President Clinton couldn't afford to see another nominee shot down in flames, so careful maneuvering, parliamentary procedure and a great deal of political capital were utilized in order to win Senate confirmation for controversial Surgeon General nominee Dr. Joycelyn Elders. Letters of "apology" from both Dr. Elders and President Clinton addressed to NCCB chair Archbishop William [...]
"It is not a case of Catholic paranoia to think that it is open season on the Catholic Church in the public square." Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law didn't mince words in going after the news media in his weekly Pilot column (9/3/93). The Cardinal went on to blast the media for "the negative way in which [...]
Newsweek's religion editor recently reviewed The Culture of Disbelief, an insightful new book written by Yale law professor Stephen Carter, who takes a critical look at the way America's culture treats religion and religious people. The former law clerk for the late Justice Thurgood Marshall, Carter argues persuasively for a return to the days when ideas driven [...]
After President Yeltsin refused to sign a bill that would have restricted foreign missionaries and foreign-based religious organizations in Russia, the Russian legislature recently approved a new version of the bill. The original bill, which was supported by the Russian Orthodox Church and passed by the Russian legislature in July, was an attempt to control the [...]
The recent papal visit to Denver gave the phrase "Rocky Mountain high" a whole new meaning for the hundreds of thousands of participants and the millions more who followed the event on TV. The "aftershocks" have reverberated through the media for well over a month and have made for some very interesting reading. Denver area reporters [...]
On Nov. 2, the country will be watching intently as Californians go to the polls to decide whether or not to embrace education vouchers. Proposition 174, the Parental Choice in Education Initiative, would require the state to provide a voucher for $2,600 per year to students wishing to transfer out of the public-school system to help [...]
California vote gets national attention George F. Will (Chicago Sun Times) and Stephen Chapman (Chicago Tribune) have come out strongly in favor of proposition 174. Pointing out that private schools often show better results than public schools while spending less money per pupil, Will maintains that as more students use vouchers to attend private schools, the [...]
They're not saying it very loudly, but supporters of the Freedom of Choice Act are privately conceding that the bill is dead for this session of Congress and perhaps mortally wounded. Another piece of legislation, tagged the "clinic access bill," is alive and well, however, and would make it a Federal crime to block abortion clinics [...]
A Vermont judge has denied a defense motion, refusing to throw out the case against Chuck and Susan Baker, Catholic owners of a printing business who were sued by the ACLU when they refused to print membership materials for Catholics for Free Choice, a pro-abortion group. The ACLU claimed that the Bakers' refusal to print the [...]
Responding to the disruption of a Mass being celebrated by Bishop Thomas V. Daily at St. James Cathedral in Brooklyn by members of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, Catholic League President Bill Donohue quickly issued a news release condemning the actions of the demonstrators. According to The Tablet, 29 demonstrators who were protesting Bishop [...]
