Church Leaders Criticize Democrats

THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, April 8 — Speaking to a City Club of Chicago luncheon audience that included many Democrats, Chicago Cardinal Francis George on April 7 observed that “the Democratic Party has lost its soul.”

He also said the “greatest scandal” of the political party was that it had no pro-life caucus, the paper reported.

“A party that historically has been concerned about the weakest among us — why, most Catholics were Democrats historically — doesn't permit any freedom of speech around the question of abortion,” he said.

Cardinal George wasn't the only bishop to criticize Democratic politicians recently.

Bishop John Smith of the Diocese of Trenton, N.J., said in a March 27 homily that Gov. James McGreevey's politics indicate he “is not a devout Catholic,” the Associated Press reported April 10. McGreevey supports abortion and stem-cell research.

“He cannot compromise what it means to be a Catholic,” Bishop Smith said, according to the diocesan website. “I speak, as your bishop, for the devout Catholics of the Diocese of Trenton. Jim McGreevey does not.”

Priest Tells Politicians Not to Be Like Kennedy

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, April 13 — A Catholic priest giving the morning prayer April 13 at the Colorado House of Representatives called on law-makers to be the opposite of President John F. Kennedy and let religious faith guide their votes.

“Almighty God, please change and convert the hearts of all the representatives in this House,” said Father Bill Carmody, a pastor at a church near Colorado Springs. “May they be the antithesis of John Kennedy, may they be women and men of God, and may their faith influence and guide every vote they make.”

House Democrats said the prayer was an unfair attack on Kennedy, the wire service reported. Republicans, however, said it was not.

Father Carmody later acknowledged in a telephone interview that Kennedy faced opposition because he was Catholic but still should have stood up for the Church, the Associated Press said.

“This bigotry would have died eventually,” Father Carmody said, “and we wouldn't have politicians who abdicate their faith to be politicians.”

Pastor Leaves Parish Because of Teaching Dispute

LONG ISLAND NEWSDAY, April 8 — A pastor in Manhattan, N.Y., resigned April 7 after the Archdiocese of New York apparently overruled his firing of teachers. The entire parish council and the parish trustees also resigned, said the paper.

Father Charles Murr of the Church of St. Francis de Sales said in a letter that he objected to Protestant and heretical Catholic teachings in the church school.

One teacher took her students to Baptist religious services, according to a parish trustee, and another refused to teach the sign of the cross. Yet another said teaching that remarriage after divorce was a sin violated the students' constitutional rights.

Father Murr said the archdiocese ordered him to renew the contracts of the teachers in question.

“Such a high turnover rate,” said archdiocesan spokesman Joseph Zwilling, “was not what was best for the school or the students.”

Father Murr wrote to parishioners that as a “pastor charged with the care of souls,” he could not in good conscience comply.