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Fake 'Catholic Voters Guide' Published by Former Aide to John Kerry

Attempt to recapture the Catholic vote launched by Democratic supporters

By John-Henry Westen

WASHINGTON, September 29, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An attempt to recapture the Catholic vote has been launched by Democratic supporters.  A new 2006 Voter Guide has been put out by "Catholic in Alliance for the Common Good" (CACG) a group headed up by Alexia Kelley who in 2004 worked as a religion advisor to John Kerry in the closing weeks of his campaign.

An initial printing of one million copies of "Voting for the Common Good: A Practical Guide for Conscientious Catholics" will be distributed nationwide through on-the-ground organizers and partner networks in all 50 states, says CACG.  The groups admits in a press release that the new voter guide is a response to the original "Catholic Voters Guide" issued by Catholic Answers last year. 

The new voter guide has been described as "slick" by the Catholic League for its deceptive wording which falsely leads Catholics to consider abortion as just one of many important social justice issues to be taken into account when electing politicians.

Commenting on the new 12-page booklet, Catholic League president Bill Donohue said "The voter guide is a slick attempt to get the abortion albatross off the necks of Catholic Democrats, but it's a failed effort-the noose is still there. Instead of listening to James Carville and Paul Begala, who have counseled Democrats to drop their opposition to parental notification laws and their support for keeping partial-birth abortion legal, the best Catholics in Alliance can do is say it is opposed to abortion. But it makes it painfully clear that it will never join any effort to ban any abortions, including partial-birth."

Donohue added that "On August 2, 2006, Catholics in Alliance issued a news release urging the Senate to raise the minimum wage, an issue which the Catholic Church has no official position on, one way or the other. But the group has no statement urging anyone to vote against partial-birth abortion, an issue which the Catholic Church officially opposes."

The guide lists serious issues to consider but mentions abortion as only one of several issues including poverty, jobs, immigration, minimum wage, and nuclear disarmament, the typical leftist Catholic "seamless garment" approach that has confused many Catholics in the past.  The guide advises that while abortion should be considered when voting it should be considered as only one of a whole host of other issues, none of which has resulted in the actual deliberate killing of millions of Americans as has abortion.

The Catholic Democrats' guide contradicts the guidance of Cardinal Ratzinger prior to his election to the papacy.  Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote a doctrinal note, approved by then-Pope John Paul II, which stated: "[A] well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law which contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals." The doctrinal note added, "laws must defend the basic right to life from conception to natural death . . . Analogously, the family needs to be safeguarded and promoted based on monogamous marriage between a man and a woman."

The guide does quote Cardinal Ratzinger from a brief he prepared for the US Bishops Conference of Bishops speaking of the ability to vote for a candidate who supports abortion.  He stressed that voting for such a candidate because of his support for abortion would be a grave sin, but such an action may be taken for "proportionate reasons". 

Exceptions to the rule of never voting for pro-abortion candidates are made in the case where the only two candidates are supporting abortion, where one would restrict it severely and the other would permit abortion on demand.

As Bishop Rene Henry Gracida, of Corpus Christi Texas, explained in September 2004, it is not enough to make a mental reservation that a voter is not supporting a pro-abortion politician because of his stand on abortion. The reasons to support the politician must be objectively 'proportionate.' He further states that the usual reasons cited, a candidate's stand "on war, or taxes, or the death penalty, or immigration, or a national health plan, or Social Security, or AIDS, or homosexuality, or marriage," are not important enough. They are, he says, "simply lacking in proportionality."

Bishop Gracida exemplified the point stating, "Consider the case of a Catholic voter who must choose between three candidates: Kerry, who is completely for abortion on demand, Bush, who is in favor of very limited abortion, i.e., in favor of greatly restricting abortion and Peroutka, a candidate who is completely against abortion but who is universally recognized as being unelectable," he wrote.  "The Catholic can vote for Peroutka, but that will probably only help ensure the election of Kerry. Therefore the Catholic voter has a proportionate reason to vote for Bush, since his vote might help to ensure the defeat of Kerry and might result in the saving of some innocent human lives."

Additionally numerous US Catholic Bishops have stated that abortion trumps other considerations when voting.  Writing in Columbia Magazine in September 2000 Bishop James T. McHugh, Bishop of Rockville Centre, NY, wrote, "Catholic citizens especially should affirm a personal stance that respects and sustains human life and makes it unmistakably clear to all candidates and officials that this will be a determining factor in their choice of candidates.

