we will win.

Ronnie Raygun (hurts to do that) "Starve the Beast".
And from Nancy, "Just Say No" to money in that collection basket!

a simple but important instruction. It's the soul that counts, not the body. I hope the church tries harder to find the answers in scripture;
the answers are usually there!

…Roman Catholicism doesn’t ban people with gay orientation from communion – but it does ban those who commit “homosexual acts” from communion unless they repent and go to confession for absolution. So it’s not a de jure ban, but effectively a de facto one.

Most Catholics I have known were rather liberal on social issues. Here in the South, most Protestants are of the evangelical variety, and they tend to be much more conservative than the Catholics.

I grew up Catholic. I went to Catholic grade school starting in 5th grade, Catholic high school, and Ukranian Catholic college. I grew up in a liberal family, but many of the seeds of social justice were sown in my Catholic school days, especially high school. My high school was run by Franciscans and they tend to be a more liberal bunch. There was a very heavy social justice theme in our theology classes. I realize the Church is extremely problematic, but I am grateful for whatever liberal bubble I was in during those school years.

I wouldn’t be surprised, because I attended church at a Dominican Priory in the mid-‘70s, and they were quite progressive and social justice-oriented. It was once John Paul II took over that there was a drastic change, both as he issued encyclicals that took the Church back to the pre-Vatican II days and, possibly more importantly, made a point of appointing hardline conservatives as bishops in any place deemed “too liberal.” What we see now in the U.S. hierarchy, and even at the parish leadership level in many cases, is the result of decades of ultratraditionalist leadership from JPII and Benedict XVI.

I was born in the 70's and Catholic school for me was late 80's into the mid 90's (and then college - graduated in the very beginning of 2000's). I don't remember much adieu about JPII at all, especially in high school. It's like this presence was acknowledged, but not overly emphasized. Again, the Franciscans were a different breed. We had a smattering of Jesuits as well, which is Pope Francis' order, I believe. Grade school was run by nuns. Nuns seem to lean more liberal in my experience.

Benedict was awful and backwards. I'm not super devout, but I still attend Church now and then and I *still* have not acclimated to all the changes he made to Mass.

of gun safety laws!

God I can’t stand these people!