Check out these two videos of Fr. Jim Lasante from Diocese of Rockville  Center:

http://deacbench.blogspot.com/...

http://www.youtube.com/...

Cardinal George put out a statement today that indicated he gave a  warning and strict instructions to Fr. Pfleger regarding partisan activity.  Will Bishop Murphy follow suit regarding Fr. Jim Lasante?

Bill Roth
Catholic Democrats

On November 1st, the United Status Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice applying the Just War teaching to our nation’s current position with Iran.  While the bishops noted the threat posed by an Iranian nuclear program, they also urged a rigorous course of diplomacy and the use of force as a last resort.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops will be voting to approve the latest edition of its quadrennial guidance on how the Church and the faithful should participate in politics. It renders its guidance by asking and answering four questions.

This article provides a review of the document, due to be approved and released on November 15th.

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich) described advocacy organization Catholics United as the "devil", and committing "sin" in a recent article in the National Review Online. The article was in response to a series of radio ads Catholics United ran in McCotter's district criticizing his vote against the State Children's Health Insurance Plan, or S-CHIP.  Invoking Pope Benedict XVI, both as Pope and Cardinal, McCotter uses quasi-ecclesial language to distort what Catholics United had to say.

The US Catholic Conference of Bishops(USCCB) staff has just sent out a letter defending one of its own, as a result of pressure from right-wing Catholic organizing. It is essentially an attack on Kathy Saile, the Domestic Policy Director.  It unfortunately claims that the Democratic Party embraces abortion and has a litmus test. The letter, while well intentioned, distorts the Democratic Party's positions, and should be with drawn. This entry will give the details of the letter, the refutation points, and a call to action.

Its not every day you run into Al Gore. But I ran into him today at BEA World.

Abstract: Conservative Catholic blogger (and disgraced former Bush operative) Deal Hudson questions the Pope on his most recent statements about the environment. He essentially says that concern for the environment would dilute the pro-life agenda. It shows just how mono-maniacal the Religious Catholic Right is. It demonstrates that advocacy for any other issue other than "anti-abortion" is somehow scandalous. Second, it shows a lack of true understanding that care for the environment flows from the "Seamless Garment of Life" so often discussed by Pope John Paul II. How can you show "concern for life" without a planet?

The following is something my organization started sending to the press this morning.

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The Catholic Democrats, a national organization of Democratic Roman Catholics, are now organizing in California. Led by Democratic activist Bill Roth of San Jose, this group hopes to build a broad-based organization of California Catholics who are seeking to represent Catholic policy perspectives within the State Democratic Party, and to accentuate the ways in which the Democratic Party is working to advance humanistic goals so well-articulated in Catholic Social Teaching.

A few weeks ago, I read somewhere that Politico.com has a FOX-like rightward  bias. I sign up for a couple of their daily emails, and I have been looking for this alleged bias. Today, I read this:

A leading liberal blogger has declared political war against centrist Democrats – the latest move in an intensifying show of dissatisfaction with the Democratic Congress by the once-friendly blogosphere.

Now tell me, why would something as inane as one blog make a front page, or at least top-of-daily-email, story? Maybe there is a bias. Can anyone else provide any other data?

Updated....

In my view, there are two kinds of theology in the Roman Catholic church. Social theology and pelvic theology. Conservative Roman Catholics spend all their time on the latter, and when they do, its almost always on abortion.
There has been a bit of noise around Giuliani's Catholicism, especially from the likes of Deal Hudson, Nicholas Frankovich, and an article in the New Yorker by Peter Boyer. Hudson is a prolific blogger, writing 2-4 posts a day, also seems to find time to write for the Morley Institute. He seems to focus solely on abortion. Also note that Fidelis is also targeting him with this ad.

In a press release issued this evening, Catholics United is reporting that the former president of the Catholic, right-wing front organization Fidelis, is now working for Fred Thompson.

Catholics United is calling on Joseph Cella, currently on leave as president of the Catholic organization Fidelis, to explain his recent decision to accept a high-level faith outreach position in former Senator Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign. Notorious for excoriating Democratic candidates over their positions on abortion, Mr. Cella is now a paid consultant for a Republican presidential contender who himself has an inconsistent record on life issues.

The organization has been known to target left-leaning academics, and is also one of the organizations which sponsored the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, at which, I'm told, no Democrats were invited. Catholics United reported this as well.

A friend recently asked for my "temperatures" on the national races.

I had the privilege if attending the Silicon Valley Leadership Group last Friday for their annual policy lunch. The main speaker was Sen. John McCain. Now, McCain is a great American. He is nothing short of a hero due to his time in the Hanoi Hilton and his refusal to be bowed by it.

My sense is that I would like him as a person. So, as he started talking, I was willing to listen to him and put my partisan cynicism away. He started out by doing something remarkable; he welcomed Anna Eshoo (CA-11) and Bill Lockyer (CA State Atty Gen.). I thought this was a magnanimous gesture that the first folks he welcomed were from the other party.

As of today, here is where things stand.
* House: Dem 219, Rep 194, Toss up 22
* Senate: Dem 48, Rep 48, Toss up 4
* Governors: Dem 27(!), Rep 21, Toss up 2

The senate is going to be a nail-biter.