In October 2000 Chicago's Cardinal Francis George stated "[Abortion is] a defining issue not only personally but also socially. Poverty can be addressed incrementally, but the death of a child is quite final."

Denver's Archbishop Charles Chaput said in October 2000 "It is impossible to advance human dignity by being 'right' on issues like poverty and immigration, but wrong about the most fundamental issue of all - the right to life."

Father Thomas D. Williams, dean of the theology school at Rome's Regina Apostolorum university, recently told Zenit News that according to Catholic teaching, "the social injustice that most cries out to Christian conscience is the deliberate and massive attack on the most vulnerable members of society, the unborn." 

Fr. Williams added, "The Church's defense of social justice embraces any number of key life issues, and attention to one does not lessen the importance of the others. Abortion, however, stands out among them as a unique case meriting singular attention."

LifeSiteNews repeatedly attempted to contact Catholic Answers for their response to the Democrats alternative to the Catholic Answers Voters Guide. Unfortunately none of the calls were returned.

See Previous LifeSiteNews.com story on Catholic Answers Voter Guide
U.S Catholic Voters Guide in Full-Page Newspaper Ads
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/aug/04082706.html

See Zenit Fr. Williams interview
Abortion and Catholic Social Teaching
http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=94931

Other related articles
U.S. Catholic Pro-Life Leader Calls Bluff on Seamless Garment Approach to Pro-Life Politics
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/nov/03111904.html

Denver Archbishop: Voting for Known Pro-Abortion Candidates is a Sin Requiring Confession
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/oct/04102003.html

Democrat and Republican Panelists Struggle With Abortion and Catholic Politicians Issue
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06030106.html

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Christian Psychologist Loses Job with Minneapolis Police over Pro-Family Group Membership

By John-Henry Westen

MINNEAPOLIS, September 29, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Christian psychologist Michael Campion, who was suspended (and then cleared) by the Minneapolis Police Department after city officials learned that he was once a board member of a pro-family group, has lost his job with the Department.

Campion was told Tuesday that his contract work screening police officers would no longer be required. His case has attracted nationwide attention from Christians and civil liberties advocates who see his suspension as evidence of blatant anti-Christian discrimination.

After being reinstated following his widely reported suspension, Campion said he was scheduled to do a "big batch of testing" of Minneapolis police officers. Then, according to Campion, the Department did a 180-degree turn and called to tell him that he would not be doing the testing after all.

LifeSiteNews.com spoke with Matt Laibly a spokesman for the city of Minneapolis who admitted that Campion was initially suspended after city councilor Scott Benson asked for an inquiry into Campion's membership in Illinois Familyi Institute (IFI).  That suspension was lifted, says the city.  However Campion has now lost his job.

The city is attempting to make it look like the loss of Campion's job is not related to the incident.  Laibly told LifeSiteNews.com, that Campion is no longer suspended but the city "is using a different vendor for screenings." He added that the city is "working on a formal process for establishing a vendor and now putting together a request for proposals."

When LifeSiteNews.com asked for clarification on whether or not Campion lost his job based on the accusation of membership in the pro-family group, Laibly said he could not comment. He did say however that the "city has always prided itself on being fair and tolerant."

"Dr. Campion's right to freedom of association is being sacrificed on the altar of political correctness," said David Smith, Executive Director of Illinois Family Institute. "Does one have to embrace the homosexual activist and abortion causes to be able to exercise their First Amendment rights?

IFI Policy & Media Advisor Peter LaBarbera said the Campion situation shows that "there is a zero sum game between homosexual activism and freedom for people of faith who oppose homosexual behavior. The liberal 'diversity' lobby is going after Mike because of his deeply-held religious and moral beliefs. In fact, no homosexual police officers have come forward with charges of bias.

"They want Mike out because he is a committed Christian who does not share their ideology," LaBarbera said. "How ironic that the forces of 'tolerance' are now leading a new assault on civil rights, this time against people of faith."

Last year, Campion was fired as a psychological screener for policemen and firefighters for the City of Springfield, Illinois, following a liberal newspaper's report of his ties to an "anti-choice and anti-gay" organization--Illinois Family Institute. Campion is now working with attorneys at the American Family Association to challenge his firing by the City of Springfield as discriminatory.

