Bullying: What happens when a student refuses to accept his school’s blatant promotion of the homosexual lifestyle.

The message may be unfolded thus. If you do not wear this shirt, or if you do not approve of the life it celebrates, you are evil. You’re a bully. You want people like Tyler Clementi to die. The superintendent, but not the court, notes that Glowacki was held up to opprobrium in the classroom.

Neither the superintendent nor the court expresses any concern about the massive contradiction that McDowell could order a student to remove a belt buckle because it might create a hostile environment for some other students, while not noticing that the entire school bristles with hostility against Catholics, evangelical Protestants, orthodox Jews, and anybody else who holds that sexual intercourse is to be bound within marriage, between a man and a woman.

Which brings me to my second point. If I hire a man to teach my son economics, I’d be shocked to learn that he’d been using his position to run down my faith. Granted that students, because of their age and the special circumstances, do not possess complete freedom of expression in school, it is equally true that teachers and schools must not capitalize upon their strength, their numbers, and their separation from the home, to advocate what is essentially a religion, with its (peculiar and incoherent) set of universal demands and condemnations.

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Johnny come lately Miami politician attempts to close inner city mission founded by Mother Teresa.

MIAMI | Storm clouds gathered as the City of Miami threatened to close the feeding program that the local Missionaries of Charity had been doing for three decades. But seemingly as fast as it loomed, the storm faded.

The order of sisters, founded by the late Mother Teresa, had been feeding hundreds of the homeless every week for more than three decades. But in late March, the city said the sisters lacked a permit.

This week — after a flurry of newspaper articles and TV news reports — the city backed down.

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Editor’s note: Just another example of government usurping the proper, charitable role of the church … and doing it poorly … at greater cost and with much wasted effort  … for all the wrong reasons.

Cardinal Burke: “If the church doesn’t respond to people with a just decision, how can she talk about charity?”

“Here I try to serve the universal church, but I don’t have a flock that’s entrusted to my care as I did in La Crosse and St. Louis,” he said. “I’m helping other bishops and dioceses, but I don’t have my own diocese. It’s quite a different life.”

Read the article about Cardinal Burke

Editor’s note: Maybe Cardinal Burke will decide to take up the Corapi affair.

LA Cardinal Tells a Grim Tale of Sex Abuse Complicity

By Kathleen Gilbert

LOS ANGELES, June 22, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a videotaped deposition released last Tuesday, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony admits he did not think it necessary to contact police after learning of the sex abuse perpetrated by a priest in his diocese against two boys. Instead, Mahony transferred the priest to other locations, where the abuse could potentially continue.

The archdiocese had tried but failed to keep private the deposition, which was taken as part of a lawsuit that resulted in a $2.2 million settlement.

The five-hour videotaped deposition, the first to be released to the public, shows Mahony explaining his conduct after former priest Michael Baker confessed to him in 1986 that he had molested two boys. Baker, who has been accused of abuse by at least 23 individuals, is now serving a 10-year jail sentence on charges of molestation.

When John Manly, an attorney representing one of Baker’s victims, asked if the cardinal agreed “that the first thing any priest should do … when you learn that a priest has molested a child is call the police,” Mahony answered, “not necessarily.” Later, he said he was unable to report the accusations to the police because the priest had not told him the names of the victims or their parents, and the suspected child abuse form requires one to fill out the name. He admitted, however, that he did not direct his staff to try to find the victims.

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Thomas More Law Center Wins Significant Pro-Life Victory

Thomas More Law Center Wins Significant Pro-Life Victory
in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Thursday, July 3, 2008

ANN ARBOR, MI – In what was a surprising decision to many court observers, a unanimous 3-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision yesterday, and affirmed the Constitutional rights of pro-life activists to display large graphic photos of aborted babies on public streets adjacent to Dodson Middle School in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. The case involved police detention for 75 minutes of two pro-life activists belonging to the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, Inc. (CBR), a California-based, pro-life organization, who had been driving a 7-by-20 foot truck with photos of first term aborted babies on three sides.

School officials and the LA County Sheriff’s Department claimed display of the photos were “disruptive, ” in violation of a California statute. The Ninth Circuit ruled that deputy sheriffs violated the demonstrators’ First Amendment right to freedom of speech and Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable police searches and seizures.

