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All Catholic commentary from November 2008
what does it take to find an ACORN?
Bishop Roger Morin, who chairs the US bishops' committee that oversees the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), has announced an investigation into CCHD funding for the activist group ACORN. The bishops want to know where their money-- check that, where the money donated by...
playing around
"I am not in favor of gay marriage," Senator Barack Obama told an MTV audience on November 2. "I believe marriage is between a man and a woman." Good. So you'd support Proposition 8 in California, which defines marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman;...
is you is or is you ain't?
When Brisbane's Archbishop John Bathersby warned that he was nearly ready to take canonical action against the radical leaders of St. Mary's parish, the Canberra Times quoted Bishop Pat Power, a famously liberal Canberra auxiliary, expressing sympathy for the parishioners. The question here seems...
out with a whimper
The retired Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, has recently issued a book in which he is interviewed by a German journalist on matters of topical and religious concern. Sandro Magister, in reviewing the work, rehearses Martini's cagey dissent from Church teaching on...
What's wrong with Catholic voters? What's wrong with Catholics?
Yesterday, according to the exit polls, between 53 and 54% of American Catholic voters cast their ballots for Barack Obama, despite the Democratic candidate's enthusiastic support for unrestricted legal abortion. Nationwide, Protestant voters supported John McCain, by a solid 54- 45% margin....
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
I spent a very long time today working up a blog entry which purported to prove from government statistics that one adult woman out of every three has not had an abortion. I still have a deep suspicion of that figure, which has been used repeatedly by both pro-abortion and pro-life...
the gravitational power of the moon
California's attorney general Jerry Brown-- that proud product of Jesuit training who, during his earlier tenure in a higher office, was aptly dubbed "Governor Moonbeam"-- has announced that he will defend Proposition 8 against legal challenges. Proposition 8 defines marriage as a...
now all things are possible
The Holy Spirit will no doubt be pleased to learn that, thanks to the achievements of Barack Obama, He may now be able to arrange the election of an African...
staying 'on message'
Father Larry Snyder, the head of Catholic Charities USA, has sent his "sincere congratulations!" to Barack Obama on his electoral success, thereby reminding the president-elect that Catholic Charities, which receives most of its support from Uncle Sam, could always use a few more federal...
fair and balanced
Writing on religion for the Washington Post (which, by the way, is like writing on rock music for the Christian Science Monitor, but never mind that), Father Tom Reese surveys the election results, with the solemn air of a serious young man who would stroke his beard if he could manage to grow...
the nadir campaign
Which American bishop delivered the best single message on Catholic voters' responsibilities? Archbishop Chaput would be a contender, certainly. And Bishop Finn. And the Dallas duo. Actually it's a tough call. Thank God for that. Now which bishop delivered the single worst message? That's an...
Discouragement and Faith
An impressively large number of people around the country prayed hard for the election of pro-life candidates on November 4th. Not only were there vast numbers of people praying privately, but there were innumerable publicly-announced prayer gatherings, novenas, chaplets, rosaries, holy hours and...
to teach, to govern... or to duck?
Did you really think that the US bishops' conference was going to behave responsibly? What touching naivete! In the heat of the presidential campaign, with bishops issuing contradictory statements on the responsibilities of Catholic voters and politicians, the USCCB announced that the bishops...
...on again
Was it just a trial balloon we saw floated by Religion News Service last Friday? Or did the panjandrums of the USCCB really believe they could avoid a discussion of the US bishops' public stand on the politics of abortion? We might never know for sure. But apparently your Uncle Di was...
The Women Who Have Abortions, and the Love They Need
The November/December issue of Envoy Magazine includes an article by Jane Brennan, entitled “How Could She Do That?”, about what motivates a woman to have an abortion. Jane herself had two abortions, worked with Planned Parenthood, and helped her sister get an abortion before she...
black magic woman
The Call to Action conference in Milwaukee this past weekend was a joyous occasion, Father John Dear tells us. Obama was the president-elect and things looked good for the Catholic Left. Although to be fair, there was "a general agreement that, the election notwithstanding, our...
incoherence
If Joe Biden plans to visit Pensacola, Florida anytime soon, he knows that the bishop there questions his fitness to receive Communion. But in his own home diocese of Wilmington the vice-president-elect has no such problem; Bishop Malooly doesn't "want to alienate people." The...
Government activism: from the ward bosses to FDR... to Obama?
Fifty years ago today James Michael Curley died, and the curtain fell on one of the most fascinating lives in American political history. For all his faults Curley-- who was Mayor of Boston, US Representative, and Governor of Massachusetts during his long checkered career-- was the...
what we have here is a failure to communicate
At their annual meeting this week, the US bishops elected Bishop Gabino Zavala-- of "we're not a one-issue church" fame-- to chair their communications committee. He was chosen over Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, author of one of the strongest episcopal statements about the...
how quaint
In Boston, a town once famous for its Puritan ethos, an innovative dating service is customizing its appeal to married people considering adultery. "Life is short, have an affair," read the ads. The Boston Herald notes with a smirk that the agency is "unfazed by a quaint state...
personnel is policy
Julia Duin, who covers religion for the Washington Times, has been covering the meetings of the US bishops' conference for years, and has learned how to spot trends in the bishops' thinking: One thing reporters have learned to look for is who wins or loses yearly elections as chairman of a...
