Church Under Attack

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The following excerpts are from The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) Blog "Campus Notes":

September 25, 2012, leaders of more than 20 religious and other organizations, many of them engaged in the defense of religious freedom, sent a letter urging Congressman Robert Andrews (N.J.-1st) to apologize for making insensitive and insulting remarks at a Congressional hearing on First Amendment concerns two weeks ago.
At the hearing on September 12th, Congressman Andrews complained that the issues being considered by two House Education and the Workforce subcommittees were not “compelling questions” that deserved a hearing. This included discussion of the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) unconstitutional attempts to interfere with teaching faculty at religious colleges.
Andrews offensively characterized the hearing as a “classic case of Nero fiddling while Rome burns,” prompting today’s letter, which describes the comment as “most unfortunate and a great insult to Christians”:

Read more by clicking below:
Congressman Andrews Urged to Apologize for Insult to Christians, Other Religious Americans « Campus Notes

The following excerpts are from The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) Blog "Campus Notes":

The Pew Forum has released its annual report detailing the state of religious freedom in the United States. And the news isn’t good.
The bad news is that The United States has been moved from Pew’s “low” to “moderate” category of restrictions on religious freedom.
The worse news is that the report doesn’t even take into account the most recent year of activity from the federal government which includes the infringement of religious liberty that is the HHS Mandate.

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Pew: Religious Restrictions on the Rise « Campus Notes

The following excerpts are from The National Catholic Register:

Pope Benedict XVI’s mid-September visit to Lebanon reminded Christians in the turbulent Middle East that the Church has not forgotten them or the challenges they face.
“I am not unaware of the often dramatic situation endured by the populations of this region, which has been torn for too long by incessant conflict,” Benedict said the week before the visit during his weekly Sunday address.
Nowhere in the region are people suffering more right now than in Syria, where the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has been fighting rebel forces since April 2011, at the cost of thousands of lives.
While in Lebanon, the Pope referred twice to the strife in Syria, which threatens to spill over into the neighboring countries of Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. Israel, which captured the Golan Heights from Syria, is on high alert as well. “You know all too well the tragedy of the conflicts and the violence which generates so much suffering,” the Pope said Sept. 16 following an open-air Sunday Mass in Beirut attended by more than 350,000 people. He lamented that in Syria “the din of weapons” is now heard alongside “the cry of the widow and the orphan.”
The war has created an enormous refugee crisis, according to the United Nations, which places the number of those who have left Syria at roughly 250,000 people. Although most have sought shelter in refugee camps or private homes in neighboring countries, some have traveled as far as Switzerland.

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Syria’s Suffering Christians Flood Neighboring Countries as Civil War Continues | Daily News | NCRegister.com

The following excerpts are from Catholic Culture's Catholic World News:

Christian families in two north Sinai towns found notices attached to their homes and businesses ordering them to leave or be killed.
Pledging to remain, Father Gabriel Habib said that “even if we die, we are not better than the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the sake of their homeland and religion.”

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Christians in two Egyptian towns given ultimatum: leave or be killed : News Headlines - Catholic Culture