Free Republic

There is a way... Our country is not lost –YET. Four or five brave American Governors can save our LIBERTY! Have our brilliant founding fathers provided us with a means to save our American Republic???    The electors of each state will meet on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December (Dec.17, 2012). A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President and Vice President. Four or five Governors of battleground states can save our American Republic. (Rick Scott, John Kasich, Tom Corbett, Bob McConnell and Scott Walker for example.) The total number of Electoral...

Nearly a year after learning he had been selected to shepherd the Phoenix faithful, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted has been elected chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Priestly Formation. The Phoenix bishop was selected by his peers during last month’s biannual bishops’ meeting in Washington, D.C. Bishop Olmsted, who is currently a consultant to the priestly formation committee, will officially begin his three-year term as chair during the U.S. bishops’ meeting in November 2005. He succeeds Bishop John C. Nienstedt of New Ulm, Minn. “The future of the Church very much depends on our young people, our young people...

Catholics today hold a unique position in the 2,000-year history of the Church: they are the “pioneers” charged with implementing and living out the sweeping liturgical changes instituted by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. While younger Catholics know only the modern Catholicism of the past 40 years, many older Catholics lived half their lifetimes in the pre-Vatican II Church, with the Tridentine Latin Mass that most closely resembled the liturgy originating in the first century. Many applauded the changes brought about by Vatican II, while others longed for the “history and mystery” of the centuries-old Mass. The good...

We have yet another disturbing story about an apparent crackdown by some Catholic bishops on lay Catholic activities. . . . [snip] Does this mean I am unworthy to continue my lay ministry as a lector? . . . [snip] What does our new bishop think about Bishop Vasa's ultimatum?

Phoenix's fourth bishop remains ever faithful to Catholic Teachings Exhibiting an inspired sense of composure in the face of would-be detractors, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted has peacefully and prayerfully handled many hot-button issues in his first six months in Phoenix. Within his first week, the bishop was praying the rosary outside a local Planned Parenthood with more than 200 other Catholics on Christmas Eve. To this day, the bishop has made clear his intentions. “My concern is for human persons,” said Bishop Olmsted. “My purpose for being there is to stand up and say that there are human beings who...

Catholic politicians who unambiguously support a woman's right to choose should not receive communion, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted said Wednesday. But he declined to say he would deny communion to politicians who do not follow church teaching on abortion. Asked directly about what he would do if Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic candidate for president who is a Catholic and supports abortion rights, came to him for communion, the leader of the Diocese of Phoenix said, "I would hope that would not happen." "If he asked about it," he said, "I would tell him he should not receive communion."...

Demanding that Catholic and other religious leaders include gays in the full life of the church, pastors on Tuesday nailed their controversial "Phoenix Declaration" to a symbolic door they want opened to allow gays to fully experience "God’s unconditional love." Their gesture sought to recreate what Reformation founder Martin Luther did in 1517 in nailing the "95 Theses" to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, to protest Catholic practices and abuses. Members of No Longer Silent/Clergy for Justice capped a news conference in Phoenix with the gesture to react to Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted’s ordering nine...

The headline in the Arizona Republic (5/21/04), “Bishops won’t link politics, Communion” misrepresents my position. Abortion is the killing of a completely innocent life and thus bad news for both unborn children and their mothers. It is a horrible wrong. It is intrinsically evil. We have a serious obligation to protect human life, and especially the most innocent and vulnerable. Whoever fails to do this, especially when they are able to do so, commit serious sins of omission. They jeopardize their own spiritual wellbeing and they are a source of scandal for others. Should they be Catholics, they should not...

Retired reverend says policy based on old science A retired priest has informed Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted that he will not withdraw his name from the "No Longer Silent Phoenix Declaration," a letter signed by Arizona clergy calling for full inclusion of gays and lesbians in religious and community life. The decision puts the Rev. Andre Boulanger of Phoenix at odds with church teachings and subject to discipline. In April, Olmsted , leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, ordered nine diocesan priests to remove their names from the letter developed by No Longer Silent/Clergy for Justice in January...

