Ambassador Ray Flynn in Cleveland 10/16/2004- "Vote 2004: The Catholic Factor"

Join us Monday, October 18th, 2004, at 7 PM when former mayor of Boston and Ambassador to the Vatican Raymond Flynn will speak at the CSU Convocation Pavilion Center, located in the same building as the Convocation Center ( map ). In this ever important election year of 2004, the Ambassador will share invaluable information about how Catholics can effect positive change in our nation and in the world. Click here to get tickets to the Flynn event.

Raymond Flynn is a best selling author and national public speaker. He is a regular political commentator and frequent political and religious analyst on national and local television, including Meet the Press, Night Line, ABC, NBC, CTV, PBS' Jim Leher News Hour, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, EWTN, BBC, CBS News, as well as many other national newspaper, magazine and radio programs. He has been praised as one of the most insightful and foremost experienced political - religious analysts in the United States.

As U.S. Ambassador, Flynn served as America's Envoy to the Vatican, the government of the worldwide Catholic Church. Democratic and Republican U.S. Presidents alike have selected him to represent our nation at official Vatican events. On behalf of the United States, he assisted the Vatican in the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the Vatican and the State of Israel. He also represented the U.S. efforts that helped win Vatican support for the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, for U.N. peacekeeping efforts in the Balkans, and for U.S. - backed efforts to restore democracy in Haiti. Ambassador Flynn also served as the United States representative in relief efforts around the world and helped establish a compact between the U.S. government and the Catholic Church with other religious and non-profit organizations to deliver humanitarian aid to countries suffering from natural disasters, famine, disease, and political unrest.

Flynn was first elected Mayor of Boston in 1984, and won reelection twice each time by record margins. The Flynn administration was known as both competent and caring. Despite inheriting a $40 million deficit and a low bond rating, Flynn went onto balance eight consecutive budgets, raise the city's bond rating to the highest in its history, implement a billon dollar capital improvement plan, expand access to healthcare, and spur over $16 billion dollars in private development. By the time he left office, a newspaper poll showed that his favorability rating was nearly 80% and almost half of the city's residents had actually met him!

In this ever important election year of 2004 Ambassador Flynn will come to Cleveland in service of his fellow Americans and his fellow Catholics. He will share an uplifting and inspiring message of how Catholics can effect change in America and the world, all for the greater glory of God and for a better tomorrow.

Join him and the Cleveland Catholic Forum at the CSU Convocation Pavilion Center on October 18th. The Pavilion Center is located at 2000 Prospect Avenue in downtown Cleveland within the CSU Convocation Center. Doors open at 6:30 PM and only 500 tickets are available. Tickets will be sold at the door for $10 per person and are avilable for purchase over internet. Click here to purchase tickets now. There will be affiliated groups of the Cleveland Catholic Forum with information tables set up within the Pavilion Center both before and after the speaking event. Please note that there will be ample parking around the Pavilion Center.

At the close of this event, Ambassador Flynn will be available for a book signing and meeting with all of those in attendance.

Pro-Life Democrat Scolds John Kerry on Judicial Appointments, Abortion

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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 11, 2004

Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) -- Ray Flynn, the former mayor of Boston, a longtime Democrat and friend of John Kerry, scolded the presidential candidate in a new full-page ad in the New York Times. Flynn says Kerry is wrong to only support the appointment of abortion advocates to federal courts.

''Removing political correctness from that statement, Senator Kerry, you have announced that you will only support people to the federal judiciary who support killing unborn children," Flynn wrote in an open letter to Kerry.

Flynn, who heads Liberty, Life and Family, a lay Catholic group based in Washington, said the letter wasn't sent in support or opposition to his candidacy.

"I am asking you to announce today that you will not impose any abortion litmus test on candidates for the federal judiciary -- especially those who are faithful Catholics," Flynn wrote.

The former Vatican ambassador listed highly regarded Harvard Law School Professor Mary Ann Glendon, who is pro-life, as an example of a capable individual who would not be eligible for a federal court position thanks to Kerry's pro-abortion litmus test.

Kerry has denied that he has a litmus test, though he has repeatedly said he would not appoint any judges who would favor overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized unlimited abortion.

President Bush and Kerry differed on potential Supreme Court appointments in the second presidential debate.

With as many as four possible appointments to the Supreme Court coming up in the next few years, the next president will have tremendous power to shape the legality of abortion -- potentially for decades.

"I would pick somebody who would not allow their personal opinion to get in the way of the law. I would pick somebody who would strictly interpret the Constitution of the United States," the president explained.

Such language has typically been used to refer to justices such as Atonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- two jurists who disagree that a right to abortion or assisted suicide exists in the Constitution.

In fact, Senator Kerry mentioned the two judges by name in an attempt to paint Bush as an extremist on Supreme Court picks.

As he has in the past, Kerry said he would appoint judges who would support abortion.

"Will women's rights be protected? ... Will a woman's right to choose be protected," Kerry asked. "These are constitutional rights, and I want to make sure we have judges who [support them]."

Printed from: http://www.lifenews.com/nat861.html

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