Abuse of Power by Religion-Roman Catholic, Evangelical and Prote

Instead of being viewed as weak, they're flexing their ecclesiastical muscles politically in hopes of being seen as strong. Don't buy it. This summer, when bishops are claiming to be victims of a political system that has trampled on their religious rights, take a moment to remember that they had to be publicly humiliated 10 years ago into taking action to protect children from predaory clergy.

The bishops claim liberty for themselves, and for the large institutions they control, while also fighting to restrict the liberty of others with respect to abortion, emergency contraception, and same-sex relationships.

It was a political event. A Republican politician was a featured speaker. Republican political operatives were on hand and sent out photos, such as the one above. Republicans called the roll on which Republicans were in attendance and Democrats who were not. Obamacare and abortion were much on the minds of the attendees. Catholic Bishop Anthony Taylor got a noticeably cool response when he mentioned the government's ill treatment of immigrants. Taylor, whose advocacy for immigrants was once a foundational interest, has become more engaged in sexual politics of late, and not just the all-out fight against contraception. He also recently punished a vital Latino assistance group because of its tangential relationship to an out-of-state organization that believed help to immigrant families should include those headed by same-sex parents.  In short: Friday's rally was primarily about people who want to defeat President Obama's health care policies and defeat Obama in the fall. A non-existent attack on religion was the bloody shirt.

what might be the primary pastoral obligation of the   men ruling the church in this situation of tension.  And whether the way in which the men ruling the church exercise pastoral leadership might be at the very center of the problem the Vatican and Archbishop Sartain claim they want to address with religious women.  The way the men ruling the church exercise pastoral leadership in contravention of the example of Jesus and the gospels, in the view of growing numbers of Catholics . . . . 

Dear Pope Benedict, I've just read your 1989 paper reprinted in Communio in the review's featured, "Retrieving the Tradition." In "Difficulties Confronting the Faith in Europe Today" you explain your future papacy's resistance to change on the "interlinked" issues of contraception, homosexuality, divorce and women's ordination.  At the end of your analysis you make a plea for more theological development of the doctrine of creation.????????

"Somehow this is even worse than the storm caused by the Church paedophilia scandal," said a priest who entered the great gate of Porta Angelica with brisk fearful steps.

Most Catholic Bishops are "Moral Heretics" and When Religion is a Refuge for Scoundrels: 'Ryan Budget' Edition In simple truth, most of the American "Catholic" bishops are in schism.They are moral heretics. Because of their undisguised embrace of the Republican cause and their opposition to President Obama's modest health care plan, they are not "good news for the poor" (Luke 4:18) as Jesus defined his mission, not "good news" especially for poor children, not "good news" for those whom God has made gay, not "good news" for the sick and the elderly, not "good news" for that trinity of persons that the Hebrew Bible (Jesus' Bible) had an obsessive concern for, "the orphans, widows, and immigrants," and not "good news" for the "peacemakers" whom Jesus called "God's children." (Matt. 5:9)

the lawsuits filed recently by a number of Catholic dioceses and institutions against the Obama administration, and finds those lawsuits . . . all about politics.  Not about religion at all.

Timothy Dolan, when he was the Archbishop of Milwaukee a while back, approved a number of $20,000 settlements to rid the Church of abusive priests in a more time-efficient and expeditious manner - without long, drawn-out canonical or civil proceedings. The problem the story poses for Dolan is not that he did such a thing, however, but that he didn't tell the truth about it back in the day.