The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:
Leaders of the Coptic Orthodox Church cast ballots on October 29 to choose a new leader, replacing Pope Shenouda III, who died in March after leading the Egyptian church for nearly 40 years.
Over 1,000 electors participated in the day’s voting, which was held in the cathedral of St. Mark in Cairo. The election had been twice re-scheduled because of unrest in Egypt.
The following excerpts are from LifeNews.com:
(It should be noted that catholics united is a CINO orgnaization. That is, Catholic In Name Only.)
When the Catholic Bishops called for a nationwide protest against the HHS mandate they fundamentally changed the topography of Catholic outreach in 2012. The battle over the Catholic vote was moved closer to the parish, not just its parking lots, but the pulpit itself.
In the last three presidential elections, bishops, priests and deacons were accused of partisanship when they spoke on opposition to abortion or the defense of true marriage anmd opposition to the counterfeit notion of “same-sex marriage”. Archbishop Chaput, for example, while in Denver had to pay $45,000 to defend himself against an accusation made to the IRS by a ‘Catholic’ group supporting abortion.
With their highly visible stand for religious liberty, against the HHS mandate, the US Catholic Bishops made it much easier for clergy and concerned lay Catholics to state their opposition. For the Catholics supporting Obama, such speech is just another example of what they call partisanship. When a Catholic priest or deacon preaches on religious liberty, “it is code for ‘Vote Republican,’” claims Chris Pumpelly, communications director for Catholics United, “Everybody knows what it means.”
Sadly, the real “code language” comes from those partisans like Catholics United who dance the “two step” of these new censors who actually seek to silence the Church from speaking to the great moral issues of our age. The dance is very deceptive. It begins by equating all moral issues with “political” issues. Then, it promotes a misguided and legally errant view of the separation of church and state which tries to lock us behind closed Church doors.
Now, they want to censor our clergy? This is nothing less than an attempt to stop the Church from speaking to the great moral issues of our age in the public square. That is because they do not agree with what we have to say. In truth, they now want to censor our clergy even in their our own pulpits. Perhaps the saddest aspect of all of this dance of deception is that some of the very people dancing bear the name “catholic” in their group affiliation.
The following excerpts are from The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) Blog:
Anna Maria College, a Catholic college in Massachusetts, finally heard pro-abortion rights Victoria Reggie Kennedy speak, according to news reports.
As reported by The Cardinal Newman Society in March, Anna Maria College in Paxton, Mass., honored the wishes of Worcester Bishop Robert McManus and disinvited the widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy as commencement speaker because of concerns about conflicts with Catholic moral teaching. Then the College asked Bishop McManus not to attend the commencement ceremony, claiming he would be a “distraction.”
And now the College re-invited Kennedy to speak on campus, this time as part of its fall symposium on “Faith and the Public Square: Balancing Religious Beliefs with the Common Good.”
Kennedy reportedly received a standing ovation from the crowd when she stood to speak.
(Reuters) - Officials at the White House and State Department were advised two hours after attackers assaulted the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 that an Islamic militant group had claimed credit for the attack, official emails show.
The emails, obtained by Reuters from government sources not connected with U.S. spy agencies or the State Department and who requested anonymity, specifically mention that the Libyan group called Ansar al-Sharia had asserted responsibility for the attacks.
The brief emails also show how U.S. diplomats described the attack, even as it was still under way, to Washington.
The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:
The Chaldean Catholic bishop of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, told an audience at Parliament in London that the city is in “chaos.”
Christians “have fled their homes because of the threat of bombs, they have lost their livelihoods; schools, hospitals and other public services do not function,” said Bishop Antoine Audo, a Jesuit who has led his eparchy (Eastern-rite diocese) of 35,000 Chaldean Catholics since 1992.
A conservative reporter caught up with Cecile Richards, the president of the Planned Parenthood, and asked her about her $400,000 annual salary and the federal funding the nation’s biggest abortion business receives from the federal government.
The Daily Caller asked Richards to respond to those who say it’s not fair that Richards gets such a big salary while her non-profit group accepts more than $360 million annually in federal taxpayer funds.
The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:
Cardinal Peter Turkson has apologized for screening a video about the growth of Islam in Europe for participants at the Synod of Bishops.
The YouTube video, “Muslim Demographics,” which called attention to the rise in Europe’s Muslim population, was criticized by some Synod fathers as an attack on Islam.
The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News :
In an article that appeared in L’Osservatore Romano on the anniversary of the Nazis’ 1943 deportation of the Jews of Rome, Roberto Piperno recalls taking refuge as a five-year-old boy at the monastery of the Bethlehem Sisters.
The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:
L’Espresso surveys the growing list of bishops who have been removed from office, sometimes against their will, under #401-2 of the Code of Canon Law.
