German bishop invites all Protestant spouses
to receive Communion at jubilee Masses
The invitation goes well beyond previous
permissive statements from German bishops
July 6, 2018
The Bishop of Würzburg has allowed all Protestants married to Catholics to receive Holy Communion at jubilee Masses for married couples in his cathedral.
Bishop Franz Jung, who was installed as bishop just last month, told spouses in “inter-denominational” marriages that they were welcome to “join the Lord’s table” at the Masses, which are taking place on Thursday and Friday.
An article on the diocese’s website says the bishop “expressly invited interdenominational [literally ‘confession-uniting’] couples to celebrate the Eucharist”.
The article says that, in the coming months, the diocesan committees will discuss the recommendations of the German Bishops’ Conference on Communion of Protestant spouses. “But today I extend the heartfelt invitation to all mixed-confessional couples to join the Lord’s table,” the bishop adds.
The bishop’s invitation goes well beyond that from Archbishop Hans-Josef Becker of Paderborn, who earlier this week approved Communion for Protestant spouses “in individual cases” after a period of discernment. The archbishop pointed out that this did not grant “general permission”.
Watch the Catholic dam on interfaith communion collapse totally very soon in Germany, where the German bishops conference has 'unofficially' given the go-ahead for further Eucharistic outrages, after gloatingly interpreting Amoris laetitia to formally allow their already decades-long leniency of allowing Communion for unqualified remarried divorcees. The alacrity with which German Catholic bishops act to seize on every possible pretext to violate sacramental discipline is every bit as appalling as the reigning pope's none-too-subtle anti-Catholicism. Kyrie eleison!
As the Church loses yet another round in the in her so-far-losing battle to keep the German Church Catholic, news of a rare win in her fight to uphold the religious freedom of Christians in the United States. I specifically say 'of Christians' because so far, the religious freedom of any other faith in the USA, especially that of Islam, remains untrammelled, while everyday there are fresh reports of anti-Christian outrages by secular ultra-liberal America.
The good guys win one
by Donald R. McClarey
July 6, 2018
Professor John McAdams, who was suspended by Jesuit Marquette University for being guilty of Catholicism, has won a complete victory before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Three and a half years after being fired for critiquing a graduate student’s attempt to silence a student critical of gay marriage, McAdams can now return to the classroom.
MADISON, Wis., July 6, 2018 — In a win for academic freedom, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled today that Marquette University wrongly fired Professor John McAdams for comments he made on his personal blog in 2014.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) filed a “friend of the court” brief last November urging the court to hear McAdamss’ case and reach this result.
McAdams criticized a graduate teaching instructor by name for her refusal to allow a student to debate gay rights because “everybody agrees on this.” Marquette effectively fired McAdams later that year, suspending him indefinitely without pay.
Today, the Wisconsin Supreme Court said Marquette’s decision violated its guarantee of academic freedom to McAdams and ordered his immediate reinstatement.
“The undisputed facts show that the University breached its contract with Dr. McAdams when it suspended him for engaging in activity protected by the contract’s guarantee of academic freedom,” the court wrote. “Therefore, we reverse the circuit court and remand this cause with instructions to enter judgment in favor of Dr. McAdams, conduct further proceedings to determine damages (which shall include back pay), and order the University to immediately reinstate Dr. McAdams with unimpaired rank, tenure, compensation, and benefits.”
McAdams, a professor of political science, wrote on his personal blog, Marquette Warrior, about a recorded interaction in which a graduate student philosophy instructor told her student that his opinions opposing gay marriage “are not appropriate.”
A month later, without presenting him with any formal charges, Marquette suspended McAdams, cancelled his classes, and banned him from campus. The college later insinuated that McAdams violated a harassment policy, and that his punishments stemmed from his naming the instructor in his blog post and linking to her own, publicly available, blog.
“As FIRE has argued since the beginning, Marquette was wrong to fire John McAdams simply for criticizing a graduate student instructor who unilaterally decided that a matter of political interest was no longer up for debate by students,” said FIRE Executive Director Robert Shibley. “This ruling rightly demonstrates that when a university promises academic freedom, it is required to deliver.”
FIRE wrote to Marquette in 2015, calling on the university to restore McAdams’s standing on campus and arguing that the school “repeatedly ignored its own policies governing faculty speech and due process, and has severely imperiled free speech and academic freedom through its unjust actions.”
