Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis has been chosen by Pope Benedict XVI to be the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest court in the Vatican.  He will hear appeals of decisions issued by lower Church courts.  A canon lawyer, Archbishop Burke has been a champion of orthodoxy in St. Louis since he became the archbishop in January 2004.  He was previously the bishop of La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Archbishop Burke garnered national attention in 2004 when he declared that pro-choice politicians should not present themselves for Holy Communion.  He further stated that he would deny the Eucharist to the Democratic nominee, John Kerry, due to his support of abortion.

We wish Archbishop Burke well and know that he will be a great success in this new position!

Those who have tried to sell the notion that economic issues can draw religious conservatives to move left cannot be too happy with the findings of the latest Pew survey. As reported in today’s New York Times, “The survey confirms findings from previous studies that the most religiously and politically conservative Americans are those who attend worship services most frequently, and that for them, the battles against abortion and gay rights remain touchstone issues.”

The story quotes John C. Green, an author of the Pew report, as saying,  “It suggests that the efforts of Democrats to peel away Republican and conservative voters based on economic issues face a real limit because of the role these cultural issues play.”

In other words, attempts to equate issues like the minimum wage and Third World debt with abortion and gay marriage have failed.

The only ones who will be surprised by this are the ones who tried to make the equation. They just don’t get it.

The Department of Education released its report evaluating the voucher program which has been operative for two years in Washington, D.C.  It shows a positive impact on students’ reading achievement and increased parental satisfaction.

Please see below for links to articles on the voucher program:

Institute of Educational Sciences, Department of Education, Press Release, 6/16/08: “Report Reaffirms Academic Gains for DC Opportunity Scholarship Participants”

William McGurn, Wall Street Journal, 6/17/08: “School Choice Is Change You Can Believe In”

It looks as though Sen. Barack Obama’s Catholic National Advisory Council is still missing in action. No word from his campaign has come forth providing evidence of its existence, and there is still no mention of the group on its website. Beliefnet spoke to one of the group’s members, an unemployed liberal, and she says she chats on the phone with other members. But that’s it.

This issue has a foul odor to it: If indeed the Advisory Council is extant, why doesn’t the Obama campaign flag it the way it used to do?

Here we go again. More bad news about sexually transmitted diseases is followed by more calls for more condoms. They just don’t get it.

One in four—26 percent—of adult New Yorkers have genital herpes (compared to 19 percent nationwide). And who is being hit the hardest?  Homosexuals, blacks and women. Look for some politically correct dope to blame straight white guys.

The New York City Health Department’s answer, of course, is not to counsel restraint. That would be judgmental. So their considered judgment is to hawk another round of condoms. Yeah, that will work—just like it has all along.

We thought our supporters would like to read the following correspondence by Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput. It is directed to Catholic Democrats.

Dear Mr. Roth,

In a May 14 posting on your website, Patrick Whelan claims that:

“[Kansas City’s Archbishop Naumann] was a keynote speaker at a Denver conference in the fall of 2007 at which all the Republican presidential candidates appeared.”

I read this news with considerable interest since I was at that conference – in fact the Archdiocese of Denver sponsored it — and no Republican presidential candidates were anywhere in the audience.  The conference is annual and non-partisan; in fact it focuses on John Paul II’s encyclical, The Gospel of Life – something every Catholic, of whatever political party, should have a grounding in.

I’m sure you’ll want to publicly correct this mistaken information as soon as possible.

By the way, the Democratic presidential candidates would have been most welcome at the Denver conference.  I didn’t see them in the audience either.

Be assured of my good will and prayers.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

+cjc

The homepage of a group called Roman Catholics for Obama ’08 misrepresents Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput’s words on whether Catholics can vote in good conscience for a pro-choice politician.

The group quotes the archbishop as saying:

“So can a Catholic in good conscience vote for a pro-choice candidate? The answer is: I can’t, and I won’t. But I do know some serious Catholics — people whom I admire — who may. I think their reasoning is mistaken, but at least they sincerely struggle with the abortion issue, and it causes them real pain. And most important: They don’t keep quiet about it; they don’t give up; they keep lobbying their party and their representatives to change their pro-abortion views and protect the unborn. Catholics can vote for pro-choice candidates if they vote for them despite — not because of — their pro-choice views.”

In his web column of May 19, Archbishop Chaput comments on the group’s use of this quote:

“What’s interesting about this quotation – which is accurate but incomplete – is the wording that was left out. The very next sentences in the article of mine they selected, which Roman Catholics for Obama neglected to quote, run as follows:

“But

Fairness & Accuracy in Media (FAIR), a liberal media watchdog group,  is now challenging our statement of May 2 calling into question the fairness of its story, “Pope Gets Pass on Church Abuse History.”

In that report, FAIR accused then Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) of sending “a letter to church bishops invoking a 1962 doctrine threatening automatic excommunication for any Catholic official who discussed abuse cases outside the church’s legal system.” We said the charge was bogus and explained why (click here).

Now FAIR is standing by its story, initially lifted from a British tabloid, claiming that although the Vatican 1962 document in question applied to solicitations made in the confessional, it can be read to include acts outside the confessional. It then quotes a priest who, in fact, provides no evidence from the document that would substantiate FAIR’s initial accusation.

Indeed, the title of the 1962 document, “ON THE MATTER OF PROCEEDING IN CASES OF SOLICITATIONS,” was deliberately chosen to reflect the Vatican’s concerns regarding improper solicitations that might take place within the confessional. It did not reach the question that FAIR alleges it did.

Moreover, if the initial FAIR story were accurate, it should be able to produce the indicting letter by Cardinal Ratzinger that it claims supports its accusation. So where is it? Trying to spin its way out of its own jam is bad enough, but when the pope is unfairly maligned, it is despicable. FAIR is never to be trusted again on matters Catholic.

David R. Carlin, former Democratic majority leader of the Rhode Island Senate and author of Can a Catholic Be a Democrat, discusses Sen. Obama’s National Catholic Advisory Council in this piece from InsideCatholic.com.

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City has stated that Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius should not present herself for Holy Communion. The governor, a Catholic who sits on Sen. Barack Obama’s Catholic National Advisory Council, is a long-time supporter of abortion rights.

As Archbishop Naumann recently wrote, Gov. Sebelius’ support for abortion can be seen in her recent veto of the Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act, which indicates that “the governor does not approve of legislators devoting energy to protecting children and women by making it possible to enforce existing Kansas law regarding late-term abortions.” Archbishop Naumann also pointed out that Sebelius has accepted campaign contributions from Dr. George Tiller, the notorious late-term abortionist.

It is telling that Sen. Obama should have chosen Gov. Sebelius to advise him on matters Catholic. After all, when in the Illinois state senate, the presidential contender led the fight to deny care to babies born alive as a result of botched abortions. That he should choose a Catholic politician who so disregards the Church’s respect for life speaks volumes about his intentions for this council.