Features
CUOMO ENDANGERS MINORITY WOMENCatalyst May Issue 2013
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is about to unveil what promises to be the most radical proposal ever entertained at the state level. It’s also the most dangerous, especially for poor minority women. While Cuomo has yet to reveal the details of his abortion bill, from what we know there will be no restrictions on this life-ending procedure. Abortion... [Read more...]
BISHOPS FIND HHS REVISIONS FLAWEDCatalyst May Issue 2013
The March 20 statement by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (made by general counsel Anthony Picarello and associate general counsel Michael F. Moses) on the HHS revisions is the most definitive assessment to date. Though they concede that “the definition of an exempt ‘religious employer’ has been revised to eliminate some of the... [Read more...]
HHS MANDATE DISPUTE GOES UNREPORTEDCatalyst May Issue 2013
Early in March, Rep. Diane Black of Tennessee had introduced a bill, The Health Care Conscience Rights Act. This bill, if passed, would challenge the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate and it would help protect the religious consciences of employers. To date, however, there still has been little reporting on this bill by the mainstream media. The... [Read more...]
LEAD US, HOLY FATHERCatalyst May Issue 2013
This ad appeared on the op-ed page of the April 15th edition of the New York Times. Read More →
SPEAK OUT? OR SHUT UP?Catalyst April Issue 2013
No sooner had Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio been elected Pope Francis when the Los Angeles Times started reporting on his alleged “timidity” in fighting Argentina’s dictatorship during the Dirty War, 1976 to 1983. The newspaper also cited the rap that he was “too quiet” during this period. Similarly, the New York Times is saying that the... [Read more...]
CRITICS OF POPE EMERGECatalyst April Issue 2013
Pope Francis has captured the good will, indeed the love, of millions around the globe, and the response is hardly confined to Catholic circles. However, his critics are emerging, though none with any luck. Sex is always a good subject for Catholic haters. Their goal—sex without consequences (kids and diseases)—is threatened when religious leaders... [Read more...]
A NUN FOR POPE?Catalyst April Issue 2013
MSNBC contributors E.J. Dionne and Katrina vanden Heuvel both said they wanted to see a nun named as the next pope. No they don’t. They certainly wouldn’t want Mother Agnes Mary Donovan of the Sisters of Life. Nor would they want Mother Mary Assumpta Long of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. The truth of the matter is this:... [Read more...]
NY TIMES HOSTS ANOTHER DISSIDENT CATHOLICCatalyst April Issue 2013
Author Paul Elie was one of many dissident voices in the New York Times following Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation. His parochialism allows him to assume all Catholics shared his discontent. “Resignation,” he said, is “what American Catholics are feeling about our faith.” He should speak for himself—most of us don’t share his Commonweal... [Read more...]
SALLY QUINN’S VOODOO EXERCISECatalyst April Issue 2013
A recent Sally Quinn piece in the Washington Post managed to be wrong on just about every level, beginning with the Church’s “child sexual abuse scandal.” The scandal didn’t involve children—less than 5% of victims were prepubescent. Typical offenses involved “inappropriate touching” of postpubescent males. It was a homosexual scandal... [Read more...]
NY TIMES HOSTS EX-CATHOLIC THEOLOGIANCatalyst April Issue 2013
In the New York Times, Hans Küng, an embittered ex-Catholic theologian, criticized Pope Benedict XVI for having irritated “the Protestant churches, Jews, Muslims, the Indians of Latin America, women, reform-minded theologians and all pro-reform Catholics.” Küng blames then-Cardinal Ratzinger for hiding abuse cases, and cites “Vatileaks” as... [Read more...]