Tag Archives: Catholic Church

Germany’s Catholic bishops have declared that they will no longer perform sacraments or burial services for those that opt-out of paying church taxes. Germans who officially declare themselves members of major denominations pay an additional 8% of their annual tax bill which is then granted to their church.  The Vatican has approved the new decree. Alarmed by a wave of …

Yesterday Pope Benedict launched a scathing attack on France’s plan to legalize same-sex marriage. The Pope thus raised three points: Firstly saying that marriage between man and woman is a “fact” of nature and “threatened” by other forms of marriage which are “proven”to be “defective”. Secondly, he warned of that the consequences of legalising gay marriage would harm society, perhaps …

“The effort to respect God’s plan for marriage is about promoting true love, not preventing it. As God’s creatures, we are so much more than our sexual desires, and we should never let them define who we are. God is love, and Jesus Christ is love incarnate. Now, Minnesota for Marriage needs your help to get the message out. We …

It never ends for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which yesterday was hit by another flurry of molestation lawsuits. Eight men and a woman publicly accused Roman Catholic priests and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on Tuesday of child sex abuse, saying they found courage to come forward after the conviction in June of a top church official in the wide-ranging pedophilia …

The New York Times: A historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School has identified a scrap of papyrus that she says was written in Coptic in the fourth century and contains a phrase never seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …’” The faded papyrus fragment is smaller than a business card, with eight …

The Polish Catholic Church has launched the world’s first magazine exclusively devoted to exorcisms. By popular demand. Seriously. “The rise in the number or exorcists from four to more than 120 over the course of 15 years in Poland is telling,” Father Aleksander Posacki, a professor of philosophy, theology and leading demonologist and exorcist told reporters in Warsaw at the …

Via press release: Join Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, Bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn, for a religious liberty forum at St. John’s University, Queens Campus. Speakers include: Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of the Susan B. Anthony List; Dr. Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University; Alan Sears, President, CEO and General Counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom; and Eric Teetsel, …

“We beseech you, almighty God to shed your grace on this noble experiment in ordered liberty, which began with the confident assertion of inalienable rights bestowed upon us by you: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thus do we praise you for the gift of life. Grant us the courage to defend it, life, without which no other rights …

“Our effort to support God’s unchanging plan for marriage is not a campaign against anyone, but rather a positive effort to promote the truth about marriage as a union between one man and one woman. But the reality is that marriage is not ours to redefine, just as another human life is not ours to take. God is both the …

Remember the Catholic priest who claimed that molested children were asking for it? His interview was yanked one day later by the National Catholic Register and replaced with an apology from the editor. Today the priest’s order issued its own apology with a claim that Father Groeschel is just suffering from a brain injury. Via Box Turtle Bulletin: The Community …

Election officials in Washington state have told the local Catholic Church that their plan to take up a collection against gay marriage during mass would be a violation of campaign finance laws. Lori Anderson, a spokeswoman for the state’s Public Disclosure Commission, told LGBTQ Nation on Wednesday that the request is illegal under the terms of Initiative 134, which Washington …

“People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to [commit child molestation] — a psychopath. But that’s not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer. “Well, it’s not so hard to see …

“This won’t be the end of this story, but not because of what happened. What counts is who it happened to. It just so happens that Cordileone holds orthodox Catholic positions on sexuality, the kind of views hated by both secularists and left-wing Catholics. [snip] Gay blog sites have also picked up on this theme. Why? San Francisco is a …

Archbishop Timothy Dolan has been invited and has accepted an invitation to offering the closing prayer at the Democratic convention. Catholic League blowhard Bill Donahue cheers: The fundamental difference between Cardinal Dolan and these critics comes down to one thing: he is a man of principle and they don’t know how to spell the word. He invited President Obama to …

“While visiting in San Diego this past weekend, I had dinner at the home of some friends along with a priest friend visiting from outside the country and my mother, who lives near San Diego State University. While driving my mother home, I passed through a DUI checkpoint the police had set up near the SDSU campus before I reached …

The Diocese of Yakima has ordered its parishes to make a special collection to be donated to the fight against same-sex marriage in Washington state. From Bishop Joseph Tyson: Labor Day Weekend marks the beginning of Preserve Marriage Month, the official start to our educational program to inform parishioners about Catholic teaching on marriage and Referendum 74 (R‐74), which would …

The brand new Archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, has been arrested for drunk driving. Cordileone is widely considered the “father of Proposition 8.” Police in San Diego say Bishop Salvatore Cordileone was arrested over the weekend for driving under the influence. Police say it happened in San Diego’s College District just before 12:30 Saturday morning. Bishop Cordileone is currently …

Archbishop Timothy Dolan will give the closing prayer at the Republican convention in Tampa, an interesting choice because the national coalition of Catholic bishops that he heads recently issued a blistering denouncement of the Ryan Plan to eviscerate services for the poor. Obviously, this is meant to sway Florida’s Hispanic vote. A spokesman for Dolan said convention protocol calls for …

NOM has launched a new website dedicated to coverage and reactions of Brian Brown’s dinner with last week. The debate itself has not yet been released. From the site: Dan Savage is one of the most influential activists bent on redefining marriage. Millions of Americans have seen his TV show on MTV or read his syndicated column. President Obama and …