N.Y. Archdiocesan Paper Rejects Ad by Voice of the Faithful

NEWSDAY, Oct. 4 — Catholic New York, the monthly newspaper of the Archdiocese of New York, turned down an ad from the activist organization Voice of the Faithful, one organizer for that group complained.

Voice of the Faithful, which was started in 2002 in response to the clerical abuse crisis, frequently features speakers who dissent from Church teaching. According to Newsday, a daily based on Long Island, N.Y., the ad was to promote an Oct. 25 conference at Fordham University in the Bronx on sex abuse.

“It's not an abortion clinic,” pointed out one conference organizer, Marie Ford Reilly, who said she was surprised the ad was rejected. “Obviously it's a blow to us. We very much need to get the word out. This is an opportunity for Catholics who love our Church … to work to facilitate healing and strengthening and renewal for our future.”

The archdiocese did not offer explanation for rejecting the $950 ad. The newspaper last year declined to publish an ad from the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests.

Judges Blocked: Not All Democrats’ Fault

THE HILL, Oct. 2 — Senate Republicans trying to get some of President Bush's judicial nominees confirmed are making new charges of anti-Catholicism against those who stand in their way.

But this time it's not Senate Democrats they blame; it's some fellow Republicans.

A popular newspaper on Capitol Hill reported that Republican Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, a Catholic, is angry with members of his own caucus who object to writings by district court nominee Leon Holmes of Arkansas about women and marriage.

One of them is Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who said Holmes' writings “raise questions in my mind about whether he has the proper temperament to be a judge.”

Holmes participated in a Catholic study group about marriage in 1997. In an article he and his wife wrote for a diocesan newspaper, Holmes echoed St. Paul when he wrote that the duty of the wife is “to subordinate herself to her husband.”

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter said he might vote against Holmes if the nomination reaches the Senate floor.

“This (concern about Holmes) is a classic example of religious bigotry that I thought did not exist in this country,” Santorum said.

Previously, Republicans have been castigating Senate Democrats, especially those who are opposed to nominees' stands against abortion, for filibustering votes on pro-life candidates.

Dictionary Redefines ‘Marriage’

ADVOCATE.COM, Sept. 17 — According to the homosexual activist Web site Advocate.com, the newest, fall 2004 edition of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary will be updated to reflect the legal redefinition of marriage in that country — to include same-sex relationships.

The new definition, according to dictionary editor Katherine Barber, will read “the legal or religious union of two people.”

“Dictionaries just reflect what the actual reality is,” she explained. “If a dictionary says a marriage is the union of a man and a woman, that's just describing the fact that has been the case for hundreds of years. But if the law changes or society changes or something happens where the word marriage comes to apply to same-sex unions, we just change the definition.”