Free Republic

Until recently, Americans were used to hearing about threats to religious freedom in other countries. “From the end of World War II, for about 50 years, our understanding of religious liberty was relatively stable,” Notre Dame professor Gerard Bradley said in a Georgetown University seminar on October 24, 2012. “Our understanding was that the greatest threat to religious liberty was public authority. But somewhere around the turn of the millennium, that changed.” “At around this time, what has previously been thought of as a canonical definition of religious freedom turned into a relativistic one,” Bradley said. “There are two kinds...

Archbishop Gomez LOS ANGELES, September 14, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A priest who helped found a gay ‘marriage’ advocacy group for Catholics has been suspended from distributing the sacraments or representing himself publicly as a cleric by his bishop. The National Catholic Register reported Monday that Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles had spoken to Rev. Joseph Palacios, co-founder of “Catholics for Equality” (CFE), a small group created two years ago with strong connections to the Human Rights Campaign. Palacios described the purpose of his outreach at Princeton University in February 2011, where he called the Church’s faithful the key target...

Ninety professors from Georgetown have gone public with a letter attacking Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s budget proposal but the bill of particulars in the missive does not match up to the content of his plan. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., chairs the U. S. House Budget Committee. “Cuts to anti-hunger programs have devastating consequences,” they wrote. “Last year, one in six Americans lived below the official poverty level and over 46 million Americans – almost half of them children – used food stamps for basic nutrition. We also know how cuts in Pell Grants will make it difficult for low-income...

William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel The Exorcist—which went on to become an Oscar-winning movie—depicts an epic battle of good versus evil waged under the auspices of the Catholic Church. Reportedly based on a real exorcism Blatty heard about as an undergraduate on a scholarship at Georgetown University, the novel is steeped in Catholicism. Indeed, the “hero” of The Exorcist is the fictional Father Damien Karras, a Georgetown Jesuit, who, at great personal cost, drives out the demon. Now Blatty, a longtime financial contributor to his alma mater, says that Georgetown is no longer true to the Catholic identity he knew...

The author of best-selling novel “The Exorcist” says he plans to sue alma mater Georgetown University in a Vatican court after the Catholic school invited Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to speak on campus. The author, William Peter Blatty, says the Jesuit-founded university in Washington has for the past two decades invited speakers who support abortion rights and has refused to comply with orders by the late Pope John Paul II for church-affiliated colleges and universities. The “last straw” was the university allowing students to invite Sebelius to speak May 18, considering she was instrumental in helping President...

Watch the video here Introducing pro-abortion HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to Georgetown’s graduating class of 2012, the Dean of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute (GPPI) said: “She works every day to improve access to health care for our nation’s children…” However, the dean ignored the truth:  Sebelius promotes pro-abortion policies that turn the womb into the most dangerous place for unborn children to live in America. On May 18, as Georgetown University prepared to honor the chief architect of the Obamacare contraception mandate, TFP Student Action volunteers were kicking into gear for a prayerful protest at America’s oldest Catholic...

Kathleen Sebellius this past Friday delivered a commencement address at Georgetown University. CNS.com has a fine article with video of the speech. In her comments she seemed to respond to the criticism of Catholic Bishops by quoting from President Kennedy's famous speech on September 12,1960. She stated: “In his talk to Protestant ministers,” Sebelius said, “Kennedy talked about his vision of religion and the public square, and he said he believed in an America, and I quote, ‘where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials;...

A prominent Georgetown University alumnus has announced plans for a canonical lawsuit in a bid to restore the school’s Catholic identity. William Peter Blatty, the author of The Exorcist, is asking Georgetown alumni, faculty, students, and friends to join in his canonical case, in which he will ask the Archdiocese of Washington and the Holy See to take action “up to including the possible removal or suspension of top-ranked Georgetown’s right to call itself Catholic or Jesuit in its fundraising and representations to applicants.” In his plea for support of the canonical case, Blatty argues that Georgetown has failed to...

(CNSNews.com) -- Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who supports abortion, was heckled and called a “murderer” by a pro-life activist as she gave a speech to graduating students on Friday at Georgetown University, the nation’s oldest Catholic academic institution. Kathleen Sebelius Commencement Address Video“I got a message for you Kathleen Sebelius: You’re a murderer, abortion is murder!” yelled the heckler as he was being escorted out of the room by campus police. The young activist told CNSNews.com that he goes by the name of David Lewis.Alluding to Biblical scripture, Lewis also yelled across the room towards Sebelius, “We...

