Free Republic

United Church of Christ Pastor Sues to Legalize Killing Unborn BabiesA United Church of Christ leader is trying to overturn a Missouri law that protects unborn babies, claiming pro-life lawmakers “weaponized” their Christian faith to pass the abortion ban.Last week, 13 religious leaders, including four UCC pastors, filed a lawsuit challenging the Missouri abortion law as an alleged violation of their pro-abortion religious beliefs.One of them, the Rev. Traci Blackmon, is the associate general minister of justice and local church ministries for the denomination. Blackmon also is an abortion activist who toured the country with the pro-abortion “Nuns on the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to news reports of President Trump’s planned nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to become a Supreme Court Justice, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice announces its opposition to Judge Barrett. Years of decisions by Judge Barrett on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals prove that she does not hold all life to be sacred, as we are instructed to do by Catholic Social Teaching and Pope Francis. The next Justice who fills the seat of Ruth Bader Ginsburg must advocate for the equally sacred issues that Pope Francis calls all people of good faith...

Pelosi: Christ would not want Trump honored at National Catholic Prayer Breakfast This seems pretty rich from the leader of the party of abortion on demand and limits on freedom of religious expression by business owners.According to the Washington Examiner: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday bashed Catholic supporters of President Trump ahead of his appearance at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.Speaking at an event hosted by the liberal nun activist Sister Simone Campbell, Pelosi expressed “dismay” that the NCPB invited Trump to deliver the keynote address at its annual event.“What would Christ do? We always say that,” Pelosi said....

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Catholic activist Sister Simone Campbell has suggested that senior clergy at the Vatican are more preoccupied with power than confronting issues that affect the faithful, like clerical sexual abuse. The U.S. nun, leader of the “Nuns on the Bus” campaign that has toured America during recent election cycles, spoke frankly in an interview ahead of a conference being held at the Vatican on Wednesday (March 8) to celebrate women’s contributions to peace. “The institution and the structure is frightened of change,” Campbell told Religion News Service. “These men worry more about the form and the institution than...

When the nuns first hit the road in 2012, their mission was to collect stories of economic oppression in protest of the Paul Ryan budget — in defiant response to Pope Benedict XVI's startling decision to launch an investigation into the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an umbrella group that represents more than 80 percent of religious sisters in the United States. The investigation was an outright attack on women's role in the Church and was referred to as "a crackdown on American nuns." Their alleged transgression was spending too much time on social justice issues, and promoting "certain radical...

Maybe we shouldn’t expect anything much from a president who gave Queen Elizabeth an iPod filled with his own speeches, and who gave former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown a set of American movies on DVDs that didn’t work in the U.K. But the way this White House is choosing to “welcome” Pope Francis is appalling. When Francis arrives at the White House on Wednesday for a welcome reception, his greeters will include “Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Anglican bishop who’s now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a think-tank with ties to the...

Sr. Simone Campbell A Catholic social justice activist who promoted a bus tour to encourage income equality is this year's recipient of the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award, it was announced Wednesday.Sister Simone Campbell is the executive director of NETWORK, a nonprofit Catholic social justice lobby based in Washington, D.C. She will receive the award at 3 p.m. Sept. 21 at Christ the King Chapel on the campus of St. Ambrose University in Davenport.Campbell and the "Nuns on the Bus" tour for social and economic justice drew national attention. In Iowa, the tour was active during 2012...

(RNS) Paul Ryan has been taking a lot of heat over the factual accuracy of claims he made in his prime time address at the Republican convention last week, but Wednesday night at the Democratic confab the GOP vice-presidential candidate – and practicing Catholic – was schooled by a popular nun on the moral shortcomings of his budget proposals. “Paul Ryan claims this budget reflects the principles of our shared faith,” Sister Simone Campbell, who became a celebrity of sorts this summer when she led the national “Nuns on the Bus” tour for social justice, told cheering Democratic delegates...