Replies

"Amy Sullivan is a writer based in Princeton, NJ and Washington, DC. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Harvard Divinity School, and she is currently pursuing a doctorate in sociology at Princeton University. Her articles on politics, religion and the media have appeared in The American Prospect Online, Beliefnet, The Boston Globe, The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, The Los Angeles Times, Sojourners Magazine, and (soon) The Washington Monthly."

Amy Sullivan apparently reads Free Republic too. See this link from her column:

but the Catholic Family Association of America is already taking credit for the Bishop's action, citing their campaign of prayer and fasting to change Daschle's mind on the issue of abortion or, failing that, to convince the Bishop to "formally declare Senator Daschle no longer in communion with the Roman Catholic Church."

Great Find!

Amy Sullivan also states"A personal disclaimer: at the time I was a member of Daschle's legislative staff working almost exclusively on the abortion issue. You really don't want to get me started. But the Weekly Standard already did. So."

Pinging.

We stated that 7500 days of prayer and fasting had played a role in all of this, and God had answered these prayers.

I still believe this to be true, regardless of this author's opinion, because I believe in the power of prayer and fasting and I believe in God's Divine Mercy and Divine Providence.

--Dr. Brian Kopp
Vice President, CFAA.

Catholic Church asks Tom Daschle to stop calling himself a Catholic

On Catholic Politicians and Faith

Vatican Urges Catholic Politicians to Vote Along Church Lines

Senator Santorum on Being Catholic and a Politician

William E. Simon, Sr. and Jr. Devout Catholics, Philanthropists and Politicians

Deadly Dozen senator taken to task over claims of Catholicism

THE BISHOP AND THE SENATOR [author links to FR thread regarding Daschle in her online column]

Let's see....

It's all right for Senators to pry into the "extremist religious" beliefs of candidates the President sends to them for approval. Senators can "burn candidates at the (Senatorial) stake" because those Senators do not agree with the beliefs of the candidate or the candidate's denomination.
but
It's not okay for the hierarchy of the Churches the Senators belong to, to call the Senator's to task for acting as though their Church condones something it does not.

Letting Cuomo get away with his "I'm personally against abortion" speech at Notre Dame was a big mistake.

The one part of this I don't get is that it DOES appear that a member of the Catholic clergy DID violate the confidential relationship he is supposed to have with (shudder) Daschle. I'm not Catholic, but if my LDS bishop did this--aired his opinion about one of my positions on something, so very publically--I'd have a HUGE problem with that. And I think my church would too.

On one level those of us who are pro-life need to be extremely aggressive with the pro-choice people and fight for the babies being slaughtered for the sake of convenience. It IS insane that anyone who promotes abortion, actively promotes it, could be Catholic. (I don't think there are any pro-abortion politicians who are LDS, but I could be wrong. I KNOW such a person could be excommunicated from our church. There'd be none of this "you can't call yourself a member"--he or she would NOT be a member, fast.)

However, I don't think any bishop or stake president in our church could or would go public condemning any particular member like this, or attempt this kind of...extortion. The excommunication would be as quiet and private as the church could make it, but there'd be no private letters made available on purpose to be read on the Senate floor.

This just seems like a sneaky and underhanded way to do this. Still, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. /sarcasm.

Is this something that sits well with Catholics? Maybe it's time to do stuff like this--call out the pro-abortionists, make them publically reconcile what they claim to believe. I'm just uncomfortable with a member of the clergy doing it. There's supposed to be a private relationship there.

But given the venues she writes for, she's a lefty.