"Blessed are the peacemakers" (Mt 5:9) We are a group of committed Catholics who have responded to our faith tradition by speaking out against those politicians who hide behind religion while advancing policies antithetical to the call of conscience. [more]
We are a group of committed Catholics who have responded to our faith tradition by speaking out against those politicians who hide behind religion while advancing policies antithetical to the call of conscience. [hide]
- Working to oppose any effort to bring the death penalty to our state. Former Governor Mitt Romney proposed legislation in 2006 to kill "just a few people" under "stringent conditions" for purposes of advancing his presidential ambitions at a time of falling crime rates nationally. As Catholic Christians, we have been called by our bishops to stand in unwavering opposition to state-sponsored killing.
- Seek to encourage a constructive dialog between the Massachusetts Catholic Conference and the large scientific community here over the therapeutic prospects and ethical imperatives related to stem cell research.
- In a state with the nation's greatest hospitals, we are working with our legislators to advance the Democratic Party goal of providing affordable health care coverage to all citizens of Massachusetts.
- Reaching across religious lines to unite progressive communities within many faith traditions here to address intolerance and promote a shared vision of a more just society.
- Working closely with the State Democratic Party and our bishops, priests, sisters and other religious to bring better mutual understanding about the concerns of Catholics--economic issues, abortion, the strengthening of our parishes, and support for community life.
Writes Cardinal O'Malley about the '2010 Initiative,' an effort to strengthen the schools of the Archdiocese of Boston, "The mission of the Catholic Schools has been one rooted in humanity: to provide children of all backgrounds an opportunity to learn...
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Senator Ted Kennedy accepted an offer from Senator Barack Obama Thursday to take his place as Commencement speaker at Wesleyan University on Sunday. He was catching up on reading and correspondence on Cape Cod, after spending five days in the...
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Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital reported Tuesday that Senator Ted Kennedy has been diagnosed with a treatable condition that underlies the seizure he suffered last Saturday at his home in Hyannisport on Cape Cod. "Preliminary results from a biopsy...
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The four bishops of Massachusetts submitted a letter to the chairs of both the Senate and House Ways & Means Committees in support of increased funding for a program providing emergency assistance to older persons, children and persons with disabilities....
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Brighton MA, 5 May 2008--The revitalization of Catholic education in Dorchester/Mattapan took a significant step forward today when ground was broken on the Columbia Campus of Pope John Paul II Catholic Academy. Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley was joined by Boston's...
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More than 3,000 from the Boston area are expected to attend the Papal Mass at Yankee Stadium, but many will make the pilgrimage in hopes of simply catching a glimpse of the pontiff as he makes his way around the city.
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The goal of the summit is to identify best practices and make recommendations to reduce hunger in Massachusetts. Congressman Jim McGovern is playing an active role in this summit and he hopes that this will be the first step in ending hunger.
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Presidential elections are often a surrogate forum for the kinds of moral debates we don't have in church. The Catholic Democrats of Massachusetts met to plan and celebrate the presidential election challenges of the coming months.
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Initially, Zahn's account of Jaegerstatter's resistance to the Nazis sparked outcry in 1960's America, and a German Cardinal tried to suppress its publication arguing it would merely serve "the enemies of the Church." Eventually it led to Jaegerstatter being placed on the path to sainthood by the Vatican last October.
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"As we reflect on our history, we see that it has never really been easy to be Catholics, to be a disciple. Our religion is not to be an escape. An exercise in comforting the comfortable. It's rather about discipleship. Taking up the cross each day with the confidence that love lightens the burden. That his yoke is sweet and his burden light."
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Boston's Archbishop Sean Patrick O'Malley was one of two Americans named a cardinal of the Church today by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, just two years after assuming the helm for the nationally influential Boston Archdiocese. The other bishop elevated was William Levada, the former archbishop of San Francisco and now director of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome. Cardinal O'Malley issued a statement, posted on the Archdiocesan website...
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Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino was the keynote speaker for a much-publicized fund raising dinner on Friday December 9 for the local Catholic Charities, Massachusetts' largest private social services agency. He had been targeted by a few vocal conservatives for his views on abortion and the respect that he had afforded to gay people. They had succeeded in persuading Archbishop Sean O'Malley to withdraw his attendance from the event. Perhaps because of all the publicity, the dinner was sold out for the first time, almost a week in advance, and raised more money for the less well-off than ever before.
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Not content to have embarrassed their archbishop into a pointless confrontation with their mayor, two Boston area Republican surrogates have upped the ante by demanding the resignation of the director of Catholic Charities and the revocation of an invitation to Mayor Thomas Menino to speak at a fund raising dinner next week for Boston's poor.
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Many Massachusetts Catholics are fuming about a campaign by a small klatch of Republican sympathizers who succeeded in compelling Archbishop Sean O'Malley into withdrawing his attendance from an annual fundraising event for the local Catholic Charities. Groups calling themselves "Faithful Voice" and the "Catholic Action League of Massachusetts" had challenged Archbishop O'Malley to boycott the December 9 event as a rebuke to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who is the invited keynote speaker.
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Representatives decisively rejected Governor Mitt Romney's bill (H3834) that proposed to reinstate the death penalty in Massachusetts for selected forms of murder.
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The National Catholic Reporter had a cover story in August exploring the financial and political problems facing our Boston Archdiocese. Speaking admiringly of Archbishop Sean O'Malley, the piece adds some perspective to a process that will have dropped the number of Boston parishes from 402 to 274 over a twenty year period.
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The Catholic Democrats of Massachusetts, with the support of State Chairman Phil Johnston and Platform Committee Chair Martina Jackson, organized an interfaith conference May 13 and 14 in Lowell, Massachusetts, for delegates attending the State Platform Convention. Entitled "The Democratic Message," these two sessions probed the ways that Democrats are addressing an array of issues that are important to all people of conscience: health care disparities, abortion, gun violence, stagnation of middle class incomes, the role of religion in American politics, and the seismic shift toward more military spending in our federal budget. Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, who chairs the Catholic Working Group in the House of Representatives, wrote a letter of encouragement.
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Catholics across America are standing up to policies and practices
of a second Bush Administration that profoundly violate
Catholic ethics.
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