The opinion written by Judge Harry Pregerson and supported by Judges William A. Fletcher and Marsha S. Berzon, all considered liberals, stated that “he government cannot silence messages simply because they cause discomfort, fear, or even anger.” Click here to read the entire opinion.

The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, brought the case on behalf of CBR. The mobile billboard truck is part of CBR’s effort to expose as many people as possible to the horrors and realities of abortion.

Robert Muise, trial counsel for the Law Center who handled the case, commented on the ruling, “This is a tremendous victory for the First Amendment and the pro-life movement. The Ninth Circuit’s decision affirms that there is no double standard for pro-life speech under our Constitution. In its ruling, the Court upheld the fundamental principle of the First Amendment that government officials cannot prohibit silent, peaceful, non-obstructive, political speech on the public streets, a traditional public forum, because certain listeners or viewers find the speech offensive.”

The Thomas More Law Center is widely recognized as the most aggressive pro-life public interest law firm in the nation. It has represented CBR in several lawsuits across the country, the American Life League’s program to distribute pro-life t-shirts to public school students, as well as participated in several citizen initiatives to enact Human Life Amendments in state constitutions.

The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life through education, litigation, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.

Scouts sue after Philly demands rent or new policy

Scouts sue after Philly demands rent or new policy

By MARYCLAIRE DALE     5/08

PHILADELPHIA (AP)  A Boy Scouts chapter engaged in a long fight over gay rights has sued the city of Philadelphia to try to avoid paying $200,000 a year in rent to stay in the city-owned space
that has been its headquarters for 80 years.

The Cradle of Liberty Council currently pays $1 annually for the space, but the city has given it until Saturday to open their membership to gays or start being charged fair-market rent.

             
The federal suit filed Friday accuses the city of censorship for targeting the Scouts but maintaining free or nominal leases with other groups that limit membership, such as Baptist and Roman Catholic church
groups and The Colonial Dames of America.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that the Boy Scouts, as a private group, have a First Amendment
right to bar gays.

But the policy has had consequences, with municipalities, charities and donors withholding support. “We will not allow discrimination in providing services on city property,” Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said Tuesday.

A 1982 city ordinance bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and other grounds.

“We’re not punishing them for not admitting homosexuals,” City Solicitor Shelley Smith said. “But they can’t get free rent and violate our policy.”

Smith said the city was unaware of any discrimination by other groups with city-subsidized space, but that it would investigate any complaints.

The Cradle of Liberty Council oversees about 300 troops in Philadelphia and suburban Delaware and Montgomery counties. It serves about 70,000 children, including 50,000 in the city, the suit said.

The Scouts say the higher rent would force them to cut programs, and represents the cost of sending about 800 needy children to summer camp. “They’re providing a tremendous public benefit. They’re giving back a whole lot more than what they get from the city,” said lawyer Jason Gosselin, who represents the Cradle of Liberty Council.

The group adopted an explicit nondiscrimination policy in 2003 after negotiations with the city. But it was forced to rescind it when the Boy Scouts of America said Philadelphia Scout officials could not deviate
from national rules barring participation by anyone who is openly gay.

The Cradle of Liberty Council then negotiated compromise language that barred “unlawful discrimination.” “It was a non-issue once the 2004 agreement was reached, and then sort of out of the blue it’s being brought up again,” Gosselin said.

Smith said the city fears that the language does not go far enough and provides the Scouts wiggle room to ban gays by citing the Supreme Court ruling. “I think they think that their First Amendment right trumps our local ordinance,” Smith said.

The city owns the Beaux Arts headquarters constructed by the Scouts in 1928 and the land beneath it. The Scouts have spent about $60,000 a year to maintain the building, and another $1.5 million for renovations in 1994, the suit said.

The building would be far from the first loss associated with the Boy Scouts’ policy on homosexuals.

Film director Steven Spielberg resigned from the national group’s advisory board. The city of Berkeley, Calif., stopped lending its marina for free to the Berkeley Sea Scouts. United Way chapters stopped funding programs, and the Defense Department stopped sponsoring troops.

Submitted by Doria2 

How bad is it if you skip sunday masses?

Q: How bad is it if you skip sunday masses?

A: It’s a lot like failing to show up in court.

You run the risk of being found “guilty” by default.

Go to confession. Then start going to Mass EVERY Sunday.

It’s not hard to do.

