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Compiled by Steve Jalsevac
The Pope’s Warning – Micheal Voris – RealCatholicTV
A shocking alarm offered by the Pope
(See Pope’s Christmas warning: ‘the future of the world is at stake’ – LSN Story related to above)
Fr. John Harvey Dead
The founder and director of Courage, a ministry to homosexuals to help them live chaste lives died yesterday.
Obama, in shadow of worrisome polls, embraces `Christian’ label – Religion News
When President Obama lit the National Christmas Tree behind the White House last year, he spoke of a “child born far from home” and said “while this story may be a Christian one, its lesson is universal.” This year, Obama referenced that same “child born far from home,” but added a more personal twist: “It’s a story that’s dear to Michelle and me as Christians.”
Kennedy Catholicism and Palin – American Spectator
No one else with comparable name recognition demolishes progressive dogma just by getting up in the morning. When Palin contends that “morality cannot be sustained without the support of religious beliefs,” Townsend misreads this acknowledgement of our collective debt to Judeo-Christian intellectual and religious capital as “a wholesale attack on countless Americans.” Has she never heard John Adams’ famous quip that “Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people; it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other”?
Gallup: Belief That Religion Is Increasing Its Influence on American Life Hit 50-Year Peak After 9/11; Belief It’s Losing Its Influence Hit 50-Year Peak After Inauguration of Obama
Military watchdog: Catholic Church silent at wrong time – onenewsnow.com
An advocate for America’s fighting men and women says she’s disappointed the Catholic Church didn’t take a stronger stance against the recent lame-duck Congress’s reckless decision to repeal the law that banned homosexuals from military service. Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, says it appeared that Wuerl was not prepared for the question.
Where is the USCCB on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”? – Examiner
…the USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) has been conspicuously silent on condemning the Obama Administration and the overwhelmingly Democrat support in Congresss for the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” regulation that prohibited openly homosexual individuals from serving in the Armed Forces.
One of the few, if not only, Catholic prelate to speak out against the repeal has been the leader of the Archdiocese of the Military Services, Archbishop Timothy Broglio. The same individual who refuses to withhold Holy Communion from the notoriously pro-homosexual and pro-abortion lawmaker Nancy Pelosi, the Archbishop of Washington, DC, Donald Cardinal Wuerl, recently stated that “there isn’t a specific Catholic Church position” on the issue of homosexuals serving in the military.
However, in 1992, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (then headed by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the current Pope Benedict XVI) taught; “there are areas in which it is not unjust discrimination to take sexual orientation into account, for example, in the placement of children for adoption or foster care, in employment of teachers or athletic coaches, and in military recruitment.”
Oregon: Catholic agency withdraws from United Way over Planned Parenthood
The English bishops’ domestic abuse website must remove links to anti-life and anti-family groups
Feed your Flock” Superbowl Ad – AmCatholic
Apparently the current front-running commercial is titled “Feed Your Flock,” and it exploits and mocks the practice of receiving Holy Communion. The video is borderline (if not completely) blasphemous and Catholic Christians everywhere should write to Pepsi to prevent this ad from getting on to the air.
Vatican II peritus, potential Nobel Peace Prize winner, admits abuse – Catholic Culture
Father François Houtart, an 85-year-old Belgian activist priest who served as a peritus at the Second Vatican Council, has admitted twice abusing his cousin in 1970. His cousin was then an eight-year-old boy.
Houtart received the UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Prize in 2009 for his life-long commitment to world peace, intercultural dialogue, human rights and the promotion of tolerance, and in recognition of his outstanding efforts to advance the cause of social justice in the world.
SUPPRESSION OF RELIGION
Popes, Atheists and Freedom – Wall Street Journal
Secularists should recognize that the pope’s fight is their fight. In these times, the pope’s agenda is the civilized world’s agenda. The pope’s agenda is individual freedom. The reality of the modern Church’s interests aligned with the world’s best interests emerges forcefully in the recently published second volume of George Weigel’s magisterial biography of John Paul II, “The End and the Beginning.”
Days after Benedict XVI chastised China before thousands in St. Peter’s Square last week, a Chinese newspaper run by the People’s Daily replied to his defense of Christians there: “The Vatican has to face the fact that all religious beliefs are free in China, as long as they do not run counter to the country’s laws.”
