Free Republic

WASHINGTON - An alternate delegate to the Democratic National Convention says he's been forced out of his job at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for his support of presidential candidate John F. Kerry. Ono Ekeh, 33, of Waldorf, Md., said his employers at the Washington-based conference accused him of using the organization's computers to moderate a "Catholics for Kerry" electronic message board. Ekeh had been program coordinator for the Secretariat for African American Catholics, an arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, for three years when he was asked to resign from the $54,000-a-year post on March 9....

Message to church employees who support John Kerry's presidential bid: public endorsement of the pro-choice Catholic senator could cost you your job. Just ask Ono Ekeh, founder and moderator of the Catholics for Kerry e-mail discussion list and, until March 9, program coordinator at the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for African-American Catholics. The 33-year-old father of two is now looking for work. It all started in late February when Deal Hudson, publisher of Crisis magazine and a key player in the Bush campaign outreach to Catholic voters, revealed in his widely distributed weekly "e-letter" that Ekeh hosted the pro-Kerry site. Hudson...