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E.J. DIONNE JR.: Obama scores at Notre Dame
WASHINGTON -- Facing down protesters who didn't want him there, President Obama fought back at Notre Dame not with harsh words but with the most devastating weapons in his political arsenal: a call for "open hearts," "open minds," "fair-minded words" and a search for "common ground."
There were many messages sent from South Bend on Sunday. Obama's opponents seek to reignite the culture wars. He doesn't. They would reduce religious faith to a narrow set of issues. He refused to join them. They often see theological arguments as leading to certainty. He opted for humility.
He did all this without skirting the abortion question and without flinching from the "controversy surrounding my visit here." The thunderous and repeated applause that greeted Obama and the Rev. John I. Jenkins, Notre Dame's president who took enormous grief for asking him to appear, stood as a rebuke to those who said the president should not have been invited.
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Obama to meet the pope while in Italy for G-8
Pope Benedict XVI and President Barack Obama will meet on July 10, a much-anticipated Vatican audience with a president under attack by some American bishops for his support of abortion rights.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said Wednesday the Vatican had informed the White House that Benedict is available to meet the president that afternoon.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs confirmed the meeting and told reporters in Washington that Michelle Obama would accompany the president to the Vatican audience.
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Cardinal Rigali Protests Move to Fund Abortion in District of Columbia
Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chair of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote to members of the House Appropriations Committee today urging them not to fund abortions in the District of Columbia. Last week the House subcommittee considering the Financial Services appropriations bill for 2010 voted to permit direct public funding of abortion in the nation's capital.
Cardinal Rigali said that the subcommittee's action "effectively nullifies the Dornan amendment," which for a total of 18 years has prevented public funding of elective abortions in the District. He said this move, "presumably the first step in a broader effort to restore such funding throughout the federal government," is misguided for three reasons.
"First, public funding of abortion is rejected by the American people, as numerous surveys of public opinion have shown," Cardinal Rigali said. He also noted that Catholics recently sent "tens of millions of postcards to their elected
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Abortion doc murder suspect advocates via mail
A man charged with shooting a prominent Kansas doctor who performed late-term abortions has been advocating through mailings from his jail cell that such killings are justifiable and communicating with individuals on the fringes of the anti-abortion movement, weeks after suggesting others might be planning similar attacks.
Scott Roeder, 51, is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated assault in the May 31 death of Dr. George Tiller - an attack that reignited the national debate over late-term abortion and gave Roeder icon status among extremists in the anti-abortion movement.
From his cell in Sedgwick County jail, Roeder has been sending anti-abortion pamphlets that laud Paul Hill, who was convicted of murdering an abortion provider in 1994, as an "American hero," and include examples of Hill's writings about how the killing of abortion providers is justifiable.
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Abortion opponents hold memorial at Kansas clinic
It took waiting eight hours, but abortion opponents succeeded in holding a memorial service Saturday at the closed clinic of slain abortion provider George Tiller.
As dusk fell on this Kansas city, a small group of 10 abortion foes showed up at the clinic to lay hundreds of flowers and hold a brief prayer service to memorialize the more than 60,000 abortions performed here.
A group of counter-protesters that had thwarted the event for most of the day were long gone.
The pastor of Modesto's St. Joseph's Catholic Church wants to make this clear: He never told his parishioners that if they voted for President-elect Barack Obama, they needed to go to confession.
The Rev. Joseph Illo interrupted his homily on the first Sunday in Advent to clarify his position, outlined in a Nov. 21 letter sent to 15,000 members of the St. Joseph's parish and picked up by news media around the world.
That letter told parishioners that if they were clear on Obama's position on abortion and "knew the gravity of the question, I urge you to go to confession before receiving communion."
On Sunday, Illo told parishioners that "I have to speak to the attention my little letter to you has gotten."
Illo said he has received phone calls and e-mails from people on the East Coast and even from a man in Japan. Television and radio stations have called for comment, including one San Francisco radio station that asked him to answer comments from listeners between the 9 and 10:30 a.m. services.
"This is a serious issue," he said from the pulpit Sunday to a standing-room-only crowd. "But it's not about whom you vote for as much as it is what you vote for. We as Catholics have the duty to protect the rights of all people. We have a precious opportunity as Catholics and Christians to promote a culture of life."
The Catholic Church considers abortion to be immoral. Obama is an abortion-rights supporter.
So if parishioners intentionally had supported any candidate with an abortion-rights stance -- not just Obama -- that attitude is what Illo said "may" need confessing.
After the service, his parishioners stood in a long line to greet him and utter words of support.
One woman said the parish is behind Illo "100%" and a man thanked him for having the "courage to stand."
Later, Illo said in an interview that he considers Obama a "tremendously gifted man" and supports every good thing Obama will do for the country.
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