The Pope goes Green?

Glad I'm a Protestant:

Industrialized nations must recognize their responsibility for the environmental crisis, shed their consumerism and embrace more sober lifestyles, Pope Benedict said on Tuesday. . . .
"This means that technologically advanced societies must be prepared to encourage more sober lifestyles, while reducing their energy consumption and improving its efficiency." . . .

"More sober lifestyles"? Next thing you know, he'll be talking Jimmy Carter "malaise" stuff. (Via AmSpecBlog.)

Shocker: Progressive Catholic 'charity' supports anti-Catholic agenda

As a Protestant, I try to avoid meddling in intra-Catholic feuds, but the American Life League issued a press release today that shocked me:

As thousands of Catholic parishes across the country prepare for the annual Catholic Campaign for Human Development collection Nov. 22, shocking new developments have launched a groundswell of protest from Catholics around the country.
A coalition including American Life League, Human Life International and the Bellarmine Veritas Ministry have spent the last two months exposing CCHD's funding of organizations promoting abortion, homosexual marriage, birth control and sex education.
In the last year alone, CCHD has funneled at least $1.3 million to groups opposing Catholic Church teaching.CCHD describes itself as the "domestic anti-poverty, social justice program of the U.S. Catholic bishops."
The coalition’s latest discovery exposes 31 organizations partnered with Center for Community Change. CCC is a politically radical, anti-life, pro-homosexualist organization whose board members include Heather Booth, former consultant for the National Organization for Women and Sara Gould, President and CEO of pro-abortion Ms. Foundation for Women.
Through their "Generation Change" program CCC trains and develops staff as "community organizers" for their partner groups. CCC provides a resource library with books promoting "reproductive freedom and its "Movement Vision Lab" equates access to abortion and "reproductive justice" with seeking criminal justice. This project aims to build a "progressive movement" with a "coherent, compelling, shared vision — one that represents our values and dreams for society" according to the group. . . .

Well, Catholics can read the rest and decide what to do about it, if anything. Matthew Vadum points out that CCHD "only reluctantly cut off ACORN last year and continues to fund the equally radical community organizing group Industrial Areas Foundation that was founded by Saul Alinsky himself." Furthermore, as Vadum wrote earlier this week:

The charitable arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, CCHD has never provided direct relief to the poor. That's not its purpose.
CCHD is an extreme left-wing political organization that was created to feed and foster radical groups, but most Catholics are blissfully unaware of its true mission.

In other words, CCHD is not a charity. Catholics have been deceived into giving hundreds of millions of dollars to a left-wing group that works directly against the teachings of the church. And the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops defends this political swindle.

Like I said, I'm a Protestant. It's a free country. Catholic readers can do whatever they want about CCHD.

Or do nothing. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion

by Smitty

While we cherish our separation of church and state (and revile our separation of church and culture), it's important to understand the context in which it came about.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), which is Germany's NYT, has this article, with a rough Google Translate here, describing the 9% tax levied by the government against Roman Catholics and Protestants. This is a check box on the form you sign when registering at the local Rathaus (city hall, but "rat house" captures it beautifully and correctly).

Strangely enough, church affiliation and attendance in Germany is cratering. 130,000 exited the Protestant church in 2007 for example. 121,155 Catholics followed suit in 2008. Those large, beautiful churches echo mightily in their emptiness.

As a staunchly sectarian American, the concept of Caesar propping up that which is God's is just bizarre. But then, even the most exquisite brick collection is exactly that. The Church existed long before these European structures, and shall surely outlast them, as long as the candle burns.

Blind Men and the Elephant: Hayek, Christianity and Catholic 'Social Teaching'

Sometimes I describe myself as a conservative in politics, an Austrian in economics, a Christian by faith, a Calvinist by doctrine and a Southerner by the grace of God. All of these commitments are involved in my colloquy with Andrew Cusack, who took umbrage at my proudly Protestant skepticism toward Catholic "social teaching," inspiring me to respond at length:

Every faithful Christian seeks to understand what is required of him, as an individual, in dealings with his fellow man. We strive, or at least should strive, for honesty and fairness in matters of business. Yet when we attempt to reason upward, as it were, from the level of individual morality to the question of "social justice," the One True Way becomes increasingly less obvious. Thoughtful minds see that this is a utopian mission, an effort toward universalistic one-size-fits-all prescription, with some central authority dictating down to the minutest level what is prohibited and what is required. During the 1970s, after radicals had captured majority power in the municipal government of Berkeley, Calif., a shopkeeper put up a sign in his window sarcastically describing the new order: "That which is not forbidden is mandatory."
This is the meddlesome tendency unleashed when we make "social justice" our goal in politics and economic. What is "social justice" to the SEIU labor organizer, to the ACORN activist, to the HHS bureaucrat, to the La Raza militant, to the GM executive, to Tim Geithner?

Please read the whole thing. Man, this "top Hayekian public intellectual" stuff keeps a fellow busy. You ought to hit the tip jar. That's my idea of "social justice."

Is Hannity a heretic?

Being a Protestant myself, I've got no dog in this fight, but pro-life Catholics are fighting mad at Sean Hannity:

"I have no problem with birth control. It's a good thing," Mr. Hannity has said, prompting the Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, to send a mass e-mail last week calling the Fox News Channel and talk-radio host's repeated public defenses of contraception "just devastating for the faith of others who may be weak or vacillating in this area."
One thing that angered some Catholics was a TV "debate" in which Mr. Hannity lectured Fr. Euteneuer, saying that the priest was not "facing reality" about the need for contraception. Catholic author Amy Wellborn was shocked by Mr. Hannity "running all over" a priest who leads a major pro-life organization, and later criticized the popular Fox News host ...

Please go read the whole thing.

To understand why people like Jill Stanek and the American Spectator's Lisa Fabrizio are miffed, you've really got to watch the video:

Reaction to this is gathering steam -- as of early Thursday, discussed in 243 blog posts, according to Google, including Roman Catholic Blog, Wisconsin Catholic Musings, Bro Robin, Karsten Nordmo, Mark Shea, Travis Boudreaux, Return of Scipio ...

The controversy is unlikely to go away, if only for the reason that this involves Catholic pro-lifers, the people who turn out by the thousands to march in Washington in the freezing cold every January on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Just remember that The Washington Times was the first newspaper to report this story.

UPDATE: Linked at Hot Air, where AllahPundit sez:

[I]t’s as pointless debating this issue as it is abortion or evolution, but the thought of Fox’s resident hammer going after a man in a white collar is irresistible.