Advertising and the Politics of Hysteria
The November 17th issue of Newsweek—the one with the Peanuts-like picture of President-Elect Obama smiling from the cover, giving the illusion of a big head on a tiny body—is devoted to a description and analysis of the campaigns of both candidates. It is an interesting wrap-up, though...
"very selective"
Let's not be judgmental. They were young and needed the money. It's not as if they were Benedictines, after all. Boston College has cut a licensing deal with Victoria's Secret to market its logo on various delicate hand-washables. From the Boston Herald: Boston...
Has scandal become impossible?
Writing on his blog as he traveled home from the US bishops' conference, Bishop Robert Lynch reported that he and most other American bishops do not think it is proper to deny the Eucharist to a pro-abortion politician (although the bishop, tellingly, uses the politicians' own preferred term,...
Modern Knowledge
In these modern times, knowing things is paradoxically very difficult. Whether in the university, on the street or within families, we find ourselves divided between absolutists and relativists, conservatives and liberals, believers and atheists, creationists and evolutionists, poets and...
about face
When Father Scott Newman instructed his parishioners that they should make a good Confession before receiving Communion if they had voted for a pro-abortion candidate, he received both kudos and criticism. The most pointed criticism came from the administrator of the diocese, Msgr. Martin...
oh here's a surprise
The Washington Post has discovered a member of the Kennedy family who favors legal abortion, and is willing to talk about it. In other news, Warren Buffett has revealed that he is active in the stock...
unprofessional
So here's the next move in the culture wars, an editorial cloud no bigger than a man's suspiciously well-groomed hand. The Los Angeles Times has an editorial deploring the Holy See's newly-issued Guidelines for the Use of Psychology in the Admission and Formation of Candidates for the...
Religious illiteracy
A tabernacle has been stolen from a church in Hialeah, Florida. That story is frightening, particularly when one considers the possible motives of those responsible for the theft. Archbishop John Favalora is right to ask the faithful to pray for the return of the Blessed Sacrament, and we...
No Communion for Obama Supporters?
Fr. Jay Scott Newman, pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Greenville, SC, told his parishioners in the parish bulletin for November 9th that they must not present themselves for communion if they voted for Barack Obama, until they repent of their sin. After making a direct reference to...
The shameful betrayal of a courageous pastor
St. Mary's church in Greenville, South Carolina, is a model Catholic parish, with an outstanding young pastor. The liturgy is beautiful and reverent; the religious instruction is meticulous and orthodox; the lay people are numerous and active. There is a busy school (run by the Nashville...
you can't be any poorer than dead
Catholic shills for the Democratic Party enjoyed some success this year in publicizing the claim that abortions declined in the Clinton years because increased disbursements to social services allowed pregnant women to keep their babies instead of aborting them, whence we were to believe that the...
the march of history
A) Not so very long ago, some American states refused to recognize a marriage if the spouses were of different racial backgrounds. Today we all deplore that benighted attitude, and recognize the loving unions of racially mixed couples. B) Not so very long ago, many American states refused to...
Stem-cell breakthroughs we all can welcome
Another medical miracle has taken place, thanks to stem-cell research. Doctors in Spain report the successful transplant of a tailor-made trachea. The organ came from a donor, but was treated with stem cells taken from the woman who received it. Thanks to that treatment, the surgeon...
if a hate crime takes place in a forest, and nobody hears it,...
In San Francisco's Castro district, a handful of homosexual activists were peacefully chanting slogans when they were set upon by a mob of angry fundamentalist Christians, who surrounded and hounded them, shouting obscenities and threatening to kill them. One woman was thrown to the ground and...
Some are more equal than others
The California supreme court, which unilaterally amended the state's constitution by inventing a "right" to same-sex marriage, has now agreed to decide whether the people of California can amend the constitution, following the legally prescribed procedure, to undo the court's...
hush, hush
Milwaukee's former archbishop Rembert Weakland raised eyebrows in 2002 when it was revealed the archdiocese paid off his lover Paul Marcoux in order to buy his silence. A deposition taken last June, and now released, shows that Weakland was convinced Marcoux was blackmailing him if he...
Now and Tomorrow: The Universal Destination of Goods
Most Americans are fairly affluent. Most Catholics—at least those who take their Faith seriously—worry about this from time to time. If properly directed, such worry is very healthy. We weren’t created to feather our own nests, and if we expend too much of our time and resources on feathering, it...
How American bishops could respond to FOCA
President-elect Obama has given his unequivocal support to the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), and with strong Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, this bill-- easily the most extreme pro-abortion proposal ever considered in Washington-- could soon be barreling down the...
Revelation Sheds Light on Natural Law
In a brilliant article in the November issue of First Things entitled “Natural Law Revealed”, J. Budziszewski explains why Revelation makes it so much easier for people to understand the natural law. One might think that since the natural law is, well, natural, we would not need any...
What the media don't notice
The American Papist blog, which is always worth checking, notes the Pew Forum report on the under-reporting of religious affairs during the presidential campaign. "No kidding," The Papist drily observes. Then, noticing how little attention was paid (outside the Catholic...
top of the season
Re-heated for Thanksgiving, some pro patria perspective from the "misfit unassimilated foreigner" Mark Steyn: Americans aren't novelty junkies on the important things. "The New World" is one of the oldest settled constitutional democracies on earth, to a degree "the...
If the polar icecap melts, will the common ground survive?
Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists. Leading representatives of all the world's major faiths have gathered for a conference to address a topic they all consider urgent-- a topic which, they all agree, religious leaders must address. What is that topic? - Terrorism...
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