Catholic Church

The US Catholic Conference of Bishops is telling priests to oppose health care reform in upcoming weekly masses with both leaflets and in sermons - by saying that it will provide for abortions.
This is a lie and a shame for all Catholics and people who view providing basic health care to the 47 million without health care in the US a moral obligation.

As President Obama stated in his address to Congress, the health care bill does not provide money for abortions.

Story here

Catholic pastors directed to distribute anti-health reform materials at mass
by John Tomasic

In a wide ranging appeal this week to those who would discriminate against gays and women, Pope Benedict scrambled to capitalize on recent divisions within the Episcopal Church.

A new canonical entity will allow groups of Anglicans “to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony,” Cardinal William Levada, the prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said at a news conference here.

One observer interpreted the comments this way: "What the Cardinal is saying is simple. The Pope will take anyone into the Catholic Church, they don't really even have to be Catholic, as long as they hate teh gays and love the patriarchy."

I am a long-time reader of BlueNC, and I just wanted to alert other NC progressives to a health insurance struggle in which I and other faculty members are engaged. To get an idea of what's been going on without my having to get too long-winded about it, please click on the link below:

http://www.gastongazette.com/news/college-36794-discriminated-eeoc.html

Let me add just a few points missing from the article. First, the College had provided contraceptive benefits in its employee health insurance for at least 26 years prior to the President yanking it. Second,the President and his minions have launched a smear campaign against us on rightwing Catholic blogs, particularly that of the Cardinal Newman Society. Any thoughts on the matter?

Dangerous Things are happening in America these days, we are told, and the once-innocent citizens of Iowa and Vermont have already been exposed to the hazard...and now it looks as though the contagion might spread to States across New England.

But lucky for us, our friends on the Right are here again to save to save us from ... (insert horror film music here) ... The Gay.

The Gay, it turns out, want the opportunity to marry.

Among other complaints, our friends on the Right feel this will destroy religious tradition, which will ultimately destroy first Christianity, then the Nation. Therefore, religious tradition must be protected at all costs.

Well as it turns out, there are some people from our past who know a few things about religious traditions and how they distort reality—and today, we’ll examine the lessons they have to teach us.

I've had plenty of differences with the Catholic Church over the years, but there's much to admire in their work as well. One example of the latter is this remarkable stand by eastern North Carolina's Catholic leader:

Foreigners who can't earn a living wage or ensure the security of their families have a right to immigrate to the United States, Bishop Michael Burbidge, said today.

The News and Observer has the brief story.

Burbidge said the proposal the Senate released last week was "a good beginning," but he urged Catholics to protest a provision that would remove family ties as a basis for immigration.