The Vatican has shown an increasing willingness to remove bishops who are found guilty of immoral behavior or severe mismanagement of their dioceses. ”
The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:
A Colombian bishop who was sued for slander by one of his own priests and now faces possible prosecutor by civil authorities has submitted his resignation.
Bishop Carlos Prada Sanmiguel of Duitama-Sogamoso, Colombia, stepped down at the age of 72—more than 2 years short of the usual retirement age. A terse Vatican announcement said that Pope Benedict XVI had accepted the bishop’s resignation in accordance with #401-2 of the Code of Canon Law. That canon stipulates that the Pope may accept the resignation of a bishop who becomes unfit for office because of illness “or other grave reason.”
The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:
The Vatican will soon announce a replacement for Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh, the Primate of All Ireland, the Irish Independent reports.
Cardinal Brady has been under pressure to resign because of his mishandling of the sex-abuse scandal. To date the cardinal has said that he will not step down. But the Independent reports that the Vatican will soon appoint a coadjutor archbishop, who will be prepared to take over as Archbishop of Armagh (and thus successor to St. Patrick), when Cardinal Brady resigns.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius has been campaigning so enthusiastically for President Obama that she — whoops! — broke a federal law that restricts political activities by executive-branch officials. Federal employees are usually fired for such transgressions, but no one expects that to happen to Sebelius. Heck, she got right back in the saddle.
U.S. Mission In Libya In Flames (REUTERS/Esam Al-Fetori)
One would have to be a complete and total moron to believe that the attack on the U.S. mission in Libya was caused by a video. Especially in light of those attacks having occurred on the anniversary of 9/11.
The administration of President Obama must take total responsibility for the attack and the resultant deaths of 4 Americans, including that of U.S. Ambassador Stevens. Using the death of Osama bin Laden as campaign fodder, was totally irresponsible, and the repeated bragging about his death by Obama and Vice President Joe Biden was bound to inflame terrorist organizations, and is more likely to have brought on the attacks than any video did.
According to a report on Fox News, "the U.S. mission in Libya recorded 230 "security incidents" over a one-year period between 2011 and 2012, according to a State Department document that provides the most expansive view yet of the concerns on the ground in the run-up to the deadly Sept. 11 consulate attack."
If there was that large a number of attacks on the U.S. mission in Libya, then denial of additional security was at the height of arrogance and stupidity of the State Department and this administration. How can we rely on this administration to adequately protect and defend the United States, Americans, and American interests around the world?
Obviously we can't. So the only answer is that Mr. Obama must go.
In today's hearing from the Oversight Committee, Eric Nordstrom, former Regional Security Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Libya said this at the end of his testimony, in response to how frustrated he was at being denied security in Libya: “For me, the Taliban is on the inside of the building.” (See video below.)
The Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta has instructed its staff, schools and affiliated groups to stop funding the Komen for the Cure breast cancer charity because it sends funds to the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
In a memo, the archdiocese acknowledged the beneficial work of Komen to raise awareness about breast cancer, but it criticized grants given by some affiliates to Planned Parenthood because of that organization’s role as the nation’s biggest abortion company. The memo called any support for Planned Parenthood “an occasion for scandal.”
A record number of pastors this past Sunday defied IRS rules and regulations and preached politics from their pulpits as a way to protest the restrictive guidelines placed on churches.
A total of 1,586 pastors participated in Pulpit Freedom Sunday in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. This is the fifth annual event sponsored by Alliance Defending Freedom, a pro-life legal group.
The registered pastors committed to preach sermons that present biblical perspectives on the positions of electoral candidates. In so doing, they exercised their constitutionally protected freedom to engage in religious expression from the pulpit despite an Internal Revenue Service rule known as the Johnson Amendment that activist groups often use to silence churches by threatening their tax-exempt status.
“Pastors should decide what they preach from the pulpit, not the IRS,” said Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley. “It’s outrageous for pastors and churches to be threatened or punished by the government for applying biblical teachings to all areas of life, including candidates and elections. The question is, ‘Who should decide the content of sermons: pastors or the IRS?’”
The following excerpts are from National Catholic Register (ncregister.com):
SAN FRANCISCO — Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone was installed Oct. 4 as the ninth archbishop of San Francisco during a solemn and subdued ceremony that drew more than 40 episcopal leaders and 250 local clergy.
Outside the cathedral, a small group of protesters known as the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” — men dressed as women religious — marked the occasion with media interviews attacking the new archbishop’s strong public opposition to same-sex “marriage,” while a much larger group of about 100 well-wishers, organized by the Neocatechumenal Way, celebrated his arrival with signs applauding his stand.
But while news reports highlighted the controversy stirred up by the Vatican’s appointment of a prominent leader of the 2008 Proposition 8 effort to bar a redefinition of marriage under state law, the city’s archbishop focused on the task of rebuilding the faith in a low-key homily that set aside hot-button issues.
