A Catholic cathedral and nearby radio station in the region of Cotabato on the island of Mindanao, Philippines were shaken by a grenade blast on Sunday that caused injury to at least 14 people. This was immediately followed by two more explosions: One by an IED in the town of Libungan, Cotabato province where six more were injured, and one in Upi, Maguindanao where two people were harmed. 
According to <a href="https://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2019/12/14-injured-in-cotabato-city-blast-5-in-libungan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">MindaNews</a>, three men riding motorcycles threw grenades at members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) who were standing guard at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral and a radio station owned by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. At least seven soldiers and several nearby civilians were injured by the explosion. 
Military spokesperson Major Homer Estolas insisted the military guards were the target. 
“It was clear that the suspects targeted the soldiers first,” he said. “The civilians were hurt because they were there waiting for their rides home.”
Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi, who previously called for martial law to be extended, condemned Sunday&#8217;s attacks. “Tonight is a sad and unfortunate night for all Cotabatenos. As of this time, 16 are reported wounded,” she said, urging citizens to “remain calm as our police and military have the situation under full control.” 
She continued, “We can rise above these acts of terrorism. We are resilient and strong enough to fight against these people whose mission is to disrupt our peace. We must all be united in the face of these adversities.”
The region has been under martial law since 2017, following a series of attacks from suspected members of a local terrorist group. The bombings come just nine days before martial law was supposed to be lifted. 
A spokesperson of the military&#8217;s Western Mindanao Command, Major Arvin Encinas, told <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/12/22/19/17-wounded-in-series-of-blasts-in-cotabato-city-nearby-town" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ABS-CBN News</a> that the military could not dismiss the possibility of radical Islamic terrorist-linked groups being involved in the attacks. 
&#8220;We do not discount the possibility that Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and Daesh-inspired groups are behind this,&#8221; he told the outlet.
BIFF is an extremist group with ties to the Islamic State that operates in the Asia-Pacific country. 
According to <a href="https://www.rappler.com/nation/247753-grenade-attack-cotabato-city-december-22-2019" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rappler News</a>, Cotabato Governor Nancy Catamco condemned the grenade attacks as “terrorist acts.”
“The bombings in the Municipality of Libungan and in Cotabato City have struck another blow to our people’s sense of security that is still reeling from the losses, damages, and trauma of the recent earthquakes,” she said in a statement. “Let us keep in mind that these terrorist acts aim to instill fear and to spread panic. Therefore, I call on everyone to remain calm and to stay vigilant. We need to muster our courage and to strongly resist fear.”
The attacks are suspected to be connected to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), which distributes certificates of land ownership awards to agrarian reform beneficiaries. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte arrived the following day in Cotabato to personally pass them out and to visit those injured in the explosions. 
“He will distribute land certificates and then visit the venues where the bombing took place. I don’t know which of the two but one of them,” a spokesperson told the <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/12/24/19/duterte-to-visit-cotabato-city-despite-bombings-palace-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">media</a>. 
BARMM is heavily opposed by Islamic State-tied radical Muslim organizations like BIFF and rebel group Abu Sayyaf, who have refused to enter negotiations with the Filipino government over the dispute. 
“It is sad that this kind of violence is happening while we are celebrating the holy Christmas season,” one witness said, according to <a href="https://morningstarnews.org/2019/12/grenade-attack-near-cathedral-leaves-several-wounded-in-the-philippines/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Morning Star News</a>. 
This series of attacks follows a similar one in November, when a man on a motorcycle threw a grenade inside a house in Aleosan town, Cotabato during a birthday party. Three people, including a child, were injured, according to <a href="https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1188934/3-hurt-in-cotabato-grenade-blast-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Inquirer News</a>, but no one was killed.

Tokyo Holds The Future of Asia International Conference

Philippines Rocked By Multiple Christmas Week Terrorist Attacks

Catholic Church

Catholicism

Christianity

Islam

Islamic State (ISIS)

Persecution

Philippines

Terrorism

This weekend, Pope Francis spoke to Catholic high school students about how to reach nonbelievers, stressing that Christians should live their faith out loud rather than trying to try to coerce people to convert, invoking the crusades as a time of great shame.
&#8220;In front of an unbeliever, the last thing I have to do is try to convince him. Never. The last thing I have to do is speak,&#8221; the pontiff said, according to <a href="https://disrn.com/news/pope-says-christians-should-never-try-to-convert-unbelievers-anyone-who-proselytizes-is-not-a-disciple-of-jesus">Disrn</a>. Instead, he stressed, &#8220;I have to live consistent with my faith. And it will be my testimony to awaken the curiosity of the other who says: &#8216;But why do you do this?&#8217; And yes, I can speak then.&#8221;
&#8220;Never, never bring the gospel by proselytizing,&#8221; he said later. &#8220;If someone says they are a disciple of Jesus and comes to you with proselytism, they are not a disciple of Jesus.&#8221;
Pope Francis invoked the crusades and conversion by the sword, calling it &#8220;shameful&#8221; and noting that Christians across the globe are similarly wrongly killed for their faith.
&#8220;We are not in the times of the crusades,&#8221; he said. &#8220;&#8230; &#8216;Either the baptism or the sword.&#8217; This has happened in history! They also do it with us Christians in other parts, they are also doing it but what we did was shameful because it is a story of forced conversion, of not respecting the dignity of the person.&#8221;
The Holy Father said he first learned of the principle of &#8220;coexistence&#8221; back in Argentina amid mass migration.
&#8220;There is a mixture of blood, a strong mixed race in Argentina — I am the son of a migrant, and this has made a culture of coexistence,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;I went to public school and we always had companions from other religions. We were educated to coexist: &#8216;There is a Jew, Russian, ah — come, come! I am a friend of Russian!&#8217; They said Russian because the majority of the Jews came from Odessa, some from Poland but the majority from Odessa. Then there were some Arabs, Lebanese, Syrians — &#8216;Ah, Turkish! Come, come!&#8217; This was Muslim, this was Jewish. But we all played football together, we were all friends.&#8221;
&#8220;This has taught me so much, that we are all the same, all children of God — and this purifies your gaze, it makes you human,&#8221; Pope Francis said. &#8220;In Argentina there is a small group of closed-minded Catholics who do not want Jews, do not want Muslims, but this group &#8230; I have never liked it, is a group that is on the fringe, they have a cultural magazine but they do not have impact in society.&#8221;
&#8220;But listen: Never, never bring the gospel by proselytizing. If someone says they are a disciple of Jesus and comes to you with proselytism, they are not a disciple of Jesus,&#8221; the pontiff said.
Pope Francis has repeatedly focused on the dignity of each human life. Last summer, for example, the pope compared aborting children for birth defects to Nazi eugenics. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pope-francis-abortion-birth-defects-nazi-eugenics-emily-zanotti">The Daily Wire</a> reported:
<blockquote>“I have heard that it’s fashionable, or at least usual, that when in the first months of pregnancy they do studies to see if the child is healthy or has something, the first offer is: let’s send it away,” the Pope said, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/17/europe/pope-abortion-eugenics---intl/index.html">according to CNN</a>, which appeared shocked by the news that the Pope is, indeed, a faithful member of the Catholic Church and opposed to the practice of abortion which the Church believes ends a human life.
“I say this with pain. In the last century the whole world was scandalized about what the Nazis did to purify the race. Today we do the same, but now with white gloves,” he continued.</blockquote>

Pope Francis Receives Christmas Greetings From Roman Curia

Pope Francis Tells Students How Not To Convert Unbelievers

The anti-Catholicism in France runs so deep that a public retirement home would not accept an elderly nun simply because she wore a habit.
According to <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/french-public-retirement-home-rejects-nun-because-she-wears-religious-habit">LifeSiteNews</a>, the 70-year-old nun applied for entry into a retirement home in the city of Vesoul after leaving her convent in October 2018. After waiting nine months for acceptance, authorities stipulated that she could only live in the city’s Centre Communal d&#8217;Action Sociale (CCAS) on the condition that she not wear her religious attire — a traditional habit and veil — while permitting her to only wear a &#8220;discreet cross.&#8221; Apparently, the attire would be disruptive to the residents&#8217; &#8220;serenity.&#8221;
&#8220;With due respect for secularism (laïcité), any ostentatious sign of belonging to a religious community cannot be accepted in order to ensure the serenity of all. Indeed, religion is a private affair and must remain so,&#8221; the authorities reportedly told her.
Since the nun had worn the religious habit for almost her entire life, she refused the order. She now lives in an apartment all alone where she must tend to her daily needs without communal support. The <a href="https://www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu/">Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe</a> (OIDACE) has been keeping a close watch on her case. In an email to LifeSiteNews, the organization said that the mayor of Vesoul apologized for the incident.
&#8220;In the end, it seems that the city&#8217;s mayor apologized for the ‘error in judgment,’ but that was little consolation for the elderly nun who was forced to choose between living in a retirement community without her religious habit or living alone in an apartment for the first time in her adult life,&#8221; said Ellen Fantini of OIDACE. &#8220;What I don&#8217;t know is why those were her only two options.&#8221;
The incident has also sparked outrage among local Catholics. In a <a href="https://www.lemessager.fr/1836/article/2019-11-19/une-religieuse-refusee-par-une-maison-de-retraite-parce-qu-elle-porte-le-voile">church bulletin </a>message, Fr. Florent Belin, a local parish priest, noted how secular authorities would bend over backward to defend a Muslim woman&#8217;s right to wear a burka but not a Catholic nun&#8217;s right to wear a habit while also noting that the organization had no trouble with him saying Mass in those environments.
“When the press tells us about a Muslim woman who is asked to remove her veil because she is in a public space, everyone shouts in outrage (calling it Islamophobia)!&#8221; the priest said. &#8220;Our nun, on the other hand, had to resign herself to finding another apartment. What is secularism? It is to give everyone the possibility to be able to live his faith without hurting anyone.&#8221;
&#8220;I do not think that the veil of a nun can harm, because it is not the sign of a submission, but of a consecration,&#8221; he added.
Alain Chretien, Vesoul&#8217;s mayor, said in a November 19th statement that the city committed &#8220;an error in judgment&#8221; and that the nun should not have been denied housing. The mayor also promised to find her a proper retirement home.
&#8220;Everyone has a place in the autonomous residences! Stop the controversy,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;The obligation of neutrality applies to public servants and to residents who wish to enjoy their freedom of conscience.&#8221;