FIRE also noted that Marquette’s actions were in direct conflict with a statement from former Marquette President Fr. Robert Wild, who, while defending a faculty member facing similar criticism, said that faculty members’ academic freedom rights are subject “to the criticism of their peers.”...
Marquette is a fierce defender of a faith, but that faith is Leftism. Professor McAdams was a heretic against that faith and therefore Marquette attempted to deprive him of his livelihood, and his vocation of teaching, for daring to speak out against their sacred cow. That good Catholic parents send their kids to places like Marquette is beyond obscene. [Of course, the university can always appeal the case to the US Supreme Court which now has one less liberal justice with the retirement of Anthony Kennedy, who will likely be replaced soon by a non-activist constitutionalist judge.]
It should come as no surprise that Marquette is a Jesuit institution, one of 28 in the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, with a current student body of about 12,000. It is one of the largest Jesuit universities in the United States, and the largest private university in Wisconsin. Named after the 17th-century missionary and explorer Jacques Marquette, it was founded in 1881 originally to provide affordable Catholic education to the German immigrant population in the region. It became the first coed Catholic university in the world in 1909.
What, in the name of Satan, have modern-day Jesuits made of the order established by Ignatius of Loyola? He sent out his priests as missionaries (exemplified by Francis Xavier, who with Ignatius was one of the six co-founders of the Society of Jesus) and made the Jesuits an important force in the Counter-Reformation. Today, the Jesuits, led by the pope, have turned into the primary force for the Counter-Counter-Reformation, seeking to make the Catholic Church everything Martin Luther wanted it to be. Shame and abomination be upon them! Anathema sit!
Meanwhile, another significant 'little' victory for the faith comes rather unexpectedly from Italy...
Appeals court absolves pharmacist
for refusing to sell 'morning after pill'
because of conscientious objection
Translated from
July 2, 2018
The battle for conscientious objection to abortion – specifically, to the sale and use of abortifacient drugs like the morning-after pill falsely marketed only as an ‘emergency contraceptive’ – notched a significant victory yesterday when an appellate court upheld a lower court decision absolving an Italian pharmacist who, invoking her conscience and religious belief, refused to sell the drug.
It must be remembered that the European Union considers these ‘emergency contraceptives’ to be abortifacient as well, therefore requiring a prescription.
In the EU ruling on the morning-after pill, pages describing the use and effects of the pill – to which is attributed only a ‘simple anti-ovulatory effect’ – are followed by a section with a most unexpected title: “Off-label use as an abortifacient”, in which it is explained that the pill can also be used as an abortive beyond the 5-day ‘emergency period’.
[This is because its hormonal dosage acts both to prevent ovulation and to make the lining of the uterus inhospitable to the implantation of the embryo resulting from a fertilized egg.]
Subsequently, thanks to political pressures and that from the pharmaceutical industry, the abortifacient characteristics of the pill have been acknowledged.
[“Late last evening, after a long session, the Court of Appeals in Trieste confirmed the absolution of a pharmacist in Montefalcone who made a conscientious objection to selling the morning-after pill”, it was announced by Senator and lawyer Simone Pillon and his co-counsel Marzio Clacione who defended the pharmacist during a judicial process that began five years ago.
“The tribunal of Gorizia [the equivalent of a local court, or court of first instance] had absolved the pharmacist, but the local Procurator appealed the decision. Now, finally, the appellate court in Trieste has upheld the local court’s verdict, acknowledging the particular tenuousness and baselessness of the charges against her.
“We are very happy that the Court decided to hold the defendant exempt from any criminal responsibility for her refusal, in accordance with her belief in defending life from the moment of conception… We hope that no one else will be forced to undergo a penal procedure for simply putting into practice the ethical principles dictated by his conscience”.
Senator Pillon, who belongs to the Lega [one of the three major political parties in the present Italian government coalition] and heads the justice committee in the Italian Senate, concluded by saying: “Our juridical order recognizes freedom of conscience, as demonstrated by this absolution, but perhaps a specific normative clarification will avoid unfounded but effortful recourses to the courts”.
Pharmacist Elisa Mecozzi had been absolved by the Tribunal of Gorizia of charges that she had refused to perform her professional duty by not selling the ‘morning after’ pill to a customer who had a medical prescription for it. The local health ministry pressed charges against her and asked for a penalty of four months in jail, but the local judge declared her action non-punishable.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 08/07/2018 10:26]