The Roman Catholic Church

An open letter to Pope Benedict XVI Dear Pope Benedict, How are you. I Hope you are well. I am just wondering, will it be okay with you to canonize Zachaeus of Jericho? I just thought that it will be a very good idea to make him a saint and being offered to Filipino politicians as their patron saint. With St. Zacchaeus as their patron saint, every time they meet, e.g. senate or congressional meetings, they can conclude the invocational prayer with St. Zacchaeus, pray for us . And everytime they celebrate mass, the gospel narrating St. Zacchaeus story will be read before them. ... Read Full Story

The leadership of Roman Catholic Church seems in some ways Hell bent to turn the Church into a mirror image of the whacky far right evangelical Christians who obsess over three issues to the exclusion of all else: abortion, stem cell research and, of course, demonizing the gays. The long history of a social ministry aimed at feeding the hungry and clothing the poor seems to be slowly sliding into irrelevance as the womb and legal relationships between same sex couples trumps all else. And the weapon of choice against non-compliant Catholics? The denial of communion, the center piece of the Catholic mass. Change.org ... Read Full Story

Perennial homophobe extraordinaire William Donohue at the Catholic League, who suffers from a bizarre persecution complex as well as homophobia, is in a tizzy over the new website ChurchOuting .org which seeks to out gay priests. It's ironic that Donohue is upset since he was one of the cheerleaders for blaming the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal on gay priests and supported a witch hunt to force gays from the priesthood. Never mind that the Church's own study recently confirmed that sexual orientation had nothing to do with the rampant sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy. It seems Donohue only wants a ... Read Full Story

From the London Times : The Archbishop of Canterbury has admitted that the Pope’s offer for disaffected Anglicans to convert to Rome left him with a “sore ego” and put him in an “awkward position”. But after meeting the Pope at the Vatican this weekend, Dr Rowan Williams insisted that relations between the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches were back on track. Dr Williams told the Pope of his embarrassment at the way the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith announced an Apostolic Constitution to set up Anglican Ordinariates for those who refuse to accept women priests and bishops. He had had only ... Read Full Story

A month of harsh words between Rep. Patrick Kennedy and a strident critic, Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin, escalated Sunday when the bishop acknowledged asking Kennedy not to receive Holy Communion because of the Democratic lawmaker's support for abortion rights. The bishop's attempt to publicly shame Kennedy comes just a few months after the death of his father, Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. Tobin told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday that he's praying for the younger Kennedy, who has been in and out of treatment for substance abuse, and said Kennedy has been acting "erratically." "He attacked the church, he attacked the ... Read Full Story