“Face the facts” sums up nicely the worldview and foreign policies of China, Iran and Russia. Get over it. John Paul said no. Benedict again says no. Benedict’s fight for freedom and that of recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo are the same.
The ACLU’s Unholy War on Catholic Hospitals by Michelle Malkin
On Wednesday, the ACLU sent a letter to federal health officials urging the government to force Catholic hospitals in the U.S. to perform abortions in violation of their core moral commitment to protecting the lives of the unborn. They’re counting on sympathetic Obama rationing czar Donald Berwick — a recess appointee whose radical views on wealth and health redistribution were never vetted by Congress — to dictate which religious principles hospital operators can and cannot follow.
Obama Threat to Catholic Colleges
New federal regulations issued by the Obama administration a few weeks ago threaten not only recruitment for Catholic colleges, but more importantly, their very identity. The new regulations increase oversight for colleges through either state chartering or licensing, which are necessary for colleges to obtain federal aid. While states have always had to approve colleges that receive aid, the new law mandates that states approve colleges by name. States will also have greater power to act on complaints pertaining to colleges.
Religion in retreat – Father Raymond J. De Souza, National Post
It’s never too early to close the minds of the young. That’s the thinking of the provincial government here, which recently announced a ban on religion in subsidized daycare centres. The Quebec government is out to stamp out religious expressions—prayers, bible stories, manger scenes and even explanations for religious dietary practices. It’s secular fundamentalism that the Quebec government practises, touched by a totalitarian impulse that brooks no dissent, even from little children who might need help in colouring their religious pictures.
Hundreds join push for single school system – Calgary Herald
Nearly a month after a former education minister launched a petition to eliminate Alberta’s separate school system, 646 people have signed on to his call for a referendum into government-funded Catholic schools.
CATHOLIC HOSPITALS VS. THE BISHOPS
Catholic Hospitals vs. the Bishops – Wall Street Journal
Administrators shop for theologians to support practices that conflict with church teachings. …the Phoenix case breaks new ground. In explaining his decision, Rev. Thomas Olmsted, bishop of the Phoenix Diocese, was the first to explicitly point to the role played by Catholic theologians in providing theological cover for “a litany of practices in direct conflict with Catholic teachings.”
This case points to the real problem in the church. For too long, the authority of bishops has been limited to issuing mere opinions. This is especially true at Catholic colleges and universities, where bishops have little affect on the culture and curriculum.
Many theologians, like Prof. Nicholas Healy of St. John’s University in New York, write that theologians comprise “an alternative magisterium” to the teaching authority of the bishops. And in cases like the one at St. Joseph’s, the alternative magisterium often trumps the true Magisterium of the church. Catholic colleges and hospital administrators now “shop” for theologians who will support their decisions.
Bishop Olmsted has refused to allow this to continue. In his letter responding to Mr. Dean, the bishop wrote: “You have only provided opinions of ethicists that agree with your own opinion and disagree with mine.”
Bishop Fires Back at Catholic Critics in Hospital Debate – Fox Phoenix
Archbishop Niederauer to confer with leadership of Catholic Healthcare West
San Francisco Archbiship George Niederauer “intends to initiate a dialogue” with the leadership of Catholic Healthcare West regarding questions raised by Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted over CHW affiliate St. Joseph’s Hospital’s compliance with the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services used by the U.S. bishops to govern moral choices in Catholic health care
WAR AGAINST CHRISTMAS
Obama’s “Christian Label” and the War against Nativity Scenes – Human Events
‘Tis the season to be litigious. In Pittsburgh, Staten Island, Brookville, Ind., and Jackson, Miss., Nativity scenes have been challenged, sometimes removed, then (in Pittsburgh) eventually replaced.
Teachers Can’t Say ‘Merry Christmas’
Insanity. A Nevada public school is prohibiting teachers from saying “Merry Christmas” for fear of an ACLU lawsuit.
Knights Were Not Silent – National Catholic Register
When the Knights of Columbus couldn’t display a manger scene on town property, they took their case to the Supreme Court. The result affected crèche displays nationwide.
“Christmas is Evil”: Moslem Poster Campaign in UK – Examiner
Adherents of the alleged ‘Religion of Peace’ have launched a hate Christmas campaign throughout London and is expected to crop up through the British Isles.