Three nuns take a rest under a tree during the Corpus

French Public Retirement Home Rejects Catholic Nun For Wearing A Habit

France

Religion

The American Catholic Church saved itself from the oblivion of liberal theology this week when the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops declared that abortion is the &#8220;preeminent&#8221; political and moral issue over all others, thereby forcing issues like climate change, gun control, and the death penalty to take a lower position in the hierarchy of moral imperatives.
According to the <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/signs-times/abortion-preeminent-issue-global-warming-not-urgent-say-bishops?fbclid=IwAR2H-7A-W46SBjRcgRa5hBWjnHb0lSUhyHls3IHZAMSGmvYZNezK_yTHo38">National Catholic Reporter</a>, the bishops approved a letter saying that the &#8220;threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself, because it takes place within the sanctuary of the family, and because of the number of lives it destroys.&#8221;
Though the bishops highlighted abortion as the most pressing issue, the conference conceded that Catholics &#8220;cannot dismiss or ignore other serious threats to human life and dignity such as racism, the environmental crisis, poverty, and the death penalty.&#8221;
In other words, Catholics must regard abortion as the most urgent moral issue but must never use it as an excuse to avoid other important issues. In the end, Catholics are called to achieve holiness and being in the right on a singular issue will not be sufficient enough.
Some more liberal-leaning bishops, such as Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, disagreed with the final statement, arguing that it steps out line with the agenda implemented by Pope Francis in the encyclical &#8220;<a href="https://m.vatican.va/content/francescomobile/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20180319_gaudete-et-exsultate.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gaudete et Exsultate</a>,&#8221; which gave weight to other issues while not necessarily saying how they must be implemented.
&#8220;Our defense of innocent unborn, for example, needs to be clear, firm and passionate,&#8221; the pope said in the encyclical. &#8220;Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and elderly exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery, and every form of rejection.&#8221;
&#8220;We cannot uphold an ideal of holiness that would ignore injustice in a world where some revel, spend with abandon and live only for the latest consumer goods, even as others look on from afar, living their entire lives in abject poverty,&#8221; Pope Francis concluded.
Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego agreed with Cardinal Cupich that making abortion the &#8220;preeminent issue&#8221; stands out of line with the Francis agenda.
&#8220;The preeminent quote will be used to undermine the point Pope Francis is making in that paragraph,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Either we should get rid of preeminent, or if we are going to keep preeminent, then at least give the pope a fighting chance with his view and keep that whole paragraph because that is where he articulates his vision of this very controversial question.&#8221;
&#8220;It is not Catholic teaching that abortion is the preeminent issue that we face as a world,&#8221; continued McElroy. &#8220;For us to say that is a grave disservice to our people if we are trying to communicate to them what the magisterium teaches.&#8221;
Both McElroy and Cupich were immediately rebuked by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia.
&#8220;Saying that it (abortion) is preeminent is contrary to the teaching of the pope sets up an artificial battle between the bishops&#8217; conference of the United States and the Holy Father,&#8221; said Chaput.  &#8220;We do support the Holy Father completely. What he said is true. But it has been very clearly the articulated opinion of the bishops&#8217; conference for many years that pro-life is still the preeminent issue. It doesn&#8217;t mean that the others are not equal in dignity. It&#8217;s just time in this certain circumstances of our church in the United States.&#8221;
The bishops applauded Chaput and voted in favor of the measure by a margin of 143–69.

US-POLITICS-RELIGION

U.S. Catholic Bishops Declare Abortion The ‘Preemininent Issue’ Over All Else

Abortion

Despite being a pro-abortion Democrat who now wishes to fund the practice with taxpayer dollars, former Vice President Joe Biden said that Pope Francis has given him Holy Communion, and that he had never encountered a priest or bishop who would refuse him.
Speaking with PBS News Hour, Joe Biden said that the issue of receiving Holy Communion as a pro-abortion politician has never come up in his life until just recently.
“It’s not a position that I’ve found anywhere else, including from the Holy Father, who gives me Communion,&#8221; Biden said, as reported by <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pro-abortion-joe-biden-the-holy-father...gives-me-communion">LifeSiteNews</a>.
Last week, a Catholic priest in South Carolina <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-joe-biden-denied-holy-communion-at-catholic-church-over-abortion-support">reportedly enforced</a> the church’s code of canon law by denying former Vice President Joe Biden the sacrament of Holy Communion due to his stance on abortion.
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“Sadly, this past Sunday, I had to refuse Holy Communion to former Vice President Joe Biden,” Father Robert E. Morey of Saint Anthony Catholic Church told reporters. “Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other, and the Church. Our actions should reflect that. Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching.”
Biden told PBS that the Communion denial was &#8220;the only time it’s ever happened,” adding the situation was a &#8220;private matter,&#8221; while accusing the priest of bringing it to the press. While it is true that Father Morey told reporters about the encounter, it is possible that he told them of it only after they reached out, being that people in attendance or those close with Joe Biden might have spread word of it.
During every Mass, Catholic doctrine states that the wafer and wine become the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ when a priest consecrates it. In order for a Catholic to receive Communion, they must be in a state of grace after having attended the Sacrament of Confession. If a Catholic, usually by way of conscience, determines that they are not in a state of grace, they must refrain from receiving Holy Communion. When it comes to individuals who publicly oppose Catholic teaching (such as politicians who support abortion), bishops and priests are given full license under Canon Law to deny the person Holy Communion until they repent, lest they commit the sin of sacrilege if they receive what Catholics believe to be the body and blood of Christ unworthily.
As the abortion argument in the United States has escalated during the Trump era, certain Catholic bishops have taken extra steps to warn pro-abortion politicians to refrain from Holy Communion. Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of Springfield, for instance, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48112/illinois-catholic-bishop-bars-pro-abortion-paul-bois">expressly forbid </a>all priests under his governance to give Holy Communion to politicians that supported the “Reproductive Health Act” in Illinois.
</div>
In an appearance on &#8220;Fox &amp; Friends&#8221; late last week, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-york-cardinal-dolan-supports-priest-not-giving-pro-abortion-joe-biden-holy-communion">said that he supports Father Morey&#8217;s decision</a> even though he himself would give Joe Biden Holy Communion.
“I think that priest had a good point,” Dolan said. “You are publicly at odds with an issue of substance – critical substance. We’re talking about life and death in the church. You personally, out of integrity, should not approach Holy Communion – because that implies that you’re in union with all the church beliefs. I never have [denied someone Holy Communion]. I’ve never had, what you might call the opportunity, or never said, ‘uh-oh. Should I give him or her Holy Communion?’ It’s never come up. [It] sure could.”

US-VATICAN-RELIGION-POPE

Pro-Abortion Joe Biden: Pope Francis Gives Me Holy Communion

Joe Biden

Pope Francis

On Tuesday’s episode of “The Andrew Klavan Show,” Klavan talks about Ross Douthat’s column in the New York Times, in which he presents three arguments for why the “collapse of American Christianity” may be “overstated.” Video and partial transcript below: 
They’re trying to convince us Christianity [and] spirituality [are passing away]. They are working overtime trying to convince us that it&#8217;s passing away. But also in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/opinion/american-christianity.html">The New York Times</a>, the one guy over there that I really respect, Ross Douthat, has a column where he says [paraphrasing] “You know, not so fast.”
He sounds a little bit like me here saying, [paraphrasing] “I know that fewer people are going to church, but maybe it doesn&#8217;t mean what we think it means.” 
One of the things he says in this argument — it&#8217;s actually a really good argument — he talked about the fact that maybe the Christianity that&#8217;s fading away, that the polls show fading away, is the lukewarm Christianity, but an intense belief is still remaining strong. 
He also talks about the fact that young people are actually [going to church more] — because young people stop going to church when they go to college, they stopped going to church, and then later, when they start to have children, when they start to deal with reality, when they start to deal with mortality, they go back to church. But young people are actually going to church a little bit more than young people in the past, which bodes fair for the fact that as they grow older, and more serious, more knowledgeable, and more experienced, they may go back to church in greater numbers. 
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<iframe title="Pelosi Blinks | The Andrew Klavan Show Ep. 791" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZTSJ8zTBwWE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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He also points out that really the crisis in Christianity is a crisis in Catholicism, and there&#8217;s no question why they&#8217;re having that crisis. It&#8217;s not just the scandal, but it&#8217;s also the liberalization of Catholicism. 
So let me end with this: Kanye West. Obviously, you&#8217;ve all heard that he&#8217;s dropped this new album, “Jesus is King.” I&#8217;m in no position to judge Kanye West’s music, it&#8217;s not my kind of music…
In some ways, Kanye West may not be the spokesman we want to lean on, but he may be a good representation of American culture because he&#8217;s a crazy narcissist. The American culture is a crazy narcissistic culture, and suddenly with his conversion to Christianity — and again, I&#8217;m not judging his lyrics or anything — he&#8217;s saying a lot of things that make him sound very much like a religious conservative. 
<blockquote>WEST: The culture has you focused so much on [expletive] somebody&#8217;s [expletive] and pulling up in a foreign [car] and rapping about things that could get you locked up, and then saying you about prison reform, like bro? We brainwashed our here, bro. Come on, man, this is a free man talking. Democrats had us voting Democrat for food stamps for years, bro. What is you talking about? Guns in the 80s, taking fathers out the home, plan B, lowering our votes, making us abort our children. God should not kill. </blockquote>
Maybe not the most articulate argument, but those things go together. He is talking about a different version of human beings than the version that the Left has been selling. When he says this is a free man talking, he&#8217;s right. You&#8217;re not a free man talking until you understand the reasons why you should be free, which have to do with what a human being is, and those are the arguments we have to start making because again, we&#8217;re going to win political victories over time. 
We&#8217;re going to lose political victories, but overtime, we&#8217;re going to lose the argument if we&#8217;re not making the argument that we should be making — the real argument about what a human being is.
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-andrew-klavan-show/id1045171376?mt=2">Listen to full episodes of “The Andrew Klavan Show” on iTunes. </a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show">Watch “The Andrew Klavan Show” on-demand!</a>

Woman praying with Bible

KLAVAN: NYT Columnist Calls ‘Collapse’ Of American Christianity ‘Overstated.’ He’s Got A Point.

