"President Obama to be honored guest at Al Smith Dinner"

According to Catholics for Obama, President Obama will be an "honored guest" at the Alfred Smith Dinner.

"Catholic Right in Meltdown of Rage at Cardinal Dolan’s Invitation

Judie Brown, a right wing activist has demanded that Catholic Charities, known for freely feeding whoever comes to them, give “no dinner for Obama.” According to Judie, “Cardinal Dolan’s invitation to Obama is an outrage.” Others have called Cardinal Dolan “scandalous” and the Right-wing and sometimes racist “Catholic Culture” website fears this will help continue the strong support the President has among many Catholics.

The reaction is further evidence that too much of the Catholic Right is based on hate and extremism.

The Archdiocese of New York has ignored and belittled the critics."

h/t to Diane

Related:

• Bishop Rene Gracida: Michael Voris Pierces the Veil Surrounding the Invitation of Obama to the Al Smith Dinner
• Oh, Puhleeeze! - Michael Voris 
• Nancy Pelosi denied photo-op by Pope Benedict XVI
• Sign the Petition
• AONY Blog Response
• Al Smith Foundation Board of Directors
• Disinvite Obama
• Clear as MUD! (Obama Invited to Alfred Smith Dinner by Archdiocese of New York)

Pope: U.S. faces threats to religious freedom of ‘unprecedented gravity’

By Patrick B. Craine

ROME, Italy, August 7, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pope Benedict XVI is warning that the United States is facing threats of “unprecedented gravity” to religious freedom.

In a letter on behalf of the pope to Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone observed that “concerted efforts are being made to redefine and restrict the exercise of the right to religious freedom.”

The comments come as the U.S. bishops campaign for religious liberty in the face of attacks such as President Obama’s HHS mandate, which requires employers to cover contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortion-inducing drugs in their health insurance packages.

The bishops recently concluded their “fortnight for freedom” - two weeks of intensive “prayer, study, catechesis, and public action.” Shortly before launching the event, the bishops had reaffirmed their condemnation of the HHS mandate, nothing that the rule effectively punishes Catholic institutions for operating in the public sphere.

“Those deemed by HHS not to be ‘religious employers’ will be forced by government to violate their own teachings within their very own institutions. This is not only an injustice in itself, but it also undermines the effective proclamation of those teachings to the faithful and to the world,” they wrote.

Writing in advance of the Knights of Columbus’ annual Supreme Convention, which opened Tuesday in Anaheim, the prelate praised the Knights of Columbus for working “tirelessly to help the Catholic community recognize and respond to the unprecedented gravity of these new threats to the Church’s liberty and public moral witness.”

In his letter, Bertone quoted remarks by Pope Benedict in January in which he called on America’s bishops to “counter a reductive secularism which would delegitimize the Church’s participation in public debate about the issues which are determining the future of American society.”

Link:

• Pope: U.S. faces threats to religious freedom of ‘unprecedented gravity’

Churches Backing Obamacare Contraception/Abortifacient Mandate?

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- The United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, along with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, which includes the Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (USA) and United Church of Christ, have stunningly endorsed Obamacare's mandate that all religious hospitals and charities must provide insurance coverage for contraceptives, abortifacients, and sterilization, despite religious objections.

In contrast, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, National Association of Evangelicals, Southern Baptist and Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod leaders and others have condemned the mandate as an assault on religious liberty. Megachurch pastor Rick Warren has declared: "I'd go to jail rather than cave in to a government mandate that violates what God commands us to do."

IRD President Mark Tooley commented:

"How bizarre that these religious institutions are openly applauding a federal government imposed mandate that would override the liberty of religious institutions to uphold their own beliefs. For left-wing Mainline Protestant elites and others, are coercive government control and subsidized sexual freedom more important than religious freedom? What other government impositions on faith would these church groups support? "Although Christians and other people of faith sometimes disagree on the ethics of contraception, most mainstream Christian groups, with others, rightly resist any government mandate compelling religious groups to abandon their core convictions. "Shame on the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, which does not speak for most Methodists, and shame on other church groups that retain membership in the radical Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. And kudos to church groups and others that, regardless of their teaching on contraception, affirm religious freedom for all."

The Institute on Religion & Democracy works to reaffirm the church's biblical and historical teachings, strengthen and reform its role in public life, protect religious freedom, and renew democracy at home and abroad.

• Link

White House: Women ‘Deserve’ to Have Catholic Church Buy Them Sterilizations, Contraceptives and Abortifacients

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney (AP Photo/Caroyn Kaster)

By Fred Lucas

(CNSNews.com) - White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday that American women “deserve” to have their employers buy them health insurance plans that cover sterlizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including those that cause abortions, with no fees or co-pay, even if the employer is a Catholic or Catholic organization that adheres to the church teaching that sterilization, artificial contraception and abortifacients are morally wrong and that Catholics cannot be involved in them.

“I understand that there have been objections and that some people disagree with us and we are going to work with institutions that have concerns here,” Carney told reporters. “But I think it’s important to note here that we believe these services are important and that American women deserve to have access to that kind of insurance coverage regardless of where they work...” (continued)

Read More

Notre Dame President Protests Birth Control Inclusion in Obamacare

(AP) SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- President Barack Obama's health care overhaul should be changed so that religious schools such as the University of Notre Dame aren't required to go against their beliefs and provide birth control to students and employees, the school president says...

"This would compel Notre Dame to either pay for contraception and sterilization in violation of the church's moral teaching, or to discontinue our employee and student health care plans in violation of the church's social teaching. It is an impossible position," he wrote.

h/t to Father Zuhlsdorf

• ND president protests birth control inclusion
• Notre Dame’s Fr. Jenkins and a different view of Pres. Obama