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Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien
The Catholic Review
The election last week of Senator Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States was, indeed, a historic day for our nation. His election as the first African-American to hold the office of president is a significant step forward for a country that continues to heal from the wounds inflicted by the sin of racism. And the response I have witnessed in the past week clearly indicates how meaningful this historic moment is for so many people – most especially our sisters and brothers in the African-American community.
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Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien
The Catholic Review
In the midst of this protracted election season, a seeming division among the Catholic leadership in our country has emerged, representing different approaches to this year’s document of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.” Despite these differences, the Catholic bishops of the United States remain totally and universally committed to the foundational principle advanced in the document: Disrespect for any human life diminishes respect for all human life.
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Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien
The Catholic Review
In the midst of this protracted election season, a seeming division among the Catholic leadership in our country has emerged, representing different approaches to this year’s document of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.” Despite these differences, the Catholic bishops of the United States remain totally and universally committed to the foundational principle advanced in the document: Disrespect for any human life diminishes respect for all human life.
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Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien
The Catholic Review
Last November, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops overwhelmingly approved the document, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United States.”
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Archbishop O’Brien
The Catholic Review
Permit me to expand on my homily from Respect Life Sunday, as reported in last week’s account of that Mass in these pages.
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Archbishop O’Brien
The Catholic Review
These are uncertain times. Banks are failing, Wall Street is reeling, and the cost of just about everything seems to be through the roof. Talk of bailouts and mergers, record declines and a looming recession – not to mention the fast-approaching presidential election – has much of the nation in a frenzy of uncertainty and worry. Understandably, many people, when not peeking through their hands at their investment account statements, find themselves taking inventory these days. This local Church is, too.
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Archbishop O'Brien
The Catholic Review
This wasn’t the column I had planned – I changed my mind on Sunday, and I hope it doesn’t get me run out of town.
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Archbishop O’Brien
The Catholic Review
The Baltimore Sun delivered the good news last week that six Maryland elementary schools were granted the prestigious “Blue Ribbon” award, issued by the United States Department of Education each year to approximately 300 schools nationwide and widely considered the highest honor that an American school can achieve.
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Archbishop O’Brien
The Catholic Review
The toll our sluggish national economy has taken on the average American family is reported nearly every day by the news media and is evident in almost every aspect of our daily lives. It seems like everything costs more these days, from groceries to gasoline to the electric bill. For many people, the substantial increase in the cost of basic necessities has forced them to make very tough decisions about how they spend their money. For some families, even priorities such as tuition are no longer within their financial reach.
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Archbishop O’Brien
The Catholic Review
Last week’s column waded into the controversial territory of contraception, the Church’s firm, steady and – I would claim – infallible teaching on the openness to every marital act to both the unitive and procreative meaning that God wills for marital love. The occasion was the recent 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s landmark encyclical, “Humanae Vitae,” in which the Holy Father addressed the crisis of marriage and the family in the modern world. The Church’s teaching is as true today as it was then, and as it was for almost two millennia before – even though it is said that more than 90 percent of Catholics disagree with that teaching. The question I would pose on this anniversary is whether the teaching of “Humanae Vitae” was understood before it was rejected. Why was there such confusion when, after many years of discussion, “Humanae Vitae” appeared 40 years ago?
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