am about to say will make some waves; I hope so. Though said almost every four years, this actually IS, in my opinion, the most important presidential election in my lifetime. What is at stake is the very idea of this Nation and the values upon which it was founded. On Wednesday,...