to Paul Ryan. It is only a step until the Church becomes very political.

I could no longer tolerate it when the Bishops were doing that "communion war" thing so selectively. Kerry (D) was targeted and harassed for being pro-choice why the equally pro-choice Ahnuld was feted by Catholic officials.

The RCC has a long history of negotiating with tyrants and dictators, and this now includes the radical right of the Republican Party.

Thinking Catholics need to voice their opinions on this, we have a tendency to "Just go along..." This is a cynical attempt to leverage the Catholic vote and they will continue to use the pulpit ESPECIALLY IN LATINO DISTRICTS because they are panicked about the GOP anti-immigrant rhetoric killing off their prospects with that very important voting block.

like Kerry and Pelosi with the quiet agreement Egan made with thrice-married, pro-choice Giuliani not to receive Communion. BTW Rudy broke that agreement by receiving the Eucharist from the Pope. Certain of the bishops have been getting more and more aggressive in their RW partisanship. I had not thought about the impact in the Hispanic Community. You make a very good point with that insight.

I just sent this to the U S Catholic Bishops organization.
http://usccb.org/about/contact-us.cfm
office of pro-life activities

Dear Bishops
In Vitro Fertilization... As we believe life begins at conception, and in the laboratory human eggs are fertilized by sperm, thus producing a living human several cell baby with all civil rights of the fully formed and born... Should the parents of the frozen embryo's be prosecuted for child abuse or murder, or should just the doctors who perform the procedure? What is the stand of the bishops conference on this matter?


I bet they dont answer me. lol
tib

Nothing's changed there. It's just a matter of tactics. They usually prefer to work with Catholic pro-life Democratic candidates like Bob Casey, where they know that guys like him will vote 'correctly' on both abortion and on social justice for the poor. However, they will tilt the pinball table to a Republicon, if they don't get an acceptable Democratic candidate.

I've done quite a bit of reading about this controversy for the past week, and I think the way they're selling this to the faithful is as a slippery-slope argument. If the government can tell Catholic hospitals, universities and charities that they must supply contraception to the lay people who work for them, what's to stop the government from forcing sterilizations and abortions to be done (or recommended by) those institutions?

An important middle ground in the abortion/sterilization/contraception battles has been the idea of the establishment of a conscience clause, something that says, "OK, you keep your beliefs and act on them, but don't restrict others in their rights. We'll let you live by your definition of what sex is for, and when human life begins." It's been a delicate balance, and the reich wing is sounding the alarm that makes Catholics a little nervous about what the government wants next.

that's just ignorant.

You are now on ignore.

what do you expect people to think? The Church is meddling in RW politics, as they have done for centuries.

until I reached the age of reason. --George Carlin (but since he's "smiling down on us*", it's public domain )


[font size = 1] or "screaming up at us"

The GOP has gone so far to the right and the religious faction has gained so much power, the bishops see this as the most opportune time to actually put people in office who will overturn Roe. This chance may not present itself again for decades and they will not let it slip away. Be ready for frequent recurrences of hierarchical intrusion into this year's races.

Out of touch men in dresses and out of touch men in suits.

The Catholic Church is out of lockstep with its followers and with the teachings of Jesus. Nowhere in the Gospel does Jesus mention contraception, abortion, gay marriage, or any other fake controversy taking over the debates.

What he does mention, though, is social justice, help for the poor, treating others as you'd like to be treated. I see no one in the Republican Party (as in the hierarchy of the GOP, not necessarily everyday Republicans) talking about this.

If only American Catholic bishops read the Church's teachings on social justice, fairness, etc. and responded like they are to this fake controversy with the same veracity when the GOP attempts to cut the safety net.