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Benedictions: The Pope in America

The evil geniuses at Slate have come up with a series of cellphone rings that will leave those around you with no doubt about your political views. They include Hillary’s laugh (I’d use other descriptors), John McCain calling a young questioner a “little jerk,” and of course Jeremiah Wright’s ringing “God damn America!” There is…

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City has said that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius–a Democrat, Catholic, and abortion rights supporter whose name has been mentioned as a possible Obama running mate–should stop receiving communion. The action, outlined in Naumann’s May 9 column in The Leaven, the archdiocesan weekly, was triggered by Sebelius’ veto of a bill…

Former GOP presidential candidate and exemplar of everything Mormon, Mitt Romney, last night received the 12th Annual Canterbury medal from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a law firm that (admirably) takes on cases of religious freedom on behalf of all faiths. (The medal is for “Courage in the Defense of Religious Liberty.”) In his…

Bishop William Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Center on Long Island released a pastoral letter today [PDF file] ending the fairly common practice of communion services in the absence of a priest–an “extraordinary” form that came into being because of the priest shortage. According to this Newsday story the pastoral letter seems to have…

While John McCain is arguing that Barack Obama is a friend of Hamas (I guess Hamas has signed on to McCain’s political team to give him advice?), and while Hillary continues to play the race card to bolster her campaign, the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue is invoking Godwin’s Rule of Nazi Analogies by putting a…

A week after the Catholic League’s resident megaphone–a.k.a. Bill Donohue–blasted Obama’s blue-ribbon Catholic advisory panel as a bunch of “dissidents” whose presence offends “practicing Catholics” (not to mention making them out to be Catholic versions of Jeremiah Wright) the panel has responded with a more measured (that’s not hard) but pointed rejoinder. The statement essentially…

Doug Kmiec, the widely-respected conservative legal scholar and pro-life Catholic, made waves back in March when he wrote a piece in Slate endorsing Obama. Now he is back to reaffirm his endorsement and again explain his position. In short, he says: Not because Senator Obama’s position on abortion is mine; it is not. Not because…

Want to know why Obama hasn’t put away the nomination already? One word: Catholics. (Or, for those of you with more ultramontanist sensibilities, two words: Roman Catholics.) We’ve expended lots of bytes debating it here, and it will surely figure in tomorrow’s contests in North Carolina and most especially Indiana. For a primer on the…

Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights–basically a Catholic version of the Anti-Defamation League, or a wannabe, some would say–is often over the top in denunciations of anti-Catholicism, real or perceived, and of other Cathoilics who Donohue sees as not toeing the proper Catholic line. But even Bill Donohue may have…

I am somewhat reluctant to respond to Deal Hudson’s rejoinder if only because he has such a great walkaway: “Catholics in the GOP may be step children, but not orphans.” I wish I’d thought of it. But I can find plenty of other drawbacks in his argument that will help me overcome any hesitation… First…
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