Kanye West

New York Times

A haunted house in Connecticut found itself at the center of controversy when some locals mistakenly believed that statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary were part of the attraction.
According to <a href="https://wtkr.com/2019/10/27/haunted-house-faces-controversy-virgin-mary-statues-on-property-covered/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">WTKR</a>, the Nightmare on Wolcott Street attraction in the city of Waterbury featured two Virgin Mary statues that were meant to be Christmas decor, leading some locals to believe that they were a sacrilegious part of the attraction. The statues were covered up with sheets at the request of the mayor&#8217;s office.
In a lengthy post on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=133313724739838&amp;id=118949746176236">Facebook</a>, the owners of the attraction, Renee Dearborn and Mike Anderson, apologized to anyone who was offended by the appearance of the statues.
&#8220;First, we want to apologize to anyone who&#8217;s been offended by the pic of the statues,&#8221; said the post. &#8220;They have nothing and will never have anything to do with Nightmare On Wolcott Street. That&#8217;s why they&#8217;re placed on the back dock in front of the restoration shop and not at our front entrance of Nightmare on Wolcott Street.&#8221;
The post added that the statues were never even a part of the attraction, as some locals believed, and were only seen when customers parked in the free lot.
&#8220;The only time the statues are seen is when the customers park in our lot (for free),&#8221; it continued. &#8220;Our blessed mother has never and will never be part of our haunted attraction. They&#8217;re placed where they are at the restoration shop because we&#8217;re planning to restore them and use them for an upcoming 2020 Christmas nativity scene.&#8221;
The post concluded with a message about the dangers of passing judgment before knowing all the facts – a common practice these days.
&#8220;Isn&#8217;t passing judgement before knowing the facts one of the biggest issues in today&#8217;s society?&#8221; it concluded. &#8220;All it does is cause chaos like this. The statues will be covered while Nightmare on Wolcott Street is open in hopes to bring some peace to this matter!!! Thank you!&#8221;
Speaking with <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/travel/virgin-mary-statues-haunted-house-outrage">Fox News</a>, Renee Dearborn said that the business remained steady at the haunted house despite the controversy:
<blockquote>Renee Dearborn spoke with Fox News and confirmed the confusion had been cleared up. Thankfully, the controversy didn&#8217;t seem to hurt business. While the weekend before Halloween usually has been busy, Dearborn confirmed that they saw an uptick in business this year.
Dearborn said she wanted to clarify that she couldn&#8217;t attribute it all to the attraction&#8217;s recent press. According to her, about half of the visitors hadn&#8217;t even heard of the controversy.
She also confirmed to Fox News that once the last ticket is sold for the haunted house attraction, the plastic wrap will be coming off the statues.</blockquote>
While the Nightmare at Wolcott haunted house generated a controversy that was ultimately the result of an honest mistake and miscommunication, some Halloween displays have generated real controversies in their neighborhoods, such as the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mean-spirited-anti-trump-halloween-display-divides-paul-bois">anti-Trump display last year</a> that featured President Trump as a cackling devil.
“The intricate and details display includes what appears to be an immigrant child in a cage, tombstones for departed White House staff members, caricatures of members of the Trump administration and other satirical elements,” reported CBS local at the time.
Another display featured a screaming scarecrow labeled as “Ted Cruz” sitting next to a sign castigating the Texas senator as “The most punchable face in America.” Another display featured President Trump as a cackling devil-like figure with a name tag that said, “Come with me my child into the heart of darkness itself!”

BOSNIA-RELIGION-PILGRIMAGE-FEATURE

Locals Outraged Over Virgin Mary Statues Mistakenly Placed At Connecticut Haunted House

Halloween

Virgin Mary

On Friday’s episode of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” the Daily Wire editor-in-chief talks about Cory Booker’s appearance at a recent CNN town hall, in which he advocated for religious discrimination. Video and partial transcript below: 
So it’s not just Beto O&#8217;Rourke who has been doing this extremist routine. It&#8217;s also Cory Booker. Here&#8217;s Cory Booker [a few days ago, basically] suggesting that Catholic schools across the country should shut down. He says, Catholic schools across the country are using religion to justify discrimination. 
<blockquote>BOOKER: And so for me, I cannot allow, as a leader, that people are going to use religion as a justification for discrimination. I could respect your religious freedoms but also protect people from discrimination, and as I said in the earlier answer, I grew up in a household where my parents talked to me about how people used to use religion to justify the discrimination against African Americans. </blockquote>
&#8220;I cannot allow&#8221;? Who the eff are you, dude? You cannot allow? Guess what, that&#8217;s not your right. My right is to act in ways that don&#8217;t harm anybody else, and if I choose to have an institution where I am going to elevate heterosexuality above homosexuality, that is not harming anyone else. You don&#8217;t have to participate in that institution. It&#8217;s a free country. 
I mean, you have institutions where you don&#8217;t tolerate my religious beliefs. I don&#8217;t expect that when I walk into a mosque that suddenly they&#8217;re gonna start practicing Judaism, or expect that when I walk into an atheist meeting [that] they&#8217;re going to start keeping kosher. I don&#8217;t expect that when I walk into the offices of the Human Rights Campaign that they&#8217;re going to start handing out literature from Leviticus. Why in the world would you not express the same degree of tolerance for people who disagree with you and toward people who you agree with? If you are only tolerant of people who agree with you, this is a good indicator you&#8217;re not a very tolerant person.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Znm5oOP28QA" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
First of all, the very implication that the reason the Catholics are against homosexual activity is simply out of bigotry and discrimination is an absolute ignorance of Catholicism. It&#8217;s an absolute ignorance of the natural law history of Catholicism, of the natural law arguments with regard to human sexuality. For the same reason the Catholics are against abortion and contraception, they&#8217;re also against homosexual activity. Namely, they believe that the end of the sexual act is procreation, and that because sex is directed toward procreation and toward the deepening of relationships that end with procreation, heterosexual sex ought to be favored over homosexual activity — or by the way, over activity that ends the pregnancy outside of marriage, over adultery, over polygamy. 
There are plenty of sexual rules in religion, and picking out one of them and pretending that that&#8217;s the only one that matters is pretty insane by the Left anyway. It demonstrates a full-scale lack of understanding of how religion works. 
But notice that for the Left, they truly believe — many people on the Left like Booker — they truly believe that practice of religion is in and of itself discrimination. Okay well, guess what? Religion is exclusive. My synagogue is about practicing 613 commandments, and if you don&#8217;t practice a commandment, that would be a sin. 
Catholic faith: One of the tenets of Catholic faith is that you have to believe in Jesus. If you don&#8217;t believe in Jesus, you&#8217;re doing something wrong. You have to have faith in Christ, and if you don&#8217;t, then you are excluded from the Catholic faith. You are not a practitioner of the Catholic faith. Is that discriminatory? Sure, but that&#8217;s called religion. 
Okay, guess what? Cory Booker is discriminatory too, because I am barred from the kingdom of heaven because he and I disagree on social Leftism. Amazing. Tolerance only flows one way — it flows from people like me. Religious people like me, they don’t have any problem with Cory Booker feeling what he wants to believe, or Human Rights Campaign believing what they want to believe, or GLAAD believing what they want to believe. Do what you want, man; it&#8217;s a free country. But that tolerance does not extend back the other way. Not in any way, shape or form, and we can&#8217;t have a society that operates this way by the way. 
Cory Booker is crazy, [he] was asked about the Pulse terror attack. For those who don&#8217;t remember, the Pulse terror attack — it was up until the attack in Las Vegas, I believe, the deadliest terror attack in the United States, and we still don’t know if Las Vegas was effectually a terrorist attack or a mass shooting. It&#8217;s kind of on that fuzzy border of classification because there&#8217;s no actual political motive there. [But] we know the motivation in Pulse, where forty-nine people were killed at this gay bar. The motivation of Pulse was Islamic radical terrorism. 
Cory Booker tries to blame it on white supremacy, because we can never mention the intersectional conflict between radical Islam and gay rights. Whenever Cory Booker or Beto O’Rourke are attacking someplace, notice how they always attack synagogues and churches. They never have anything to say about mosques that believe exactly the same thing as synagogues and churches on traditional sexual morality. Here&#8217;s Cory Booker being a moron and suggesting that white supremacy was responsible for the Pulse terror attack.
<blockquote>BOOKER: So first of all, very clearly, it is a national emergency. The majority of terrorist attacks in this country since 9/11 have been right-wing extremist groups. The majority of them have been white supremacist and hate groups, and I will elevate as president United States an office on hate crimes and white supremacy to make sure it is a presidential-level effort to contact to protect our country as a whole. But I&#8217;m not stopping there. </blockquote>
Okay, by the way, the question that Booker was asked was about the Pulse terror attack. It sounds like he&#8217;s being asked about Tree of Life or something, [but] he was asked about the Pulse terror attack, which was committed by an actual terrorist, by an actual Islamic terrorist. Tree of Life was committed by a white supremacist, there is a bit of a difference there. 
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ben-shapiro-show/id1047335260">Listen to full episodes of “The Ben Shapiro Show” on iTunes. </a>
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Cory Booker