The Illinois Family Institute has asked supporters to call the City of Minneapolis and politely urge the city and its prospective Police Chief, Tim Dolan, to NOT discriminate against Dr. Campion based on his religious and moral convictions.  (phone no. (612)673- 2735)

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Special Report Exposes America's Forced Abortion Epidemic

Recent Cases Illustrate Widespread Problem, Expert Says

SPRINGFIELD, IL, September 29, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The cases of a Maine couple charged with abducting their pregnant daughter in an attempt to force her to have an abortion and a Georgia woman accused of forcing her pregnant daughter to drink turpentine are just part of an epidemic of coerced and forced abortions in the U.S., a leading researcher says.

Elliot Institute Director Dr. David Reardon co-authored a Medical Science Monitor study of American and Russian women that found that 64 percent of American women who had abortions reported that they felt pressured to abort by others. He also pointed to Forced Abortion in America, a special report prepared by his organization, that documented cases of violence against women who refused to abort.

In the Maine case, Nicholas and Lola Kampf were charged with kidnaping after they allegedly bound and gagged their pregnant 19-year-old daughter and put her in their car with the intent of driving her to New York for an abortion. Police said Katelyn Kampf managed to escape from her parents in a store parking lot in New Hampshire and called police from a cell phone. Her parents could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

In Georgia, police arrested Rozelletta Blackshire after she allegedly forced her pregnant 16-year-old daughter to drink turpentine in an attempt to abort the pregnancy. The mother and two of the girl's cousins were charged with criminal abortion after the teen told a school counselor her mother had forced her to drink turpentine. The teen is three months pregnant and the health effects of the turpentine on her and her unborn child are still unknown.

Reardon said that cases of women being pressured, threatened, or subjected to violence if they refuse to abort are not unusual. He pointed out that studies have shown that homicide is the leading killer of pregnant women in the U.S. and that women in abusive relationships are at risk for increased violence during pregnancy.

"In many of the cases documented for our 'Forced Abortion in America' report, police and witnesses reported that acts of violence and murder took place after the woman refused to abort or because the attacker didn't want the pregnancy," he said. "Even if a woman isn't physically threatened, she often faces intense pressure, abandonment, lack of support, or emotional blackmail if she doesn't abort. While abortion is often described as a 'choice,' women who've been there tell a very different story."

Reardon said the report underscores the need for legislation requiring abortion businesses and health care providers to screen women for evidence of coercion or pressure to abort and to direct them to people and resources that can help them.

"Too often, abortion clinics and others simply assume that if a woman is coming for an abortion, it is her free choice," he said. "This 'no questions asked' policy is especially harmful to those in abusive situations, including young girls who are victims of sexual predators. Women should not be forced into unwanted abortions and subjected to violence or pressure from others."

Free copies of the special report, "Forced Abortion in America," and fact sheets on coerced and forced abortions can be downloaded at http://www.unfairchoice.info/resources.htm

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Judge Finds Ohio Law Restricting RU-486 “Unconstitutionally Vague”

By Peter J. Smith

COLUMBUS, Ohio, September 29, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A US federal judge overturned an Ohio Law restricting the abortion pill RU-486, calling it “unconstitutionally vague” and that it failed to include a significant health exception. The law had intended to regulate RU-486 (or mifepristone) according to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) protocols, which would have made it illegal for doctors to prescribe the drug after the seventh week of pregnancy.

US District Judge Susan Dlott ruled Wednesday in agreement with Planned Parenthood that the law regulating mifepristone was “unconstitutionally vague”, and violated due process rights under the 14th amendment, which “prohibits laws so vague that persons of ordinary intelligence must guess at their meaning."

The Ohio act (H.B. 126) read “No person shall knowingly give, sell, dispense, administer, otherwise provide, or prescribe RU-486 (mifepristone) to another for the purpose of inducing an abortion . . . unless the person . . . is a physician, the physician satisfies all the criteria established by federal law that a physician must satisfy in order to provide RU-486 (mifepristone) for inducing abortions, and the physician provides the RU-486 (mifepristone) to the other person for the purpose of inducing an abortion in accordance with all provisions of federal law that govern the use of RU-486 (mifepristone) for inducing abortions.”

Dlott declared in her Wednesday decision that “Physicians regulated by the Act, untrained in the law, could not possibly be expected to understand its requirements and prohibitions."

