Bush Lauds Catholic Role in US Freedom (politically-active Prayer Bkfst)

[DeepModem Mom]

Washington Post:
Bush Lauds Catholics' Role in U.S. Freedom
1,600 Gather for Prayer Breakfast

By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 21, 2005; Page A06


President Bush praised Pope Benedict XVI and "the Catholic contribution to American freedom" yesterday at a Catholic prayer breakfast, an event emblematic of the rising clout of religious groups in the nation's capital.

Modeled on the Protestant-led congressional prayer breakfast that has been held each February for more than half a century, the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast is in its second year. It attracted 1,600 people, 14 members of Congress and the president to a packed hotel ballroom where waiters in black tie served scrambled eggs to activists who wore sweat shirts that read "You can't be Catholic and pro-abortion."

The Catholic breakfast is the latest addition to an increasingly crowded calendar of Washington events that mix religion and politics, including the evangelical Protestant National Day of Prayer, the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast, the Reform Jewish Consultation on Conscience, the Family Research Council's annual Washington Briefing, and the Roman Catholic Red Mass at St. Matthew's Cathedral....

***

Organizing the Catholic breakfast, with a budget of more than $100,000, is a full-time job for Joseph Cella, 35, a veteran political campaigner from Pleasant Lake, Mich. He previously was executive director of the Ave Maria List, a Catholic political action committee that worked to defeat then-Senate minority leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) last year....

***

The keynote speaker was Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, who said during the presidential campaign that voting for a candidate who supports abortion rights would be a sin that must be confessed before receiving Holy Communion....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/20/AR2005052001367.html

[atreides1]

1. Not to start a war

But can any of our resident Catholics tell me exactly how the Church
contributed to American freedom?

I'm not famililar with the particulars of this contribution.

Thank you

[Demeter]

14. Catholicism isn't Into Freedom!

Wonder what's in the water or as Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tom Rice wrote:

"What's that in the bread? It's gone to my head, 'til this morning is this evening, life is fine."

May BushCo's evening come before that of the rest of the world.

[LightningFlash]

2. What kind of a move is this?

The Catholic Prayer Breakfast syndicate? What is Bush scheming when this prayer breakfast is clearly at odds with the national prayer breakfast world of Arlington,Virgina...

[leftchick]

3. Catholics for Faithful Citizenship's Response...

This is my email newsletter so I believe I can post the whole thing...

http://catholicsforfaithfulcitizenship.org/

By Honoring Bush, the “National Catholic Prayer Breakfast” Dishonors the Culture of Life

The National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, which takes place tomorrow in Washington, DC, will feature a live address from President George W. Bush. The Breakfast’s mission statement claims that it is committed to “providing for our brothers and sisters who are the most vulnerable in society.” Yet, the organizers of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast have chosen to invite and honor President Bush, whose policies fail to aid the least among us.

As Catholics for Faithful Citizenship, we are faithful to the Church’s teachings and the principles laid out by the U.S. Catholic bishops in their 2004 guide for Catholic political engagement, Faithful Citizenship. In this spirit, we question the decision to feature President Bush at this event.

While President Bush often claims to promote the “culture of life” – a deeply Catholic idea and ideal, his policies in fact work against the culture of life and in many cases contradict the core principles of Catholic social teaching.

In a society that truly promotes the culture of life, abortions will cease. Yet abortions in this country have increased under President Bush’s watch. The abortion rate fell by one-quarter between 1990 and 1995 and fell another 11% between 1994 and 2000, from about 24 to 21 abortions for every 1,000 women of childbearing age. Unfortunately, under this Administration’s policies, the rate of abortion is on the rise in a majority of states that have released data on these statistics.

Pope John Paul II recognized that President Bush’s invasion of Iraq was unjustifiable and urged him to hew to the path of peace. President Bush ignored the Pope’s plea, and now we see over 1600 dead American soldiers, tens of thousands of dead civilians, and daily violence raging across Iraq.

Moreover, President Bush’s longstanding and unequivocal support for the death penalty conflicts directly with Catholic moral teaching and with the U.S. Bishops’ recently-launched campaign to end the death penalty in this country.

When it comes to protecting the poor and those who are most vulnerable, the Bush administration has a similarly bleak record. The Bush administration’s recent funding cuts for global food aid have had a drastic effect on Catholic Relief Services, one of the world’s largest relief organizations for those impoverished and hungry around the world. President Bush’s fiscal decisions have aided the wealthy and pushed middle class families and the most vulnerable further into poverty. His tax cuts have widened the gap between the rich and poor in America.

We therefore question the decision of the organizers of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast to invite President Bush. It may be too late for the organizers to reconsider their invitation, but it is not too late for them to use the opportunity to teach President Bush what Catholics really mean when they call for a “culture of life.” It is a lesson the President needs.

[teryang]

7. Great post, thanks!

Abortion numbers very interesting.

[Az_lefty]

8. Good response...

I saw this televised on EWTN and bush made a total fool of himself. He didn't fit in at all, referring the us as the Catholic Religion as though we're not real Christians like the fundies.

[DeepModem Mom]

11. Thanks for adding this, leftchick -- excellent! NT

[LibDemAlways]

4. "You can't be Catholic and pro-abortion"

What a crock. Who the hell is "pro-abortion"? The issue has always been allowing women the freedom to make their own decision about an intensely personal matter.

Here are some sweat shirt sayings that would have made sense if these people were truly living their faith:

You can't be Catholic and support the murder of innocent Iraqis.

You can't be Catholic and support cuts in social programs.