SHAPIRO: Cory Booker Preaches Religious Intolerance

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If you had to pick one man on Earth who probably doesn&#8217;t know how to use emojis or hashtags, you&#8217;d be pretty safe picking the Pope.
Pope Francis wrote Sunday on his official Twitter account, “Today we give thanks to the Lord for our new #Saints. They walked by faith and now we invoke their intercession.”
The Pope was was giving thanks to five new saints that were canonized on Sunday morning, sending out the celebratory message to his 18.1 million followers on the platform, where he goes by the handle &#8220;Pontifex.&#8221;
But on Twitter, a New Orleans logo emoji showed up next to “Saints” &#8212; as in the National Football League&#8217;s New Orleans Saints.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Today we give thanks to the Lord for our new <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Saints?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Saints</a>. They walked by faith and now we invoke their intercession.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) <a href="https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/1183329028326993921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
New Orleans Saints linebacker Alex Anzalone was among the first to express his gratitude. “Wow, are we blessed or what?!??” Anzalone tweeted.
You&#8217;ll be shocked to hear that Twitter went wild with the rogue emoji.
&#8220;Putting all my money on the Saints today,&#8221; wrote sports reporter Matt Miller.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Putting all my money on the Saints today.
— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) <a href="https://twitter.com/nfldraftscout/status/1183388057514455040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
&#8220;Thank you holy father for the gambling tip,&#8221; wrote another on Twitter.
Then there was this:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://t.co/7iutr07SCU">pic.twitter.com/7iutr07SCU</a>
— Cruz Oxenreider (@TheRealCruzOx) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheRealCruzOx/status/1183389352170262529?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
&#8220;The Hail Mary doesn&#8217;t generally work in football, so I don&#8217;t see why advice from the Pope would,&#8221; wrote another.
&#8220;Looked good on papal, never panned out on the field,&#8221; wrote yet another.
&#8220;And we must ask the Lord to forgive the #Saints for their trespasses, which cost them 10 yards on a key third and long.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
And we must ask the Lord to forgive the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Saints?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Saints</a> for their trespasses, which cost them 10 yards on a key third and long.
— Vic Vela (@VicVela1) <a href="https://twitter.com/VicVela1/status/1183434237220773889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
Pope Francis was in the news last week when controversy erupted after atheist Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari published a serious charge in an article for the center-left outlet La Repubblica &#8212; namely, that the Pope previously told him in a private interview that Jesus Christ was not God. If true, this would be a blatant statement of heresy that denies the Nicene Creed and the Catechism.
According to Catholic News Agency, Scalfari, who has interviewed the Pope on several occasions, said he discussed the topic of Jesus’ divinity some time in the past. He allegedly challenged Pope Francis about church teaching by noting several scriptures of Christ expressing agony, which apparently led Scalfari to believe that Jesus was not divine. In response, Pope Francis allegedly told him, “They are the definitive proof that Jesus of Nazareth, once he became a man, even if he was a man of exceptional virtue, was not a God.”
Immediately after the article went public, the Vatican issued a rather tepid statement denying Scalfari’s claims, saying it was not a “faithful account” of what Pope Francis said.
“As already stated on other occasions, the words that Dr. Eugenio Scalfari attributes in quotation marks to the Holy Father during talks with him cannot be considered a faithful account of what was actually said but represent a personal and free interpretation of what he heard, as appears completely evident from what is written today regarding the divinity of Jesus Christ,” Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See’s press office, said in a statement.
After significant backlash over the wording in Bruni’s denial, Dr. Paolo Ruffini, the Vatican’s prefect of the dicastery for communications, effectively called Scalfari a liar and affirmed that Pope Francis believes in rudimentary Catholic teaching about the divinity of Jesus.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vatican-forcefully-denies-claim-pope-francis-said-jesus-was-not-god">Vatican Forcefully Denies Claim Pope Francis Said Jesus Was Not God</a>

Pope Francis Holds General Audience At The Vatican

Pope Francis Accidentally Tweets His Support For The NFL’s New Orleans Saints

Controversy erupted this week when atheist Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari published a serious charge in an article for the center-left outlet La Repubblica — namely, that Pope Francis previously told him in a private interview that Jesus Christ was not God. If true, this would be a blatant statement of heresy that denies the Nicene Creed and the Catechism.
According to <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican-dont-believe-scalfari-report-that-pope-francis-denied-christs-divinity-52026">Catholic News Agency</a>, Scalfari, who has interviewed the pope on several occasions, said he discussed the topic of Jesus&#8217; divinity sometime in the past. He allegedly challenged Pope Francis about church teaching by noting several scriptures of Christ expressing agony, which apparently led Scalfari to believe that Jesus was not divine. In response, Pope Francis allegedly told him, &#8220;They are the definitive proof that Jesus of Nazareth, once he became a man, even if he was a man of exceptional virtue, was not a God.&#8221;
Immediately after the article went public, the Vatican issued a rather tepid statement denying Scalfari&#8217;s claims, saying it was not a &#8220;faithful account&#8221; of what Pope Francis said.
&#8220;As already stated on other occasions, the words that Dr. Eugenio Scalfari attributes in quotation marks to the Holy Father during talks with him cannot be considered a faithful account of what was actually said but represent a personal and free interpretation of what he heard, as appears completely evident from what is written today regarding the divinity of Jesus Christ,&#8221; Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See’s press office, said in a statement.
After significant backlash over the wording in Bruni&#8217;s denial, Dr. Paolo Ruffini, the Vatican&#8217;s prefect of the dicastery for communications, effectively called Scalfari a liar and affirmed that Pope Francis believes in rudimentary Catholic teaching about the divinity of Jesus.
&#8220;On this [latest editorial by Eugenio Scalfari], as you know, there has already been a clear denial by the director of the press office, Dr. [Matteo] Bruni. However, I would like to reiterate that the Holy Father never said what Scalfari wrote that he said,&#8221; Ruffini said, as reported by <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2019/10/10/the-vatican-flatly-rejects-claim-that-pope-denied-divinity-of-jesus/?fbclid=IwAR17zepZ8bDIJOvcyD_mzKjBcnsoz3CZD2f3MB6f7EoP8rbuzmaJ_x0GzZs">Catholic Herald</a>. &#8220;Therefore, both the quoted remarks, and the free reconstruction and interpretation by Dr. Scalfari of the colloquies — which go back to more than two years ago — cannot be considered a faithful account of what was said by the pope. And that will be found rather throughout the Church’s magisterium and Pope Francis’s own, on Jesus: True God and true man.&#8221;
Catholic News Agency also provided several examples in which Pope Francis has referenced Christ&#8217;s divinity in both written and spoken word:
<blockquote>In Evangelli Gaudium, the pope speaks of the &#8220;divine life&#8221; of Jesus.
In his Dec. 24, 2013 homily, the pope said, &#8220;[t]he grace which was revealed in our world is Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, true man and true God &#8230; In him was revealed the grace, the mercy, and the tender love of the Father: Jesus is Love incarnate. He is not simply a teacher of wisdom, he is not an ideal for which we strive while knowing that we are hopelessly distant from it. He is the meaning of life and history, who has pitched his tent in our midst.&#8221;
Speaking of Jesus last October, the pope said, &#8220;God chooses an uncomfortable throne, the cross, from which he reigns giving his life.&#8221;</blockquote>
Scalfari has drummed up this type of controversy before. As Easter approached in 2018, the 93-year-old journalist <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/28831/its-lie-no-pope-francis-did-not-abolish-hell-paul-bois?utm_source=facebook&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_content=062316-news&amp;utm_campaign=dwbrand&amp;fbclid=IwAR1u4A0APYUxWIwDJ-CljMshAUZVz4TO4J3ndJyXUAxZqYI4fOvWMsoTnH4">reported</a> that Pope Francis allegedly told him in private that souls do not go to hell and instead believed in the heretical doctrine of annihilation — the idea that unrepentant souls simply cease to exist after death rather than eternal damnation.
&#8220;They are not punished — those who repent obtain the forgiveness of God and enter the rank of souls who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot therefore be forgiven disappear,&#8221; Scalfari alleged Pope Francis said.
&#8220;There is no hell, there is the disappearance of sinful souls,&#8221; the pope allegedly added.

Vatican Forcefully Denies Claim Pope Francis Said Jesus Was Not God

On Thursday, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/18/politics/devos-school-anti-trans-policy/index.html?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_term=image&amp;utm_content=2019-09-19T02%3A25%3A04&amp;utm_source=twCNNp">CNN moaned</a> that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos would be visiting a &#8220;Pennsylvania Catholic school that subscribes to an anti-trans student policy.&#8221;
What constitutes an &#8220;an anti-trans student policy&#8221; for CNN? The fact that Harrisburg Catholic Elementary School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, obeys the Diocese of Harrisburg&#8217;s <a href="https://www.hbgdiocese.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/P5112.6-15.pdf">student policy on Gender Identity Questions</a>, which states:
<blockquote>This policy addresses the circumstances where there is a clear biological determination of a person&#8217;s sex and subsequent efforts to chemically and/or surgically alter the given biology. This is understood in Catholic moral terms as self-mutilation and therefore immoral. To attempt to make accommodations for such persons would be to cooperate in the immoral action and impose an unacceptable burden on others in the school community.</blockquote>
The policy adds, &#8220;When parents enroll a child in a Catholic school in the diocese they agree that they will not publically act in opposition to Catholic teaching. Notification of a student’s determination to undergo a sex change procedure or that a student has undergone the procedure (condition #2 as described above) would violate that agreement. The student would be ineligible to attend or remain in attendance in a Catholic school.&#8221;
So for CNN, a Catholic school that subscribes to strict Catholic teaching is purveying an &#8220;anti-trans student policy.&#8221;
This is not the first time CNN or a CNN commentator has targeted a Catholic school; in January 2019, Father Edward L. Beck, a Roman Catholic priest and a CNN Religion Commentator, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/22/opinions/maga-hats-dont-belong-on-a-catholic-school-trip-beck/index.html">slammed the boys</a> from Covington Catholic School in Kentucky after an incident at the March for Life, writing:
<blockquote>I don&#8217;t think the boys should have been permitted to wear MAGA hats to the March for Life event they attended. The &#8220;Make America Great Again&#8221; slogan has become political code for an agenda that is often in opposition with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. The boys attended the march representing a Catholic boys&#8217; school. Any hat donned should have had the school name or a logo identifying them as participants in the March for Life event — not a hat with a logo that may suggest stances not in accord with the mission statement of their school.</blockquote>
In July 2019, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/09/us/catholic-school-fires-teacher-settlement/index.html">compared two Catholic schools</a> in Indianapolis after one fired a teacher who had announced his same-sex marriage on social media. Cathedral High School fired the teacher after Archdiocese of Indianapolis Archbishop Charles Thompson warned the school it would forfeit its ability to be recognized or identified as a Catholic institution by the archdiocese if it kept the teacher on staff. CNN then reported, &#8220;Another Catholic school in Indianapolis was issued the same ultimatum by the archbishop and chose to keep their teacher. In June, Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School, only 11 miles from Cathedral, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/20/us/jesuit-school-indiana-gay-teacher/index.html">refused to fire its teacher</a> and as a result will no longer be recognized or identified as a Catholic institution by the archdiocese. The school said it plans to appeal the decision to the archdiocese and the Vatican, if necessary.&#8221;
Cathedral High School issued a statement to CNN that read: &#8220;In today&#8217;s climate we know that being Catholic can be challenging and we hope that this action does not dishearten you, and, most especially, dishearten Cathedral&#8217;s young people. We know that some individuals do not agree with every teaching of the Catholic Church and so their conscience struggles between the teaching and what they believe is right.&#8221;

Trump Administration Cabinet Members Attend Summit On Combatting Anti-Semitism

CNN Rips DeVos For Visiting School That Has ‘Anti-Trans Policy.’ It’s A Catholic School.