Dlott also justified her decision on the basis that the law provided no “health exception” for doctors to prescribe RU-486 beyond the FDA guidelines including to women more than seven weeks pregnant. Although Dlott previously held the opinion that all statutes regarding abortion were required to have a “health exception”, the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals clarified on appeal that “an exception is only necessary (and must only cover) circumstances where a statute poses a significant health risk.”

Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro, representing the state, contended that the law restricting RU-486 was "sensible and mainstream" and sought to protect women from a drug that may pose serious health risks. According to FDA reports, 8 women have died from RU-486, and there are over 600 reported cases of severe complications, including 513 cases of women requiring surgery with 235 emergency surgeries due to complications from the chemical abortifacient.

However, the case reveals that Planned Parenthood had rushed to save its affiliates in Ohio, since many abortionists do not comply with federal standards regarding the prescription of mifepristone set down by the FDA 6 years ago. In its arguments, Planned Parenthood stated that its doctors used several “evidence protocol” methods, which deviated from FDA standards regarding mifepristone. Ohio’s law intended to regulate RU-486 along the previously established FDA standards and would have forced all doctors to comply with federal law and the FDA standards for prescribing mifepristone.  
 
It is not yet clear whether the state could appeal Dlott's decision to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, since that Court had already agreed with Dlott’s reasoning on appeal, and had remanded the case to her in case she could salvage parts of the law. Should the state attempt an appeal, it is likely that the fate of the Ohio law would eventually be decided by the US Supreme Court.
 
LifeSite readers may find a copy of the full ruling here from Howard Bashman’s How Appealing blog:
http://howappealing.law.com/PlannedParenthoodVsTaft.pdf

See Related LifeSite Coverage on RU-486 (Mifepristone)
FDA Reveals 607 Adverse Events Related to RU-486 Abortion, Including Five Deaths
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jan/06010301.html

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Key French “Homophobic” Violence Case Dropped Long After Hate Crimes Law Installed

Other “homophobic” incidents in Canada and US also later proven not related to homosexuality

By Hilary White

LILLE, France, September 29, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A key case in France that led to a national uproar and implementation of legislation banning “homophobic speech” has been thrown out of court. After more than two and a half years of investigation and court proceedings, the judge in the Lille court in Northern France has dropped the case with no reasons given.

The case centres on the charge by a homosexual man that he was attacked in a homophobic hate crime. He was doused with gasoline and set on fire by men who, he said, used anti-gay epithets. Sebastien Nouchet was treated in hospital for severe burns.

The defence has long maintained that there was insufficient evidence to convict the alleged aggressors. A suspect was detained in May 2004 and placed under investigation, but he was later released for lack of evidence.

Before the case was finally settled, however, it was taken up by homosexual activists whose lobbying resulted in the creation of the High Authority for the Battle Against Discrimination and For Equality, or HALDE and passage of a law restricting any speech that could be construed as “homophobic.”

There is a history of homosexual lobbyists exploiting single cases of violence to create public sympathy and install laws favouring homosexual behaviour – including anti-homophobic hate crimes and same sex “marriage”. The addition of “sexual orientation” to Canada’s hate crimes law was spearheaded by homosexual activist Parliamentarian Svend Robinson, based in part on another homosexual cause célèbre, the killing of Matthew Shepard, a US homosexual.

Evidence came to light after the fact and after massive gay activist media and political exploitation, showing Matthew Shepard had been killed in a drug-related robbery for reasons that had nothing to do with his homosexuality. In 1998, ABC News’ 20/20 admitted after an investigation that the attack had not been a hate crime but was in fact a bungled robbery.

Robinson also heavily exploited the murder of a B.C. homosexual to motivate passage of the Canadian hate crimes change. In that case it was also eventually found that the Vancouver victim’s sexual orientation had nothing to do with his murder. However, in this and the Mathew Shepard cases, and in almost all similar cases, the later revelation that the violence had nothing to do with the victim’s homosexuality received relatively little publicity.

The revelations therefore did not slow the Canadian hate crimes legislative juggernaut. When the legislation, which many Parliamentarians objected was a serious restriction on freedom of expression, passed, Robinson received a standing ovation in the House of Commons.

Other incidents of recent “gay-bashing” hoaxes include one last year in Mill Valley California where a high school activist faked a series of gay-bashing incidents at a high school that prompted a police investigation. The student who headed her school's Gay-Straight Alliance admitted that she had herself been the perpetrator of the incidents, including vandalizing her own car with derogatory graffiti and making threatening phone calls to teachers.