Catholic Day on 60 Minutes – An Interview with Justice Antonin Scalia

Justice Scalia On The Record

 

 
60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl Interviews The Supreme Court Justice About His Public And Private Life

(CBS) Not many Supreme Court justices become famous, but Antonin Scalia is one of the few. Known as “Nino” to his friends and colleagues, he is one of the most brilliant and combative justices ever to sit on the court and one of the most prominent legal thinkers of his generation.

He first agreed to talk to 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl about a new book he’s written on how lawyers should address the court. But over the course of several conversations, our story grew into a full-fledged profile – his first major television interview – including discussions about abortion and Bush v. Gore.

Click to read more, or to view the 2 part interview

 

Then we have an Andy Rooney commentary on the Papal visit

Catholic Perspective:

Last Sunday (April 27th) Lesley Stahl interviewed Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in what turned out to be a candid and wide-ranging look into the life of this little known, but obviously very Catholic man.

While CBS’ editing has been suspect in the past, I had no reason to believe that anything I was seeing had been over-processed, or twisted in any way. 

In fact, about half way through, I couldn’t help but notice the total lack of guile in the man, and the precise way in which he crafted his words. Not bad things for a Supreme Court Justice.

I also couldn’t help noticing that Scalia appeared to be an icon of the ideal Catholic man.

We could use a lot more just like him.

Catholic parents would do well to sit down and carefully watch the interview … first by themselves … and then with the kids.

It doesn’t get much better than this.

-LD

Operation Outcry – by Fr. Thomas Euteneuer

Operation Outcry – by Fr. Thomas Euteneuer

March 6, 2008

In every country where abortion is being promoted, the insistent mantra of the abortion promoters is the lie that “unsafe (i.e., illegal) abortion” is damaging women’s lives and should be replaced by “safe and legal” abortion.

The transformation of abortion from illegal to legal is supposed to make it ? magically ? safe for women. That was but one of
the many lies about abortion that the US Supreme Court swallowed in 1973 when it legalized this killing procedure.

While the abortion industry itself admitted that most of the illegal abortions were done by trained doctors in the comfort of their offices, very few arguments were as persuasive as the one that said women would be served by eliminating “back-alley” abortions and replacing them with abortion on demand.

This pernicious lie is still a favorite argument of the abortion industry around the world, and they must marvel at how easily people fall for it.

Well, we know how to undo that lie. The same way we undo any lie: we defeat it with the truth.

We are quick to acknowledge that abortion is never safe for unborn children, but 35 sad years of destruction has taught us that it’s also a lie to think that legal abortion is safe and pain-free for women. Post-abortive women everywhere are the best witnesses
to the truth about abortion, and that truth is very simple ?

There is no such thing as a safe abortion! Period.

This testimony is valid both for our own fight here in the United States to overturn Roe as well as for our fight to keep this evil out of abortion-free countries.

We need to join that fight as best we can and we now have a way to do that.

I have recently discovered a most worthy project for post-abortion testimonies called Operation Outcry.

I am impressed by the scope of their work and the goal that they have set for themselves.

This project is sponsored by the Texas Justice Foundation, the group that brought Norma McCorvey (the Roe of Roe v. Wade) back to the Supreme Court to let her story be heard.

They want to collect one million “declarations” of post-abortion stories, which will be entered into the public record when abortion comes back up before the Supreme Court.

They are relying on various pro-life organizations to get the word out to post-abortive women and men who can declare, in a fully confidential manner, that abortion is not the salvation that it was promised to be in 1973 or ever.

In the face of the Supreme Court’s ongoing commitment to Roe, the ones who have had real experience of those negative effects are able to testify to the highest court in our land something that we have always known: that abortion is a damaging, degrading and desperate procedure.

It robs babies of their lives and women and men of their dignity.

We think the Supreme Court needs to hear this message. In fact, the Texas Justice Foundation was the only pro-life brief that was cited in the recent partial birth abortion decision, and so we think there is a fighting chance.

Please do consider looking at the website of Operation Outcry:
(http://www.operationoutcry.org/) and join in the effort to get declarations from one million women and men who have been affected negatively by abortion.

The lie has to be countered by a strong witness to the truth, and after 35 years of abortion on demand, many people certainly have a strong witness to offer.

There is no time like the present to use it!

Fr. Tom Euteneuer is president of Human Life International

Link – http://www.catholicexchange.com/node/70236

Submitted by Doria2