Betsy DeVos

One week after Pope Francis said he felt &#8220;honored&#8221; to have American Catholics criticizing him, the Holy Father said he welcomes an open dialogue with those who disagree with him.
According to the <a href="http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/pope-francis-defends-himself-and-discusses-schism">National Catholic Register</a>, the Roman Pontiff made his comments during an inflight press conference from Madagascar when Jason Horowitz of the New York Times asked him if the parts of the American Catholic Church were at risk of schism and how he planned to dialogue with his fiercest critics.
&#8220;Is there something that you have learned from your critics?&#8221; Horowitz asked. &#8220;Are you afraid of a schism in the American Church? And if so, is there something that you could do — a dialogue — to keep it from happening?&#8221;
In a markedly different tone than his previous in-flight press conference, Pope Francis said that he welcomes criticism so long as it becomes a dialogue rather than a war of words.
&#8220;First of all, criticism always helps, always,&#8221; Pope Francis began. &#8220;When someone receives criticism, that person needs to do a self-critique right away and say: Is this true or not? To what point? And I always benefit from criticism. Sometimes it makes you angry &#8230; . But there are advantages.&#8221;
Last week, during another in-flight press conference, Pope Francis told French reporter Nicolas Seneze that he felt &#8220;honored&#8221; certain Americans were criticizing his papacy. His comments came in response to Seneze&#8217;s book — &#8220;How America Wanted to Change the Pope.&#8221;
&#8220;For me, it&#8217;s an honor that Americans are attacking me,&#8221; Francis said at the time.
Shortly after the flight, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni attempted to clarify the pope&#8217;s comments by saying they were made &#8220;in an informal context&#8221; and that the Holy Father &#8220;wanted to say that he always considers criticisms an honor, particularly when it comes from important thinkers and, in this case, of an important nation.&#8221;
In the same interview with Horowitz this week, Francis largely echoed Bruni&#8217;s sentiments regarding his past comments and even clarified that all the criticism directed towards him comes from all corners of the world and not just the United States.
&#8220;Criticisms are not coming only from the Americans, they are coming a bit from everywhere, even from the Curia,&#8221; said the pope. &#8220;At least those that say them have the benefit of the honesty of having said them. I do not like it when criticism stays under the table: They smile at you letting you see their teeth and then they stab you in the back. That is not fair, it is not human.&#8221;
&#8220;Criticism is a component in construction, and if your criticism is unjust, be prepared to receive a response, and get into dialogue, and arrive to the right conclusion,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;This is the dynamic of true criticism.&#8221;
Pope Francis added that people who criticize without &#8220;wanting to hear a response&#8221; or get into a dialogue about certain issues ultimately do the church little justice.
&#8220;To criticize without wanting to hear a response and without getting into dialogue is not to have the good of the Church at heart, it is chasing after a fixed idea, to change the Pope or to create a schism,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This is clear: a fair criticism is always well received, at least by me. Secondly, the problem of the schism: Within the Church there have been many schisms.&#8221;
In conclusion, Pope Francis characterized some of his critics as &#8220;rigid,&#8221; whom he said have a &#8220;pseudo-schismatic&#8221; theology that &#8220;will end badly.&#8221;
&#8220;A morality based on such a pelagian ideology leads you to rigidity, and today we have many schools of rigidity within the Church, which are not schisms, but pseudo-schismatic Christian developments that will end badly,&#8221; he said. &#8220;When you see rigid Christians, bishops, priests, there are problems behind that, not Gospel holiness. So, we need to be gentle with those who are tempted by these attacks, they are going through a tough time, we must accompany them gently.&#8221;

Pope Francis Says He Welcomes Criticism And Dialogue

You follow the antics of AOC and the so-called &#8220;Squad&#8221; of hers and you wonder if the left has lost its mind. Your instincts are correct. And if it&#8217;s any comfort to the left, it is not alone. In fact, there are even loonier elements loose among the elites.
On the East Coast, the Manhattan-based leftist Jesuit magazine America regularly produces copy that assaults the teachings of the Catholic Church. (Some Jesuits are born with that DNA.) But the magazine has outdone itself now, even by its standards. It has published an article titled &#8220;The Catholic Case for Communism&#8221; by its Toronto-based correspondent Dean Dettloff, who just happens to be a member of the Communist Party of Canada.
Dettloff concedes, &#8220;Christianity and communism have obviously had a complicated relationship. That adjective &#8216;complicated&#8217; will surely cause some readers to roll their eyes.&#8221; Well, he&#8217;s right. It did. Communists have murdered millions of Catholics all over the world. Millions more in China, Cuba and elsewhere continue to be persecuted. &#8220;Complicated&#8221;? Programming a remote control can be complicated. There&#8217;s a better word for this communist-Catholic dynamic. It&#8217;s called &#8220;genocide.&#8221;
This communist argued, &#8220;though some communists would undoubtedly prefer a world without Christianity, communism is not simply a program for destroying the church.&#8221; Except that is precisely what communism has tried to do all over the world since its founding, and for good reason. Catholicism is its mortal enemy.
Rod Dreher wrote a devastating piece for The American Conservative titled &#8220;Jesuits Rehabilitate Communism.&#8221; He wrote how in Warsaw recently, he knelt at the grave of the Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko, the chaplain of the Solidarity labor union movement, who the communist security forces beat to a lifeless pulp in 1984. In communist countries, faithful priests and believers weren&#8217;t just killed; they were tortured and forced to watch their beloved Christ and his cross be mocked in lurid and disgusting ways.
It wasn&#8217;t &#8220;complicated.&#8221; It was obscene.
So, do you think it can get any more intellectually incoherent than that? Let&#8217;s just mosey over to the West Coast now and see what we find there. Hollywood is about as left-wing as you can get, but you can never be left-wing enough if you&#8217;re on the left, and here Hollywood goes again.
Hollywood is facing intense pressure from the left to be more &#8220;progressive.&#8221; Now the left is targeting movies for children. What&#8217;s the problem there, you ask? Just read Esquire magazine and you&#8217;ll learn that Disney movies like &#8220;The Lion King&#8221; are unacceptably uber-capitalist.
Gabrielle Bruney acknowledges in her piece that this is a movie about animals, not humans. But that doesn&#8217;t matter. &#8220;The politics of a cartoon savannah shouldn&#8217;t be taken too seriously, of course,&#8221; she writes. And then she becomes instantly serious: &#8220;but regressive class messaging abounds in children&#8217;s films. A 2016 study of G-rated blockbusters found that nearly a third of all the main characters in the films were upper class, while another quarter were upper middle class. Just 20 percent of leads were working class or poor.&#8221;
You see, the lions are the rich, and this means their prey is somehow the poor. Bruney complains that the hyenas in the film are the villains, even though the lions also prey on animals. She writes: &#8220;The problem with the hyenas, then, appears not to be that they eat meat, but that they&#8217;re trying to eat above their station. In the class structure of Pride Rock, Disney pretty much made villains of the hungry poor, outcast animals who just wanted to literally eat the rich.&#8221;
Similarly, the Washington Post published a column by Dutch professor Dan Hassler-Forrest in which he denounced &#8220;The Lion King&#8221; as a &#8220;fascistic&#8221; film that portrays &#8220;a society where the weak have learned to worship at the feet of the strong.&#8221; He adds, &#8220;The hyenas transparently represent the black, brown and disabled bodies that are forcefully excluded from this hierarchical society.&#8221;
Holy smokes. Can you follow this nonsense? Then again, did we just say &#8220;holy&#8221; (slyly inserting religion) and &#8220;smokes&#8221; (we must support the tobacco lobby)?
Maybe, just maybe, there&#8217;s some hope here. Maybe the intolerant left will find fault with everything and one day, like a black hole, implode upon itself.
L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Brent Bozell III and Tim Graham, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