Despite the unresolved nature of the Nouchet case, the new law in France has already been used to attack Christian opposition to the gay political lobby. Earlier this year, a French Parliamentarian, Christian Vanneste, was convicted of “hate speech” against homosexuals for daring to question the value of the law.

Vanneste objected to the law saying that it is a “contradiction in terms” and would “bolster the notion that homosexual behaviour has the same value as any other kind of behaviour, when, in fact, it is obvious that it is a threat to the survival of humanity.” For this, he was fined 3000 Euros and forced to pay an additional 6000 Euros to be split between three homosexual activist groups who brought the charges against the MP.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
France Introduces Legislation That Would Criminalize “Sexist and Homophobic Remarks”
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jun/04062407.html

French Parliamentarian Fined Thousands of Euros for 'Homophobia'
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jan/06012609.html

British Columbia School District Cancels Explicit Gay Propaganda Play
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/sep/05092303.html

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UN Compliance Committees New Front Line in UN Abortion Debate

By Susan Yoshihara, PhD

NEW YORK, September 29, 2006 (C-FAM.org) -  Leading scholars on both sides of the abortion debate agree that the push to make abortion an international human right has shifted from the UN General Assembly, where treaties are negotiated, to the inner-workings of UN compliance committees, where treaties are monitored.

In an article in Human Rights Quarterly, “Feminist Influences on the United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies,” law professor Rachael Lorna Johnstone found that the committees responsible for monitoring human rights treaties have successfully adopted the feminist agenda. Countries that have ratified human rights treaties are required to report to the treaty bodies every few years. While the bodies have no power to enforce their recommendations, the format of the process is like that found in a court in which the country is judged by the committee and their “recommendations” and comments are handed down like decisions.

Proof that the treaty bodies are now promoting the feminist agenda, Johnstone said, is that members of the treaty monitoring bodies are taking states to task on issues that are not addressed in the actual treaties that the country ratified.  “State action that the HRC [Human Rights Committee] noted as failing to respect human rights included the criminalization of abortion,” she said. In fact, abortion is not mentioned in any of the human rights treaties. Johnstone also noted that the committee for the Convention on the Rights of the Child is pressuring states to use primary education to push gender sensitivity, change attitudes about girls’ sexuality, and promote population control. 

Johnstone said that while the treaties that nations ratify do not change, the monitoring bodies are constantly changing the way they interpret the treaties, under the influence of NGOs and other unelected officials in the UN system. Examples of terms that the committees are reinterpreting include the meaning of “the right to life,” she said.  Increasingly, Johnstone notes, “The concerns of the committee reach well into the private sphere.”

Andrew C. McCarthy, a constitutional lawyer and former chief federal prosecutor, noted these trends with alarm in a recent article in Commentary magazine. He had grave concern that the agenda “erodes the concept of consent that undergirds international legal arrangements” and threatens to create “the NGO dream of supranational tribunals that will supersede national court systems”.  McCarthy identified “interlocking networks” of powerful judges, international organizations, NGOs, law professors, and bureaucrats that translate the controversial agenda into national social policies that bypass representative government and national sovereignty. Noting the importance of these networks, Johnstone said, “The work of the human rights treaty bodies is the foundation for discourse in the language of rights…. If feminists refuse to engage with this language, we can be assured that those oppos d to our claims will.”

The divergence of views is not just academic. In Geneva, the new Human Rights Council is in its second week of a three-week meeting.  The Council’s politicized predecessor was disbanded after it lost the confidence of the General Assembly. On the agenda this week are reports including the controversial issues of a “right to health,” and sexual orientation.

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Evangelical Demonstrator Cleared of Charges after Controversial Arrest

By Gudrun Schultz

SOUTH WALES, United Kingdom, September 29, 2006, (LifeSiteNews.com) - A prominent Christian demonstrator against homosexual activity who was arrested on charges of threatening behavior for passing out leaflets at a gay pride event has been cleared of all charges, BBC News reported yesterday.

Yesterday, the Crown Prosecution Service announced the case against Stephen Green, national director of the evangelical lobby group Christian Voice, would be dropped for lack of evidence. Green has denied all accusations of aggressive or threatening behavior and said the arrest was an infringement on his right to freedom of expression.