A team of diocesan officials will meet Monday night with parishioners of St. Mary Magdalene to explain why their popular priest and parish founder, the Rev. John Cunningham, remains suspended for allegedly concelebrating Mass with a non-Catholic priest and how the bishop is trying to resolve the issue. A lengthy letter announcing the meeting was read at Saturday's Mass and will be read at all of today's Masses at Williams Community School gym at Williams Gateway Airport in Mesa, where the parishioners regularly meet while their permanent campus is being built in Gilbert. Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted announced he has...

Some 4 1/2 months into his tenure, Bishop Thomas Olmsted has left no doubt that he is what the Vatican ordered when he was named to head the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix. A rapid series of recent diocesan actions underscores that Olmsted is a loyal and ardently faithful servant to Pope John Paul II, with whom the bishop once regularly worked during assignments with the Curia in the early 1980s. The pope tapped the 31-year priest last fall to leave his bishop's job in the Diocese of Wichita, Kan., to come to Arizona to rebuild a church rocked by...

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted doesn't want gays and lesbians in his church. The leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix made that abundantly clear this week when he ordered nine priests to remove their names from a statement they signed last year affirming gay rights and denouncing discrimination against them. Disguising homophobia as a religious mandate is nothing new, but coming from the new bishop it is at best unsettling. Because if the Bible bans homosexuality, then it also: o Demands that a bride found not to be a virgin be executed by stoning. o Forbids divorce and remarriage...

A Gilbert Catholic priest, the Rev. John "Jack" Cunningham, founding pastor of two East Valley parishes, was suspended Wednesday afternoon pending further investigation for allegedly concelebrating a Eucharistic Mass with a non-Catholic clergyman. Bishop Thomas Olmsted of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix ordered Cunningham removed from duties at St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church parish in Gilbert, which the priest founded in July 2002. He previously spent 17 years at St. Bridget Catholic Parish in Mesa, which he organized in June 1985. "In the language of the church, Father Cunningham allegedly engaged in the forbidden concelebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice...

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted privately has ordered nine Catholic priests to withdraw their support from an interfaith statement supporting gay rights. Two of the nine priests who signed the Phoenix Declaration in January 2003 confirmed they received "personal and confidential" letters from the bishop last week. In the letter, Olmsted tells the priests and one religious brother to remove their names "under obedience" to him. No consequences are spelled out for those who decline. A copy of the letter was not available, and, as of Tuesday, none of the priests had asked that their names be removed. Olmsted said the...

Three key officials of the Diocese of Phoenix, all confidants of Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien, will be replaced July 1, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted announced Tuesday. The departure of Monsignors Dale Fushek and Richard Moyer, and chancellor Sister Mary Ann Winters marks an almost complete change of administration from O'Brien's time as bishop. . . . O'Brien resigned in June after his arrest in connection with a hit-and-run accident. "I wanted to choose priests who are well known for their pastoral zeal, their prudential judgment, their sound doctrine, their ability to work collaboratively with a variety of persons, and their...

An open letter to Pope John Paul II: Pope John Paul IIC/O The Vatican Vatican City Dear Holiness, While your recent statement to Australian bishops seems to have slipped below the radar of many, it has not escaped ours here at The Heat Index. As you'll recall, you told the bishops that Sunday should be a day for God, not for secular diversions such as entertainment and sports. "When Sunday loses its fundamental meaning and becomes subordinate to a secular concept of 'weekend' dominated by such things as entertainment and sport, people stay locked within a horizon so narrow that...

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted has issued the following statement regarding the abortion/informed consent legislation:On March 4, Governor Janet Napolitano vetoed legislation (SB 1077) that would have required informed consent and a 24-hour waiting period before abortions could be performed. A recent study by the Heritage Foundation has found that when such laws are enacted, not only are the health and dignity of women better protected, but fewer abortions are also the result. I am deeply saddened by this veto because I believe both of these outcomes are beneficial to society. In explaining her veto, the governor speaks of "undue government...

"I am a Catholic businessman but I don't let the Church influence what I do at the office or in the boardroom;" but Jesus says (Mt 7:21), "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." "I am a Catholic politician but I don't let my Catholicism impact on how I vote or what legislation I promote;" but Jesus says (Mt 7:26-27), "Everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who...