BOZELL & GRAHAM: The Cultural Left Goes Berserk

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Democratic Party

Progressivism

The latest report on the horrific Notre Dame fire is that a newly appointed security guard misunderstood the alert system and sent his colleagues to the wrong building when the fire initially broke out.
&#8220;A security guard in charge of protecting Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was working only his third day and sent his fellow colleague to the wrong building to check on the alert when the fire first broke out,&#8221; reports <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/notre-dame-security-guard-delayed-response-wrong-building">Fox News</a>. &#8220;A major miscommunication occurred amid the early warnings of the blaze as one of the guards went to check the fire-free sacristy, not the attic of the Cathedral, a move that delayed the response to the fire.&#8221;
While Paris prosecutors have largely concluded the fire did not result from a criminal or terrorist act, alleging it most likely stemmed from an electrical shortage or a smoldering cigarette, the delayed response time may indeed have further increased the damage done to the beloved cathedral.
&#8220;Only 30 minutes later, the cathedral staff realized they made a mistake and sent the guard to the attic — also known as &#8216;the forest&#8217; for its aged timber beams that hold up the roof — only to find that the fire was already in full swing,&#8221; the report continued. &#8220;The report found that the person who notified the location of the fire to the guard was working there only his third day and that he just started getting used to the alert system.&#8221;
Though the guard failed to properly read the system, reports are that the system itself was &#8220;complex and dated, prompting questions whether the person in charge of it even understood the alert in general.&#8221;
As The Daily Wire&#8217;s Emily Zanotti <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48941/devastating-notre-dame-fire-was-probably-started-emily-zanotti">reported</a>, the Notre Dame fire most likely originated from a burning cigarette, leading prosecutors to investigate whether the fire resulted from simple negligence. Several weeks after the initial blaze, the scaffolding firm originally charged with renovating the Notre Dame cathedral <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46416/scaffolding-firm-construction-workers-smoked-paul-bois">admitted that construction</a> workers were smoking cigarettes on site. However, the company, Le Bras Freres, denies that it started the fire.
&#8220;We condemn it. But the fire started inside the building &#8230; so for company Le Bras, this is not a hypothesis, it was not a cigarette butt that set Notre-Dame de Paris on fire,&#8221; said Le Bras Frères spokesman Marc Eskenazi.
Following the fire, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the cathedral will be even &#8220;more beautiful&#8221; while also calling for it to be rebuilt in five years.
&#8220;The fire at Notre Dame reminds us that our history never stops and we will always have challenges to overcome,&#8221; Macron <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/17/notre-dame-fire-macron-promises-to-make-cathedral-more-beautiful-than-before">said</a>. &#8220;We will rebuild Notre Dame, more beautiful than before — and I want it done in the next five years. We can do it. After the time of testing comes a time of reflection and then of action.&#8221;
Experts speculate, however, that the rebuilding of Notre Dame could take decades. For instance, the roof was comprised of oak beams cut from centuries-old trees that likely do not even exist in Europe today.
&#8220;Some of that material may be reusable, and that’s a painstaking exercise. It’s like an archaeological excavation,&#8221; Duncan Wilson, chief executive of the conservation organization Historic England, told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/17/notre-dame-fire-macron-promises-to-make-cathedral-more-beautiful-than-before">The Guardian</a>.

Report: Notre Dame Security Guard Delayed Fire Response

Europe

Notre Dame Cathedral

A Massachusetts pro-life Catholic man claims that Facebook censored a peaceful quote from the theologian St. Augustine of Hippo as &#8220;hate speech.&#8221;
According to <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/facebook-bans-saint-augustine-quote-as-hate-speech">LifeSiteNews</a>, Dominic Bettinelli published the St. Augustine quote on his Facebook page after two priests with whom he was friendly were allegedly censored by the social media platform for publishing the same words, arguing they violated &#8220;community standards on hate speech.&#8221;
The quote, which originates from one of the saint&#8217;s homilies, essentially repeats Jesus Christ&#8217;s command in Matthew 7:3 for people to focus on their own sins instead of focusing upon the sins of others.
&#8220;Let us never assume that if we live good lives we will be without sin; our lives should be praised only when we continue to beg for pardon,&#8221; says the Augustine quote. &#8220;But men are hopeless creatures, and the less they concentrate on their own sins, the more interested they become in the sins of others. They seek to criticize, not to correct. Unable to excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others.&#8221;
To most reasonable people, the quote seems the exact opposite of &#8220;hate speech.&#8221; In fact, it condemns &#8220;hate speech&#8221; by admonishing people for accusing others instead of worrying about their own problems.
“Hate speech?” Bettinelli asked in regards to the censoring. &#8220;It’s the opposite of hate speech. It’s calling for people to stop focusing on others’ sins and concentrate on their own. Augustine is just re-formulating Jesus’ own words from the Gospel: &#8216;Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?&#8217; (Matthew 7:3).&#8221;
At first, Bettinelli believed the censorship originated from a mistaken computer algorithm; his assumptions were dashed when even a human review deemed the quote violated community standards of &#8220;hate speech.&#8221; In response, Bettinelli openly asked Facebook if the censoring implied that the Gospel promotes &#8220;hate speech.&#8221;
&#8220;I still don’t understand why this is hate speech,&#8221; Bettinelli told Facebook. &#8220;It’s a quote from a Catholic saint who expresses the opposite of hate speech. He is essentially restating the words of Jesus Christ in the Gospels to stop worrying about what the other guy is or isn’t doing and worry about your own flaws. Is Facebook saying that the Gospel is hate speech? But what’s worse is that I have no more understanding now of what is a violation of your community standards than I did before. I cannot for the life of me figure out why you label this hate speech.&#8221;
Speaking with LifeSiteNews, the pro-lifer said that friends of his have received similar notices from the social media platform for posting religious posts — none of which focus on particularly hot-button issues.
&#8220;A friend posted ‘men are hopeless creatures’ and that got banned, so that seems to be the relevant part that is hate speech,&#8221; he said.
The censoring has not stopped Bettinelli from talking about St. Augustine; he has vowed to blog about it, instead.
&#8220;If FB doesn&#8217;t want me to post it, then I&#8217;m going to blog about it and then I&#8217;m going to podcast about it and I&#8217;m going to make a stink about it until someone with some power gets FB to admit that quotations from early Church fathers is [sic] not hate speech,&#8221; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Facebook&amp;ref=eyJzaWQiOiIwLjU3OTY3ODYwNjQ1MDcyMiIsInFzIjoiSlRWQ0pUSXlSbUZqWldKdmIyc2xNaklsTlVRIiwiZ3YiOiJiZWUwOWY5M2ZhNzMyY2ZhNTlhMWNiNmQ5ZjQ1MGQzODkyNDI0ZTQ5IiwiZW50X2lkcyI6W10sImJzaWQiOiIxYWExYzRiODVmZmEwNWFmMjJmYzI3YWQ3ZGIyZDM3NSIsInByZWxvYWRlZF9lbnRpdHlfaWRzIjpudWxsLCJwcmVsb2FkZWRfZW50aXR5X3R5cGUiOm51bGwsInJlZiI6ImJyX3RmIiwiY3NpZCI6bnVsbCwiaGlnaF9jb25maWRlbmNlX2FyZ3VtZW50IjpudWxsLCJjbGllbnRfdGltZV9tcyI6MTU2MzIwMzg3MjE1Nn0&amp;epa=SEARCH_BOX">he wrote</a> on Facebook.

REPORT: Facebook Censors Peaceful Saint Augustine Quote As ‘Hate Speech’

Censorship

Facebook

The &#8220;Queen of Pop&#8221; Madonna recently claimed that Jesus would be perfectly okay with women killing their unborn baby in an abortion. Faith leader Franklin Graham has now taken her to task for such an absurd claim.
In a Facebook post on Monday, the son of Billy Graham said Jesus would definitely not support abortions and that Madonna has been grossly misled to an &#8220;absurd&#8221; theological position.
<blockquote>
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/madonna/?fref=mentions" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Madonna</a> says that the Author of Life, Jesus Christ, would approve of the destruction of life through abortion. That&#8217;s absurd! I&#8217;m sorry that Madonna and others who believe the way she does are so misled. They must not understand that one day God will hold them accountable. To stand before a Holy God with the blood of the unborn on your hands is a frightening thought. Our only hope is to repent of our sins and put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, our Creator and the giver of life.
</blockquote>
<div class="embed"><iframe allow="encrypted-media" frameborder="0" height="605" width="500"></iframe></div>
Madonna delivered her bizarre theological exegesis while speaking with Australian television presenter Andrew Denton to promote her new album, &#8220;Madame X.&#8221; Amid jokes and laughter, the &#8220;Material Girl&#8221; singer said that she would try to convince Pope Francis about Jesus&#8217; supposed love of abortion if she were given a private audience with him.
&#8220;One day he might invite me. I think this one might,&#8221; she <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/alexa-moutevelis-coombs/2019/06/21/madonna-jesus-would-agree-woman-has-right-choose" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a>. &#8220;Let&#8217;s talk about Jesus&#8217; point of view about women. Let&#8217;s talk about it. What do you really think he thought of women? And don&#8217;t you think Jesus would agree that a woman has the right to choose what to do with her body? I think he would be open to having that conversation with me.&#8221;
Well, from a Catholic perspective, Pope Francis has already reiterated centuries-old teaching on the immorality of abortion and has done so several times throughout his pontificate. Most recently, he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47688/pope-francis-abortion-never-acceptable-hiring-paul-bois">even likened the horrific practice</a> to the hiring of a hitman in order to solve a problem.
&#8220;Fear and hostility towards disability often lead to the choice of abortion, treating it as a means of &#8216;prevention,'&#8221; Pope Francis said.
The Holy Father even phrased the immorality of abortion as a question that goes beyond religion. &#8220;First question: Is it okay to eliminate a human life to solve a problem? Second question: Is it okay to hire a hitman to solve a problem?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;This is the point. Do not blame religion for something that concerns the human. It is not lawful. Never, ever eliminate a human life or hire a hitman to solve a problem.&#8221;
&#8220;Sometimes we hear: &#8216;You Catholics do not accept abortion, it is a matter of your faith,'&#8221; he continued. &#8220;No: It is a pre-religious problem. Faith is not the issue. It is not unrelated, but it is not the issue: This is a human problem. It is a pre-religious problem.&#8221;
Instead of treating children with disabilities in the womb as problems in need of disposal, Pope Francis said that people should regard them as &#8220;small patients&#8221; who may indeed be helped by advancements in modern medicine. He called on doctors to resume their role in the world as healers, not death merchants.
&#8220;Children in the mother&#8217;s womb, if they have pathological conditions, are small patients, who can often be treated with pharmacological, surgical, and extraordinary assistance, capable of reducing that terrible gap between diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities,&#8221; the pope said, &#8220;which for years has been one of the causes of abortion and the abandonment of care at the birth of so many children with serious pathologies.&#8221;