“The police should concentrate on nicking villains instead of people like me going about my lawful business,” Green told the BBC. “It is important that Christians should be able to stand up for the Gospel and resist any attempt by the police to trample our civil rights.”

Green was arrested by South Wales police after he refused to stop passing leaflets to festival-goers at the entrance to Cardiff's Mardi Gras gay and lesbian celebration early in September. The leaflets contained Bible passages opposing homosexual activity. Green had complied with an earlier order to leave the park grounds but resisted the second order, defending his right to freedom of expression while on public property.

Green said he is considering legal action against the South Wales Police for what his solicitor Mark Williams called an “abuse of police powers.”

At the time of Green’s arrest, a spokesman for the police confirmed the evangelical Christian had not behaved in a violent or aggressive manner, the Daily Mail reported, but said Mr. Green was arrested because “the leaflet contained Biblical quotes about homosexuality.”

Colin Hart, with the Christian Institute, pointed out that the pamphlet avoided using the strongest Biblical quotes against homosexual activity, saying, “This was a very gentle leaflet. There was no use of words like ‘perversion.” I have to wonder if churches, bishops and archbishops are now vulnerable to arrest for their views on homosexuality.”

The South Wales Police force has stood by the decision to arrest Green, saying although the force has a “proven record” of supporting freedom of expression in marches and demonstrations, South Wales Police were equally proud of “our stand on supporting and protecting the most vulnerable in our communities, especially those who are the victims of prejudice and discrimination, harassment and even hatred.”

See previous LifeSiteNews coverage here:

Christian Arrested for Distributing Bible Quotes Opposing Homosexuality
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/sep/06090703.html

Read BBC News coverage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/5388626.stm

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Catholic Youth Face Dangerous Religious Confusion, Warns Australian Cardinal Pell

By Gudrun Schultz

SYDNEY, Australia, September 29, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, spoke out in concern over the growing religious confusion and lack of commitment in young Catholics in Australia, in an address to the National Catholic Education Commission’s annual conference yesterday.

“Too many young Catholics have been led by the pressures of contemporary propaganda, whatever might be said about the inadequacies of family life and Catholic religious education, so their religious confusion is worse than that of all other young Australian Christians,” Cardinal Pell said, reported the Universe Newsroom.

“They are also poorly equipped for any return to the fold when they have little instinct for or understanding that there are truths of faith and morals, which are to be sought after and judged according to rational criteria.”

He expressed alarm at a recent study that showed only 10 percent of young Catholics between the ages of 13 and 29 believed “only one religion is true,” compared to 34 percent among “other Christians,” according to the Spirit of Generation Y survey by the Australian Catholic University, Monash University and the Christian Research Association.

“The pressures on young Catholics beyond tolerance and ecumenism and towards muddle are evident here, channeled sometimes through the ill-effects of courses in comparative religion.”

He warned that young people appear to look at life as a “smorgasbord of options from which they choose items that best suit their passing fancies.”

Even more alarming, he said was the survey result showing 75 percent of young Catholics believe it is acceptable to “pick and choose beliefs,” which he said indicated a “malaise and confusion in the general approach to life rather than just a few isolated points of heresy or unbelief.”

Cardinal Pell called on the Catholic education system to better participate in teaching young people the inherent truths and values of Catholicism, in order to counteract the growing influence of secular ideology in society.

“Secularists strive to remove religion from the public domain and restrict it to private life, where individual religious choices reflect personal preferences unrelated to truth and general principles,” he said.

“They see religion as another area for consumer choice. Catholicism calls to faith and reason as well as love and hope.

“This is now profoundly countercultural,” he said.

Read coverage by The Universe:
http://www.totalcatholic.com/universe/index.php?news_id=1679&start=0&cat...=

See related LifeSiteNews coverage:

Australian Cardinal Approves Government Decision to Allow Teaching of Intelligent Design in Schools
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/sep/05090205.html

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Graphic Abortion Images Catch Attention at Canadian High School

First time GAP display has been set up at a high school - students react positively

By Hilary White

STRATFORD, Ontario, September 29, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The abortion debate in Canada is moribund because people just are not listening, says a Catholic teacher in Stratford Ontario. “Our society isn't able to be reflective and take time,” says Patti Rothwell, the art teacher who helped to bring the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) to St. Michael Catholic Secondary school.

Rothwell told the London Free Press that the school did not “enter lightly” into the decision to host the event. “Today's culture and people's busy lives and the distractions that they have, it doesn't work. They're not listening. Our society isn't able to be reflective and take time,” she said.

