Catholic Church Praises Woman Who Refused Cancer Treatment-Abortion

A saint in the making? Shades of Saint Gianna Beretta Molla's saga.

The Vatican's newspaper (L'Osservatore Romano) says 41 year-old Rita Fedrizzi was diagnosed with cancer about the same time she discovered she was pregnant.

Though she could have had an abortion and proceeded with the cancer treatment, Church officials applauded her for "the choice of welcoming new life, even at the cost of her own death.''

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Catholic Church Buries Hundreds of Babies From Late-Term Abortion Center

Despite objections from abortion advocates, a local Catholic Church went forward with a Sunday burial service for hundreds of unborn children whose ashes were given to it by a mortuary that services a late-term abortion facility.
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March for Life Brings Pro-Life Demonstrators to Washington

-- 01/24/2005
"No Exception! No Compromise!," Gray said. "Murder is not a feminist/abortionist's right of 'privacy,'"
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US Supreme Court Refuses to Reinstate 'Terri's Law'

(CNSNews.com) - On a day when pro-life advocates gathered in Washington for their annual march to the U.S. Supreme Court, that same court made a decision that is sure to upset many of the marchers. The Supreme Court on Monday refused to reinstate a Florida law that saved the life of Terri Schiavo. The severely brain-damaged woman has lived for years with the help of a feeding tube, which her husband insists she would have wanted removed. Terri's parents have fought to keep her alive. Today's decision by the U.S. Supreme Court clears the way for the feeding tube to be removed, press reports said. The Florida Supreme Court struck down Terri's Law last fall. "It is very disappointing that the Supreme Court has refused to enter into a critically important case involving the life and death struggle of Terri Schiavo," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, which represented the Schindlers at the Supreme Court. "With the Supreme Court refusing to take the case, there are now fewer options available to protecting the life of Terri Schiavo and that's a real tragedy. By declaring 'Terri's Law' unconstitutional, the Florida courts have handed down a death sentence for her," said Sekulow. "We believe the Florida Governor and legislature acted constitutionally and appropriately in passing 'Terri's Law' -- a life-saving legislation that is at the center of the legal dispute. While there are still legal options available in Florida, the Supreme Court's refusal to take the case makes it more difficult for those legal options to prevail," he added.

Pro-Abortion Catholic Politicians Targeted by Canonical Lawsuit

Balestrieri adds Senators Edward Kennedy, Tom Harkin, Susan Collins, and former New York Governor Mario Cuomo to heresy suit.

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Bishop re-thinks anti-gay message

Another luke-warm bishop bows to the public preasure and fails to speak the truth as defined by Catholic teaching.

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Papal appeal won kidnapped archbishop's freedom

Mosul, Jan. 19 (FIDES/CWNews.com) - In an interview with the Fides news service shortly after he was released by kidnappers in Iraq, Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa his abductors decided to release him after hearing an appeal from Pope John Paul II.

"Thank you, Holy Father; your immediate intervention was instrumental for my quick release," the Syrian Catholic archbishop said.

Although only hours had passed since his captors set him free Archbishop Casmoussa was willing to talk about his experience. "I did not count my captors; some of them wore masks, some did not. They accused me of being a collaborator with the Americans but, as we conversed, they realized that I work instead for the unity and sovereignty of our country at peace with all the neighboring nations", he told Fides.

"Gradually as the hours passed I saw their determination weaken. They were no longer convinced that I was an adversary, a hated enemy to kill. This morning, before I was released, one of my captors said, obviously deeply impressed that the Pope had appealed for my release: 'The Pope himself asked us to set you free,' he said. It was then that I realized that I would be released and I must say this firm hope sustained me all along," the archbishop said.

"The most dramatic moment was yesterday evening when they told me to say my last prayer," recalled the Archbishop of Mosul. "I prayed out loud asking God to forgive my sins and then, looking at my captors, I asked God to help the Iraqi people find once again peace, harmony and unity. I think this instilled respect in my captors and that my prayer played a fundamental role in my liberation."

"I wish to thank God for the gift of life, the gift of freedom and for all those who supported me with their prayers. I wish also to thank the Holy Father and those who work with him for their valid, rapid and discrete assistance. I would also like to thank the media for making my abduction known which helped to put pressure on my captors."

The archbishop offered some details about his release: "When they decided to release me they made me hide in the boot [truck] of a car, as they did when they took me hostage. They left me in a district of Mosul from where I was able to call the bishops' residence and ask the staff to come and fetch me. But when after some time the car had not appeared, I took a taxi to my home."

"This experience gave me time to meditate on the profound meaning of life and death. It strengthened by faith and my determination to make my contribution towards restoring unity and harmony among the Iraqi people. May Iraq be once again a united country and a country of peace," concluded Archbishop Casmoussa.

Catholic Archbishop Kidnapped in Iraq

Please Pray For Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa.

Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, of the Syrian Catholic Church, one of the branches of the Roman Catholic Church was walking in front of his church in Mosul's eastern neighborhood of Muhandeseen when he was abducted.

"The Holy See deplores in the firmest way such a terrorist act," a Vatican statement said, demanding that he be freed immediately.

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Catholic schools split on kids of gay couples

More on the controversy surrounding Catholic Schools and Gay parents... 01/09/2005 Catholic schools split on kids of gay couples

Sins of the Fathers

A group of parents at St. John the Baptist School in Costa Mesa, California are upset that the school has enrolled two boys in kindergarten whose parents are homosexual men; they want the school to expel the students.

This is a tough one. I understand that the group of parents are relying on this Catholic school to uphold Catholic Teaching and provide an atmosphere of Christian morality they cannot count on from public schools any longer, but I can't see punishing the two boys here.

Catholic League president William Donohue spoke to this issue today: 

“There are two issues here—one is a matter of principal and the other is a matter of prudence.  There is a moral principle, expressed in Judeo-Christian thought, that the innocent should not be punished for the transgressions of the guilty.  To be more specific, the prophet Ezekiel taught that it was wrong for children to suffer for the sins of their father.  Applied in this instance, we can amend that to ‘fathers.’ 
 
“On a prudential level, it makes no sense to single out kids for retribution whose parents are gay.  What should be done about kids who were born out-of-wedlock?  What about those kids who have a father or a mother who is the town philanderer?  Should we expel kids whose parents are cohabiting?  Or are known adulterers? 
 
“There is no fundamental tension between opposing gay marriage as a matter of public policy and accepting the children of gay parents in a Catholic school.  Unfortunately, there are some who are so exercised about the former that it has clouded their vision about the latter.
 
“While this issue may be new, the core of the matter is not: priests have often been asked by morally delinquent parents to baptize their children, and in most instances the priests have rightfully obliged.  Now just as the priest is in no way condoning the moral delinquency of the parents, school officials at St. John the Baptist are in no way condoning the lifestyle of the gay parents.  And in both cases, the spiritual well-being of the kids is, or should be, the paramount concern.”

Well said William Donohue, I agree completely.

More >Catholic League: Accept Kids of Gays