By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
An advisor to President Barack Obama’s who serves on the Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships has reiterated his belief that the Pope is “hurting people in the name of Jesus” because of his stance on condoms.
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by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
In addition to the 200,000 people who died in the Haiti earthquake, the Vatican has just released an initial assessment of the number of priests and religious who died in the disaster as well as the number of churches that were destroyed.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A soon-to-be released Gay Couples Study, which found that nearly half of all homosexual marriage involve routine infidelity, is prompting some to suggest that this may be the way to save traditional marriages.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A new study has found that attending a Catholic college has little impact on a student’s faith life.
According to Patrick J. Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, researchers at Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) found significant declines in students’ support for Catholic moral teaching on abortion, marriage and sexuality after four years at a Catholic college or university. These declines were generally greater at non-Catholic private and public institutions.
The report found that 16 percent of students at Catholic colleges and universities became more pro-life and more convinced of traditional marriage, whereas 31 percent became more supportive of legal abortion and 39 percent embraced same-sex “marriage.”
Only seven percent increased attendance at religious services, while 32 percent reduced attendance.
Eight percent of Catholic students left the Catholic faith while attending a Catholic institution.
Commenting on the study to InsideHigherEd.com, Richard Yanikoski, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU) argued that the loss of faith at Catholic colleges and elsewhere reflects societal trends. Despite CARA’s analysis showing that the choice of a Catholic college has little significant impact on a student’s faith practice and beliefs, Yanikoski pointed to the raw data indicating that “a typical Catholic undergraduate student attending a Catholic college or university emerges more spiritually intact than if she or he had attended a public or secular private institution, but not nearly as spiritually active as would have been the case a few decades ago.”
“That’s hardly something to celebrate,” Reilly said. “If the ACCU thinks it a happy fact that Catholics lose their faith somewhat slower at Catholic colleges than elsewhere, then they fail to appreciate the concerns of faithful Catholic families.”
Catholics should be alarmed by the significant declines in Catholic practice and fidelity at many of America’s Catholic institutions, he said.
“Everyone expects a Catholic college to be markedly different from a secular one. Students should be inspired to embrace and deepen their Catholic faith, not negotiate around Catholic moral teaching.”
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Even though the abortion-funding health care reform bill seems to have lost steam on the hill, the pro-abortion Obama administration has tucked millions of abortion subsidies into the new budget.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A Canadian man once heavily involved in the occult is launching a boycott of both Hasbro and Toys-R-Us for marketing a new pink Ouija board for girls ages eight and up.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The Thomas More Law Center filed the first federal lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., yesterday challenging the constitutionality of the recently-enacted "Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009."
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A new report issued by the American Life League has found that a top executive with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has “deep ties” with a national organization that promotes abortion and homosexual rights.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A nine year-old girl from northeast China gave birth to a 6 pound baby boy, making her one of the youngest girls ever to give birth.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The Vatican has officially opened an investigation into the cause for sainthood of a popular Venezuelan mystic who allegedly received 31 apparitions of the Virgin Mary during her lifetime.
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