WASHINGTON, May 18, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - William Peter Blatty knows a thing or two about what happens when a hostile presence infiltrates Catholic bodies. Blatty, author of both novel and film versions of the horror classic “The Exorcist,” is getting ready to launch a canonical suit against alma mater Georgetown University, calling U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ appearance as commencement speaker “the last straw” in the school’s relinquishing of Catholic identity. A frame from the movie "The Exorcist" with a slight adjustment. “The scandals that Georgetown has given to the faithful are too many to count and...

Anti-abortion protestors interrupted HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' commencement speech at Georgetown University this morning.

Dr. John J. DeGioia, president of Georgetown University. Washington D.C., May 17, 2012 / 12:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. has By condemned Georgetown University's invitation to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to speak during commencement weekend.In light of Sebelius' attempts to drastically redefine religious ministry in a way that threatens Catholic institutions, Georgetown should do more to “speak up for freedom of religion,” the archdiocese said.In a May 15 statement, it explained that Catholics are understandably shocked by Georgetown’s decision to honor Sebelius, the architect of a contraception mandate that poses...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Cardinal Newman Society is sending to Georgetown University President John DiGioia the names of more than 26,000 people who joined an open letter urging Georgetown to cancel an invitation to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to speak at a diploma ceremony this Friday. The petitions are also being shared with Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., and Pope Benedict XVI’s ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. “These signers are students, alumni, Catholic families, pastors and others who can no longer tolerate Georgetown University’s betrayal of our Church and...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Cardinal Newman Society is sending to Georgetown University President John DiGioia the names of more than 26,000 people who joined an open letter urging Georgetown to cancel an invitation to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to speak at a diploma ceremony this Friday. The petitions are also being shared with Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., and Pope Benedict XVI’s ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano. “These signers are students, alumni, Catholic families, pastors and others who can no longer tolerate Georgetown University’s betrayal of our Church and...

The news earlier this month that Georgetown University had invited HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to deliver a commencement speech resulted in an eruption of criticism for the school's president, John J. DeGioia. The church has bitterly criticized the HHS mandate that would force Catholic institutions to fund contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients that violate the tenets of Catholic doctrine, and the invitation of the author of that mandate offended many of those who oppose the imposition of the mandate. DeGioia tried to defend his decision on Monday by claiming that the invitation was offered before the HHS mandate was announced, and...

The Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Washington, Bishop Barry Knestout forwarded the following editorial from the Catholic Standard, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese. He asked the we priests share it in any way we deem appropriate with the people of the Archdiocese. In this matter.Many of you write me and ask when and if the Archdiocese will speak out on this or that matter. In this matter, I am able to report that it has. And frankly the editorial pull no punches, as you will see. The original text is below in bold black italics. My comments are...

The oldest Catholic university in America has invited a top pro-abortion politician, Kathleen Sebelius, to speak at its graduation awards ceremony on May 18.  She will be a “great inspiration to our students,” promised Judy Feder, professor at Georgetown’s Public Policy Institute. (see link) In the wake of the unjust Obama/HHS mandate, however, the scandalous invitation is like a deliberate poke in the eye to Catholics.   After all, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is responsible for unleashing a fierce persecution against the freedom of the Church – the Obamacare mandate – which forces Catholic individuals and...

Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifies before the Senate Finance Committee. Credit: HHS-Chris Smith. Washington D.C., May 9, 2012 / 02:17 am (CNA).- More than 15,000 people have signed an open letter protesting Georgetown University’s decision to invite U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to speak at an award ceremony during its commencement weekend.“Our courageous bishops have been vigilant against this threat and they deserve, at a minimum, the respect and support of prominent institutions that claim to be in communion with the Church,” said CatholicVote.org president Brian Burch, who organized the letter.In a May 8 e-mail to CNA,...

Georgetown, a Jesuit university which refuses to provide contraceptive coverage in accordance with its catholic designation, is inviting as a speaker the federal official who is most determined to make them do so—U. S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. “Secretary Sebelius is not speaking at Georgetown’s commencement,” Georgetown spokesman Rachel Pugh said in an email to The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS). “She is speaking at Georgetown Public Policy Institute’s annual student and faculty awards event.” “The nation’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit university has chosen to honor Sebelius by granting her a prestigious platform at its Public Policy...