Rev. Franklin Graham Brings Evangelical Message To California Before Primary

Franklin Graham Blasts Madonna For Saying ‘Jesus Would Agree’ With Abortion

Franklin Graham

Madonna

Katy Perry apparently had a role to play in the death of a Catholic nun over disputes regarding a Los Angeles convent, alleges the nun&#8217;s best friend.
Speaking to the <a href="https://pagesix.com/2019/06/08/nun-battling-katy-perry-says-singer-has-blood-on-her-hands/">New York Post</a>, Sister Rita Callanan said the legal battles with Katy Perry have yielded nothing but hell in her life, leaving her &#8220;paralyzed, penniless and without a home.&#8221;
&#8220;I really didn&#8217;t like Katy Perry. I&#8217;m sure she doesn&#8217;t like me,&#8221; the 81-year-old nun told the outlet.
Rita Callanan belonged to Order of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary and is now the Order&#8217;s last surviving member. In 1972, the Order purchased a 30,000 square-foot Spanish/Gothic home for which it had pooled money &#8212; raising most of the funds by allowing Hollywood production companies to film on the property.
In 2011, however, the sisters claim that the Los Angeles archdiocese forced them to move and then sold the property to none other than pop singer Katy Perry in 2015. The diocese was seemingly unfazed by the fact they were selling a piece of Catholic real estate to a woman who has opposed the Church on every single cultural issue, from abortion to homosexuality to <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/katy-perry-plays-with-magic-and-witchcraft-in-salem-massachusetts-shares-photos.html">witchcraft</a>. Since the nuns believed they should have a say as to who should inherit the property they had cultivated for nearly 40 years, they sold the property to businesswoman Dana Hollister &#8212; thus sparking a multi-year legal battle.
In 2016, a judge sided with the Los Angeles archdiocese and Katy Perry by declaring invalid the nuns&#8217; sale of the property to Hollister. Despite that, the nuns persisted until March of last year, when Sister Callanan&#8217;s best friend, 89-year-old Sister Catherine Rose Holzman, <a href="https://pagesix.com/2018/03/11/nun-in-katy-perry-real-estate-battle-dies-at-court-appearance/">collapsed and died in a Los Angeles court</a> as they prepared to face Perry for another round of legal battles. &#8220;Katy Perry. Please stop,&#8221; were reportedly Sister Holzman&#8217;s last words.
Sister Callanan claims the ordeal with Perry essentially killed her best friend, boldly declaring the pop icon has &#8220;blood on her hands.&#8221; Since then, Callanan says her life has only gotten worse and that the Los Angeles archdiocese has only poured salt on an open wound. Though the nuns have made appeals to the Vatican, Callanan claims the archdiocese has been interfering through nefarious means. From the report:
<blockquote>
Callanan claims that employees of the archdiocese then got access to Holzman&#8217;s apartment at St. John of God Retirement Home in LA.
She believes they were after correspondence between the Sisters and the Vatican about the convent.
&#8220;They took the hard drive from her personal computer, which had all the stuff from Rome on it,&#8221; Callanan said. &#8220;The following day, we learned that attorneys for the archdiocese tried to break into [Holtzman&#8217;s] mailbox and storage unit.&#8221;
A rep for the Archdiocese said that Holzman&#8217;s &#8220;family had primary responsibility for her belongings and documents, and the Archdiocese coordinated directly with them on all decisions.&#8221;
Callanan claimed the archdiocese demanded her laptop as well. &#8220;I had to get a friend to hide it,&#8221; she said.
</blockquote>
A source told the outlet that Callanan&#8217;s bank account has been under control of the archdiocese since 2011 and that the money has not been paid to her on time.
&#8220;Medical insurance, TV, her credit cards, there were always late charges, but she was too scared to speak about it. She had to borrow money from friends,&#8221; the source said. &#8220;She had to go to the Sister Christian Service Group to get bags of food. She had nothing in the pantry as she wasn&#8217;t getting enough money.&#8221;
&#8220;The Archdiocese doesn&#8217;t understand what they have done to these women, [or] just how devastated [the nuns] were when they kicked them out and really destroyed their community,&#8221; the source continued.
The Los Angeles archdiocese has disputed this claim, asserting that Archbishop Gomez has seen to it these women have been cared for. &#8220;More than 10 years ago, the Archbishop of Los Angeles undertook responsibility for their future care and well-being [at the Vatican&#8217;s behest],&#8221; said the archdiocese. &#8220;Since then, the Archdiocese has continuously provided &#8230; for all the living, medical and other costs for the care of Sister Rita and all remaining [Immaculate Heart of Mary] Sisters.&#8221;
As for Katy Perry, she no longer wants the property and has put it back on the market for $25 million. The Los Angeles archdiocese told the New York Post: &#8220;While the formal legal option on the property has expired, the Archdiocese and Ms. Perry continue to be in communication concerning her continued interest in the property.&#8221;

Catholic Nun Says Katy Perry Has ‘Blood On Her Hands’ In Convent Sale Battle

Hollywood

Katy Perry

On Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas denied rumors that he is planning to retire soon.
In an interview with financier and philanthropist David Rubenstein for a series of lectures sponsored by the Supreme Court Historical Society, Thomas said he had &#8220;no idea where this stuff comes from,&#8221; reported <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/us/politics/clarence-thomas-retirement-from-supreme-court.html">The New York Times</a>.&#8203;
&#8220;I really don&#8217;t have a lot of stress,&#8221; Justice Thomas joked. &#8220;I cause stress.&#8221;
Having joined the Court in 1991, Thomas is its longest-serving current member.
During the rest of the interview, Thomas reportedly reflected on his clerks, his frustrations with his fellow justices, and his original goal to become a Roman Catholic priest before dropping out of seminary. 
&#8220;I got angry with the Catholic Church over the issue of race,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I thought that the Church should be the leader of the moral crusade against segregation and discrimination.&#8221;
Thomas also discussed his frustration with identity politics, as a black conservative. 
&#8220;People who will get very upset if someone said all blacks look alike are really comfortable saying all blacks ought to think alike,&#8221; Thomas reportedly said.
&#8220;If you said that blacks should not be allowed to go a library, you&#8217;d be against that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If you said that blacks couldn&#8217;t read certain books in the library, you would say that&#8217;s wrong.&#8221;
&#8220;But now we are so comfortable saying that blacks can&#8217;t hold some of the ideas in some of the books in the library,&#8221; Thomas added. &#8220;That&#8217;s absurd.&#8221;
Last week, Thomas warned about abortion being used as a tool for racists and eugenicists.
On the subject of a feisty Thomas concurrence in the Court&#8217;s case about an Indiana law which restricts abortion and requires aborted babies to be either cremated or buried, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47755/justice-clarence-thomas-abortion-could-become-tool-emily-zanotti">reported</a>:&#8203;
<blockquote>
Thomas agreed with the Court&#8217;s 7-2 ruling that Indiana was free to require medical facilities to provide a dignified burial or cremation for children aborted under their watch, but dissented from the Supreme Court&#8217;s decision not to rule on the part of the Indiana law that banned abortions done on the basis of gender, race, or disability.
Thomas cautioned that if the Court side-stepped the issue permanently, it could open the door for abortion to be used as a tool of racists and eugenicists, in line with the wishes of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger and other early, prominent abortion activists.
Thomas agreed that &#8220;because further percolation may assist our review of this issue of first impression,&#8221; the Court was smart to pass on ruling on the Indiana law, <a href="https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/445744-thomas-cites-eugenics-says-supreme-court-will-have-to-address?__twitter_impression=true">The Hill reports</a>, but the Court can&#8217;t ignore the issue forever.&#8203;
&#8220;Given the potential for abortion to become a tool of eugenic manipulation, the court will soon need to confront the constitutionality of laws like Indiana&#8217;s,&#8221; Thomas wrote. &#8220;So long as the Supreme Court forces a policy of unfettered elective abortion on the entire country, it ought to at least allow for states to protect babies from unjust discrimination.&#8221;
&#8220;Although the court declines to wade into these issues today, we cannot avoid them forever. Having created the constitutional right to an abortion, this court is dutybound to address its scope,&#8221; he added.
The Indiana law is targeted largely at preventing the selective abortion of babies diagnosed with Down Syndrome, but it is based on model law that could move forward in more than just a single state.
</blockquote>

Clarence Thomas Mocks Retirement Rumors: ‘I Don’t Have A Lot Of Stress, I Cause Stress.’

