Just another example of the religous zealots in this country trying to dismantle the separation of Church and State. Follow their political agenda or be shunned by the Church. Is it any wonder the Founders put this separation in the Constitution in the first place? What's next, an Inquisition into the stance of it's followers on abortion rights?

You know, this sounds vaguely similar to what Islamic fundametalists would do in their own countries...

I'm Catholic, Pro-Choice, and deeply offended by that Bishop's remarks.

Jim McGreevy, the governor of New Jersey, was told he could not receive communion because of his pro-choice and pro-stem cell reasearch stances.

His response to the Catholic Church was that he was a Governor who is Catholic, not a Catholic Governor. He agreed not to receive communion, but he continues to go to mass.

Personally, I think he sucks as a governor...but I liked the way he handled the situation.

Well, then you better stay out of Bridgeport. I was at the Huck Finn Diner the other day on 35th and Damen and saw someone get into a car with a bumper sticker that said "You can't be both Catholic AND Pro Choice"

Fortunately for me, I'm an athiest and a Northsider

The whole Catholic twist should be a non-issue. If you are Catholic then you are supposed to follow the teachings of the Papacy. If the Holy See says that your specific practices are Apostate (as in I, the Pope with the direct communion with God have heard from Gods mouth and repeat unto you that Birth Control, Abortion, Gay Marriage, Stem Cell Research, Universal Sufferage ie Female Priests, Married Priests and many more are against the religion), then you either ditch the hereditcal practices or ditch the Catholic church. If you want to interpret the Bible for yourself and follow beliefs contrary to the Catholic teachings then just consider yourself a protestant.

I'm all for the Church finally standing up for what they believe in and asking their members to actually toe the line, I think that it gives the Church some institutional integrety.

If the Church would only do the same for birth control, then everyone can see how out of touch the Church is with modern reality and either force the Church to adapt their views and grow up or cause a mass exodus of followers to alternate religions.

The Jihad against pro-choice Catholic Democrats continues.

Again, this is absoultely nothing but rank partisan hackery. I note that no positions in which Republican polcies conflict with the church are ever mentioned by these theocrats.

I was raised Catholic & I'm pro-choice. My mother was raised Catholic and went to Catholic School her entire life & she's pro-choice.

I think it has more to do with being open-minded than being Catholic.

Though I'm not a practicing Catholic anymore (I'm such a stereotype ), I maintain a lot of the beliefs that were taught to me through Catholicism. I just happen to ignore the bullshit that the Catholic Chruch spews out.

"They wouldn't NEED to know, cause God would know." That's something my Grandmother would say to you.
For most of the Catholics I know (99% of my family) this is enough to keep them from thinking for themselves.

It only works half of the time, though. Telling my cousin daily not to have pre-marital sex only ended up turning her into a dirty little bitch. And reminding her that if she DID lose her way and fuck someone out of wedlock, the use of birth control is only going to make God even more pissy. And when she shows up pregnant at age 19 she is not 'allowed' to have an abortion, for that would just simply make God flood something. And nobody likes floods.

Devout Catholics scare me.
Religion scares me period.

I think I will just stick with being a semi-nice person who doesn't litter, and see where that gets me.

If I am wrong about it all and end up burning in hell I am going to be so pissed.

Someone needs sleep. Me.

I don't know, I just turned out that way.

Somewhere along the way, the Catholic Church got hung up on sexual issues, which really distract from the real message of Christianity in general. Most of the sexual issues in the Bible (and somebody can correct me if I'm wrong) are taken care of in the Old Testament, particulary in Leviticus, although I'm pretty sure the story of Onan (the whole spilling the seed thing) came from Genesis. At the time, the lessons were written for a group of people interested in populating a nation. Times have changed. For example, we now know that if a man doesn't ejaculate for an extended period, the sperm get reabsorbed (and he gets cranky). We can no longer intelligently argue the Monty Python joke "every sperm is sacred." Therefore, the Church's stance on contraception is outdated and could stand some reinterpretation. Many people have the misconception that the rules of the Church are static and not subject to reform, but that's not true. If it were true, the mass would still be in Latin with the preist facing away from the congregation, which would delight Mel Gibson, but really piss me off.

As far as abortion: I'm a man, so I'll never have to make the choice myself. If faced with the situation, I probably would choose to have a baby and give it up for adoption if it were necessary. That's what my beliefs would tell me to do. I must, however, recognize that fact that those are MY BELIEFS and not necessarily somebody else's. Therefore it would be wrong for me to disallow somebody the right to make their own choices. People have free will. God does not call us to be perfect. What I believe is that God loves us all and forgives us for our trespasses, be they voting Democrat or having an abortion.

I'm offended by the Bishop's remarks because my willingness to take Communion is something personal between God and me. Nobody can tell me my own mind or conscience.

These issues become no doubt thought-provoking when you take into account the fact that President George Bush, a Protestant, strongly opposes abortion... while Democrat candidate John Kerry, a Catholic, supports a woman's right to chose.

Apparently Kerry is pro-choice, but on a personal level doesn't exactly agree with abortion. He said some really impressive stuff about it, but I can't find the link. Kerry rules. And Bush is a robot in an idiot suit.

I grew up Catholic, and this isn't really that surprising, my mother, before she slipped the cable, (sorry for that euphamism), was divorced and so she constantly went to confession so that she could take communion.

I know a lot of people think Catholicism is sort of like a freaky-cult, and it doesn't help the press that they get these days, but there is to me a lot of beauty in the ritualistic aspects of it. I think that especially a Latin mass holds some reverance to me. People try to modernize the church and I think that is the failing. They should modernize the ideas, and add ritualistic aspects to the church.

I think that a lot of people who may say, turn to Wicca, may be interested in it not only for it's ideas but also for it's sense of ritual.

So yes, you can pretty much skate by in confession... I know it sounds bizzare, but that's the way I've always remembered it. <---

[Edited on May 18, 2004 by thefuckingdaddy]

There were parts of ankle surgery that I thought were kind of neat-o, but not enough to have it done every Sunday.

I hold my own sort of mass, in bed, until 3 pm.

[Edited on May 18, 2004 10:38AM]

This is a dead scene.