Santosh D’Souza, spokesman for University of Toronto Students for Life told LifeSiteNews.com that the project was the brainchild of Patti Rothwell, organized with help from his group and the Calgary-based Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform (CCBR).

Although GAP displays are increasingly popular with pro-life college student groups around North America, D’Souza said that this is the first time the GAP has been displayed at a high school.

The GAP consists of large photographic signs juxtaposing pictures of aborted babies with other images such as the lynching of blacks and the victims of the Nazi Holocaust. The point of the GAP is to jar the complacency of observers and confront them with the inadequacies of the “choice” rhetoric of the abortion movement.

The St. Michael school display seems to have had just that effect on some who objected to its use. The London Free Press quoted Rebecca Coulter, a UWO education professor, who said, “It is a bit surprising to me that (they) would allow this organization into a publicly funded school. These kind of shock tactics play on the emotions of teenagers . . . that's some of what's going on here. I don't think it really has a place in the school.”

D’Souza, however, said that the students responded to the displays with calm and asked intelligent questions. “They knew right away. They said the pictures are true, and because they’re true, they should be shown.”

The display was the highlight of a “pro-life events” week at the school and D’Souza commended the careful year long preparation the school gave students, bringing in pro-life speakers such as CCBR’s Stephanie Gray.

Rothwell told the London Free Press, “We're really wanting people to look at the massive elimination of unwanted human beings. We can't hide the truth anymore.”

D’Souza, who spoke with students, said that there was almost no opposition to the display and the students received the information calmly and asked intelligent questions. “Even some teachers came down and spoke to us. Some of them were shocked to discover that there are absolutely no legal restrictions on abortion in Canada.”

“The students who came and spoke to us were shocked, but not at the images which they understood. They were shocked that there were no restrictions on abortion in Canada and they wanted to know what was done with the foetus after abortion. They wanted to know how they could help stop it,” D’Souza said.

See also Unmasking Choice website
http://www.unmaskingchoice.ca/ 

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Calgary Bishop Wins Battle to End Gambling Fundraising for Catholic Schools

By Gudrun Schultz

CALGARY, Alberta, September 29, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Calgary Catholic school board has finally agreed to stop funding school programs with the proceeds of casinos and bingo halls, after a lengthy dispute with Bishop Fred Henry.

The Calgary bishop had called for an end to gambling as a school fundraising source, saying the practice was immoral. The district refused to comply, issuing a formal statement of refusal on May 31, 2006,  arguing that extracurricular programs would be cut as a result, including bands, choirs and sport teams. Almost two million dollars were raised annually through gambling by the board. The board instead accepted a Task Force recommendation that Calgary schools should assume authority over fundraising decisions.

Bishop Henry, who had first raised the issue seven years previously, issued a strongly-worded warning saying the use of gambling funds by Catholic schools was no longer an option and the issue was non-negotiable. He reminded the Board that under Canon Law, the law code of the Catholic Church, “no school may bear the title Catholic school without the consent of the competent ecclesiastical authority.”

“Morality is not determined by a straw-vote,” he wrote in a pastoral letter in June. “The School Board, the individual schools, and related parent councils and societies must get out of bingo and casino gambling fundraising activities. There is no question as to ‘what’ has to be done but there is room to negotiate ‘how’ and ‘when’.”

Following yesterdays’ announcement of capitulation by the board, Bishop Henry called for a rebuilding of the relationship between the diocese and the board, saying, “Now is the time to move on and solidify again the partnership that we had.”

Board chair Cathie Williams made the announcement Wednesday, saying, “The decision to phase out the proceeds of bingos and casinos has been a difficult one…now the objective is to get out of bingos and casinos as soon as possible,” the Calgary Sun reported yesterday.

Existing gambling arrangements will stand for this year, said Williams, with a final date for the end of gambling funds use to be announced in the spring. In the meantime a task force set up by the board will investigate alternative fundraising options and evaluate the individual needs of the schools.

Possible alternatives include the use of charge cards with a percentage of the purchase cost directed towards the district, or the use of real estate commissions.

“Where’s there’s faith, there’s hope and I’m very optimistic,” said Williams.

See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

Bishop Henry Asserts Authority Over Catholic Schools: Stop Immoral Fundraising Or Lose Catholic Label
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06062606.html

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