You can't be Catholic and turn your back on the poor.

You can't be Catholic and support the BFEE.

[CatholicEdHead]

5. Yes it is

this "Prayer Breakfast" as the article says is modeled after Protstant ones (which usually means "born-again"s). Last year Santorum was the keynote speaker.

The "pro-abortion" came from the prostant wing nut side to spin the debate their way. It makes people think "pro-choice" is something it really is not.

[leftchick]

6. My bumper sticker....

[Algorem]

9. Will they get together and watch the new Ted Danson movie tonight on

Showtime?

Clergy-abuse victims' pain made plain

David Wiegand, Chronicle Staff Writer

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/21/DDGI6CR9GC1.DTL

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Our Fathers: Original drama based on fact, 8 p.m. Saturday, Showtime

Showtime's "Our Fathers" may be a tale clipped -- as opposed to ripped -- from the headlines, but it's been clipped very well, for the most part.

Based on the book "Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal," by David France, the film doesn't shed any new light on the scandal that made headlines across the country and resulted in Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law getting kicked upstairs by the Vatican. However, it does do a heart-wrenchingly credible job of conveying the enduring pain of abuse victims whose adult lives were haunted by what happened to them at the hands of men they were taught to trust.

Competently directed by Dan Curtis from a screenplay by Thomas Michael Donnelly, the film focuses at first on the career of Father John Geoghan, whose history of abusing young boys stretched back to 1965. In an early scene, we see the young Geoghan visiting a family in Hingham, Mass., and offering, as he leaves, to "bless the boys," which only pleases their trusting parents.

He goes to the room of young Angelo DeFranco, shown trembling in terror as the priest approaches his bed...

Tavis Smiley's Ted Danson interview about it from Thursday:

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200505/20050519_transcript.html

...Tavis: Yeah. Now, you play a lawyer in this particular movie. Tell me about the role you play.

Danson: His name is Mitchell Garabedian, and he was a Boston lawyer who, I think, was described by someone incorrectly as kind of, you know, an ambulance chaser, which he wasn't. But he was doing these kinds of cases, and he was the one who--the tragedy is that the reason why this went on, one of the reasons why this was allowed to go on and on and on is 'cause it was secret. When a family would sue the church, you know, and say, "This happened," and it did, then the insurance policy the church carried would pay an automatic $20,000. The court put a gag order on everything that took place so that if anyone spoke about this at all, they would lose the money immediately. They would have to pay it all back and be in a lot of trouble. There's that kind of secrecy. There's the secrecy of the fact that this is really like a parent abusing a child, because the priests are the next thing to God, you know, to Jesus. So it's unheard of. This couldn't possibly be taking place. The family would be torn apart because this couldn't be happening. Not the priests. The child in all child abuse cases, almost always, they blame themselves. It's something about them made this happen, so the shame is so deep that the whole situation is about secrecy. So, for these people to come forward is so brave, so courageous.


Tavis: How did the illness and the recent passing of the pope affect the production? 'Cause I thought I heard somewhere that this project might have come out sooner had it not been for the pope's--


Danson: I'm not sure that we--I know that they postponed--in Boston, they postponed the premiere, the showing of the film. I know they did do that. But I don't know if they postponed the actual date. I'm not sure, to be honest. I don't know about that. In a way, I'm glad they did, because Cardinal Law, who is, kind of, the center of the controversy in Boston--first off, let me just take a little parenthesis here. It's not just Boston. It's, you know, it's happening in Los Angeles, happening in every city in this, you know, this country....

[sjdnb]

10. As a once idealistic, joyful, Catholic . . . .

who could go to church, participate in church related activities, and walk away feeling positive.

However, I have noticed a shift over the last several years from doing 'good works' because it is the right thing to do and what our faith teaches us to do, to doing what may be politically expedient and/or for our churches and priest to participate in, what appear to be, covert/overt political actions.

This is especially true in the area where I live, which is approx. 68% Republican.

Example: Our archbishop, who just happens to be the brother of a Conservative Talk Show host, gave a scathing, fire and brimstone, homily about the 'culture of life' the week before the 2004 election. Our priest followed suit. When parishioners at several churches left and went to their cars, they found Bush/Cheney material on their windshields.

Sadly, the evils of the war in Iraq and the resulting innocents who have died, have rarely been mentioned and only in vague, obtuse, terms. Of course, often followed by the 'isn't it sad that this has to happen to keep us safe from evil terrorists' rationalization.

I pray for Jesus to come and "Clean the Temple".

BTW - I did write a long letter expressing my thoughts to the archbishop at the time the incident mentioned above occurred. To date, I have not received a response.

[CHIMO]

12. The Roman Catholic Church

Seems to have put its head into the sand. For a religion that tries to balance things, they seem to have walked into a dark hole.
If any person tries to run for president now, that is a Roman Catholic, he/she will be subject to the accusation that they are subject to Rome.
I can not understand how they could have been so stupid. But of course they did not want to listen to their thinkers.

[dflprincess]

13. Meanwhile, in today's Star Tribune, some neocons wrote LTTEs

complaining that Archbishop Flynn is a "socialist". This is because the Archbishop has recently become very vocal about poverty and health care and the folly of the governor's no new taxes pledge. I believe he has also made some noise about how much is being spent on war. I dobut Bush was thinking of Flynn when he made his speech.

While I have a lot of problems with the church, I gotta agree with the Archbishop on this one.

[leftchick]

15. WWJD?

That is sickening. The Catholic Church for all of its faults has always advocated social justice. Always! Just as Jesus did his entire time on Earth.