Archive for September, 2011

October is Respect Life Month

Jesus’ promise of “life to the full” is especially poignant today, when our culture and sometimes our government promote values inimical to the happiness and true good of individuals and society. We face increasing attempts to expunge God and religious discourse from public life. This promotes the dangerous proposition that human beings enjoy no special status by virtue of their God-given humanity. Some now even seek to eliminate religiously motivated [...]

Benedict XVI’s Prayer Intentions for October

Pope Benedict’s general prayer intention for August is: “That the terminally ill may be supported by their faith in God and the love of their brothers and sisters”.
His mission intention is: “That the celebration of World Mission Day may foster in the People of God a passion for evangelisation with the willingness to support the [...]

Fighting the Contraception Mandate

Catholics across the U.S. are mobilizing against a proposed Health and Human Services mandate that requires health insurance to cover contraception and provides a narrow exemption for religious groups. “Under the new rule our institutions would be free to act in accord with Catholic teaching on life and procreation only if they were to stop hiring and serving non-Catholics [...]

Action Alert: HHS Mandate Violates Conscience Rights

Tell HHS that health care mandates should NOT require persons or institutions to violate their moral or religious beliefs. Submission deadline is September 30th [...]

ACLU Rhode Island: “Civil Unions a Failure”

After only two months on the books, the ACLU of Rhode Island is declaring the state’s civil union law a failure, with a demand that same-sex “marriage” be reconsidered by the state assembly.
Since the law’s inception, only 14 homosexual couples have antied up to take advantage of all those state-sponsored benefits that proponents claim are [...]

Pope to Youth: Dare to be Saints

“Allow Christ to burn in you, even at the cost of sacrifice and renunciation. Do not be afraid that you might lose something and, so to speak, emerge empty-handed at the end. Have the courage to apply your talents and gifts for God’s kingdom and to give yourselves – like candle wax – so that the Lord can light up the darkness through you. Dare to be glowing saints [...]

Separation of Church and State

Too often, when presenting a political opinion influenced by the teachings of the Church, we are reminded of the Constitutionally mandated “separation of church and state.” Such cries were certainly prevalent during last year’s contentious referendum campaign. The problem is that those who would claim that the Constitution demands a separate of church and state [...]

Archbishop Dolan’s Letter to the President

Dear Mr. President:
I write with a growing sense of urgency about recent actions taken by your Administration that both escalate the threat to marriage and imperil the religious freedom of those who promote and defend marriage. This past spring the Justice Department announced that it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) [...]

Is DOMA Next?

Our politicians have already bought into the notion that we as human persons are to be defined solely by our sexual proclivities – which is to say, “gay” or “straight.” Once you buy into such a notion, it becomes very difficult to separate acts from persons, a distinction that is critical if we are to understand the Church’s teachings on homosexuality. This notion of “innate gayness” is so entrenched in the body politic, that I find it difficult to believe that the likes [...]

Pope Names New Bishop for NH

Pope Benedict XVI has named the Most Reverend Peter Anthony Libasci, 59, to be the new Bishop of the neighboring Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire.  Below is an official statement from Bishop Libasci to the faithful in New Hampshire.

When in 2007, I was told that I was chosen to be an Auxiliary Bishop for the [...]