Clarence Thomas

Indiana

Supreme Court

On Saturday, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, sparked mass outrage after telling fellow Catholics not to celebrate LGBT &#8220;Pride Month.&#8221; In a statement published the following day, the Catholic leader clarified his stance concerning LGBT children of God but noted that he will not shy away from leading the faithful, even regarding &#8220;sensitive issues.&#8221;
&#8220;A reminder that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ &#8216;Pride Month&#8217; events held in June. They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals. They are especially harmful for children,&#8221; the bishop wrote in a tweet.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
A reminder that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ &#8220;Pride Month&#8221; events held in June. They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals. They are especially harmful for children.
&#8212; Bishop Thomas Tobin (@ThomasJTobin1) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThomasJTobin1/status/1134784500372770817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
The Internet predictably erupted with fury over the statements from Tobin, who was quickly branded a hateful homophobe.
&#8220;Hey [Thomas Tobin] of the Catholic Church: I&#8217;m Catholic &amp; I don&#8217;t remember Jesus saying anything about LGBTQ. But I do remember Christ teaching about love,&#8221; wrote Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA). &#8220;And your asinine remark about children is exactly the type of bigoted belief that leads to the evil of conversion therapy.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Hey <a href="https://twitter.com/ThomasJTobin1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ThomasJTobin1</a> of the Catholic Church: I&#8217;m Catholic &amp; I don&#8217;t remember Jesus saying anything about LGBTQ. But I do remember Christ teaching about love.
And your asinine remark about children is exactly the type of bigoted belief that leads to the evil of conversion therapy. <a href="https://t.co/YNj3RbtUOv">https://t.co/YNj3RbtUOv</a>
&#8212; Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) <a href="https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1134906855145127936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Actress Mia Farrow responded: &#8220;This is pure ignorance &amp; bigotry. Ignore this hate-filled hypocrite. His mind set leads only to suffering. He brings to mind those priests who molested my brothers. Of COURSE we should embrace our LGBTQ brothers and sisters and children. Jesus spoke of love,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Kids are in far more danger at a catholic church than at a gay pride gathering.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Kids are in far more danger at a catholic church than at a gay pride gathering.
&#8212; Mia Farrow (@MiaFarrow) <a href="https://twitter.com/MiaFarrow/status/1135189669002584065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;Shame on you,&#8221; scolded feminist actress Patricia Arquette. &#8220;LGBT kids are thrown out on the streets and abandoned because of poisonous thinking like yours.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Shame on you. LGBT kids are thrown out on the streets and abandoned because of poisonous thinking like yours.
&#8212; Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) <a href="https://twitter.com/PattyArquette/status/1135147744035840001?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;A reminder that Catholic clergy has been a lot more dangerous to kids than LGBT. Just so you don&#8217;t forget,&#8221; posted former tennis star and gay activist Martina Navratilova.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
A reminder that Catholic clergy has been a lot more dangerous to kids than LGBT. Just so you don&#8217;t forget&#8230;.
&#8212; Martina Navratilova (@Martina) <a href="https://twitter.com/Martina/status/1135152415764824064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/06/01/providence-bishop-faces-backlash-for-homophobic-tweet/jZojkSukKqJnLjpD720bNL/story.html">According</a> to The Boston Globe, Joe Lazzerini, the president of Rhode Island Pride, said the bishop&#8217;s &#8220;hate and intolerance&#8221; is not welcome in the state.
&#8220;We woke up this morning and we saw the bishop&#8217;s tweet and were honestly flabbergasted,&#8221; Lazzerini said on Saturday. &#8220;He is like the Donald Trump of the Catholic Church, he goes on Twitter and spews out hate.&#8221;
&#8220;Lazzerini said that he especially took offense at Tobin&#8217;s assertion that the LGBTQ community is harmful to children &#8216;especially considering the Catholic Church&#8217;s history of covering up clergy sexual abuse of children,&#8217;&#8221; the Globe noted.
<a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-catholic-bishop-calls-pride-month-harmful-for-children-20190602-ygxkcgec6ngi7p6nptmrojylby-story.html">According</a> to The New York Daily News, Tobin acknowledged in 2018 that &#8220;he &#8216;became aware of incidents of sexual abuse when they were reported to the diocese&#8217; between 1992 and 1996 in Pittsburgh when he was the auxiliary bishop of that city, according to The Providence Journal&#8221; but did not report the abuse. 
&#8220;My responsibilities as Vicar General and General Secretary of the diocese did not include clergy assignments or clergy misconduct, but rather other administrative duties such as budgets, property, diocesan staff, working with consultative groups, etc. Even as an auxiliary bishop, I was not primarily responsible for clergy issues,&#8221; he told the Journal in a statement. 
In the wake of the backlash over the &#8220;Pride Month&#8221; tweet, Bishop Tobin released a <a href="https://dioceseofprovidence.org/news/statement-of-bishop-tobin-on-pride">statement</a> to offer clarification.
&#8220;I regret that my comments yesterday about Pride Month have turned out to be so controversial in our community, and offensive to some, especially the gay community. That certainly was not my intention, but I understand why a good number of individuals have taken offense. I also acknowledge and appreciate the widespread support I have received on this matter,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The Catholic Church has respect and love for members of the gay community, as do I. Individuals with same-sex attraction are beloved children of God and our brothers and sisters.&#8221;
&#8220;As a Catholic Bishop, however, my obligation before God is to lead the faithful entrusted to my care and to teach the faith, clearly and compassionately, even on very difficult and sensitive issues,&#8221; Tobin noted. &#8220;That is what I have always tried to do &#8211; on a variety of issues &#8211; and I will continue doing so as contemporary issues arise.&#8221;
&#8220;As the gay community gathers for a rally this evening, I hope that the event will be a safe, positive and productive experience for all. As they gather I will be praying for a rebirth of mutual understanding and respect in our very diverse community,&#8221; added the bishop.
Tobin&#8217;s comments on the LGBT &#8220;Pride Month&#8221; were not condemned by all, however.
&#8220;Please stop labeling bishops who speak the truth of the Gospel as homophobic. God gave us sexual intimacy for the procreation of children and the deeper union of a man &amp; woman in marriage. Stating this truth is not homophobia, it is simply reality,&#8221; wrote Bishop Joseph E. Strickland.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Please stop labeling bishops who speak the truth of the Gospel as homophobic. God gave us sexual intimacy for the procreation of children and the deeper union of a man &amp; woman in marriage. Stating this truth is not homophobia, it is simply reality. <a href="https://t.co/71to9rU4A0">https://t.co/71to9rU4A0</a>
&#8212; Bishop J. Strickland (@Bishopoftyler) <a href="https://twitter.com/Bishopoftyler/status/1135302012415795200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
New York-based radio host Bob Lonsberry noted, &#8220;Agree or disagree, it&#8217;s rare to see religious leaders these days who actually stand up for what their churches teach.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Agree or disagree, it&#8217;s rare to see religious leaders these days who actually stand up for what their churches teach. <a href="https://t.co/GOPQTlt5qY">https://t.co/GOPQTlt5qY</a>
&#8212; Bob Lonsberry (@BobLonsberry) <a href="https://twitter.com/BobLonsberry/status/1135175281298345984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;What shocks me the most is not the tens of thousands of vile responses to Bishop Tobin&#8217;s tweet that clearly states the position of the Catholic Church, it is the silence of the many other Catholic leaders and Catholic media personalities on this platform,&#8221; prominent global pro-life activist Obianuju Ekeocha said. &#8220;God bless Bishop Tobin.&#8221;
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What shocks me the most is not the tens of thousands of vile responses to Bishop Tobin&#8217;s tweet that clearly states the position of the Catholic Church,it is the silence of the many other Catholic leaders and Catholic media personalities on this platform.
God bless Bishop Tobin. <a href="https://t.co/NOzsiN1vMn">https://t.co/NOzsiN1vMn</a>
&#8212; Obianuju Ekeocha (@obianuju) <a href="https://twitter.com/obianuju/status/1135230860662366208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Oh that&#8217;s right Ted. I forgot the part where Christ actively promoted homosexuality and its education to children. You are such a devout Catholic,&#8221; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/1791L">1791</a>&#8217;s Christian O&#8217;Brien mocked Congressman Lieu&#8217;s remarks to Bishop Tobin.
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Oh that&#8217;s right Ted. I forgot the part where Christ actively promoted homosexuality and its education to children. You are such a devout Catholic <a href="https://t.co/XOYnau3rXU">https://t.co/XOYnau3rXU</a>
&#8212; Christian O&#8217;Brien (@realchristianob) <a href="https://twitter.com/realchristianob/status/1134974301323399169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Internet Explodes After Bishop Tells Catholics Not To Support LGBT ‘Pride Month.’ Here’s His Statement On The ‘Controversial’ Tweet.

LGBT

A private Catholic school in San Diego <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7058571/Catholic-school-bans-skirts-stop-girls-wearing-skirts-short.html">instituted a new dress code</a>, banning skirts for girls and telling them to wear shorts or pants because some of the girls were wearing skirts that were too short.
Cathedral Catholic High School in San Diego stated that thousands of hours of detention have been given to students who contravened the dress code that urges modesty, as <a href="https://www.mysuncoast.com/2019/05/21/students-protest-catholic-high-schools-skirt-ban/">ABC7 reports</a>. The previous dress code stated that dresses or skirts had to be no shorter than three inches from the top of the kneecap while the girls were standing.
<a href="https://www.kusi.com/skirts-banned-from-cathedral-catholic-high-schools-dress-code/?utm_source=fark&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_content=link&amp;ICID=ref_fark">KUSI</a> reported that principal Kevin Calkins sent an email to parents and students explaining that the point of the dress code was to create an environment where students would focus on their studies rather than how they looked. He wrote:
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I am writing to communicate some changes to the school dress code starting with the 2019-2020 school year. The most significant change is that skirts will no longer be an option for girls.
Dress code is a perennial challenge. The dress code exists for at least three good reasons: to foster unity, to encourage modesty, and to minimize pressure to conform to particular styles or clothing brands. Basically we hope to foster a faith-based environment where students are focused on learning and not on outward appearances.
The main challenge with dress code has been the length of girls&#8217; skirts. The school has made many attempts to rectify this challenge. The administration has worked with the Parent Association, has issued thousands of hours of detention, has made school-wide announcements (e.g., CCTV, orientations), and has worked with students one-on-one. None of this has had the desired effect of maintaining an overall modest skirt length in compliance with the dress code. The school heard feedback that part of the issue is that the skirts offered by Dennis Uniform did not fit the variety of girls&#8217; bodies that attend Cathedral. We then decided to allow greater flexibility in where students could purchase skirts, so long as they followed the minimum guidelines. That did not work either. The administration eventually opted against strictly enforcing current dress code guidelines because of their negative effect that could have on the environment. Male faculty feel uncomfortable addressing female students about the length of their skirts, and even female faculty have expressed frustration with the ongoing challenge of dress code. There are challenges with boys too, but nothing that will require a change in options.
Instead of skirts, girls will be allowed to wear the following:
-Pants
-Capri Pants
-Bermuda Shorts
The color options for the above-mentioned are navy blue, black, or khaki. Denim fabric, leggings, and athletic wear are not allowed. Boys will also have the new color options for pants/shorts. In addition to holding boys more accountable to dress code guidelines (e.g., length of hair or facial hair), and implementing a restorative approach to dealing with dress code violations, there will be no other changes this year.
</blockquote>
An online petition protesting the change was created. On Wednesday, some students and parents protested in front of the school. One student told ABC7, &#8220;Oh, my gosh, it is so bad right now. Everyone wants to leave Cathedral, and it&#8217;s like not the best. No one wants the skirts going, like literally no one wants the skirts gone. I think only the principal and teachers want the skirts gone.&#8221;

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