Nashville administrator: pray for conversion of white nationalists

Pope Francis prays at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal, May 12, 2017. / Vatican Media.

Denver Newsroom, Mar 23, 2022 / 11:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on Friday, Mar… […]

Edinburgh, Scotland, Sep 19, 2019 / 08:00 pm (CNA).- A spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland said Wednesday the suggestion that Catholic schools in the country are a cause for bigotry is “staggeringly intolerant.”

“Scotland’s peculiar obsession with religious intolerance has been in the spotlight again recently following the offensive and ill-informed comments of a former police chief, who claimed that the existence of denominational schools are at the root of the problem and suggested that sectarianism and bigotry can best be tackled by closing Catholic schools,” Peter Kearney, director of the Scottish Catholic Media Office, wrote in an op-ed Sept. 18.

“This staggeringly intolerant attitude is symptomatic of a simplistic belief that educating children in a faith-based environment is wrong and will inevitably lead to conflict and strife in society,” he added.

Kearney’s comments came in response to a Sept. 16 column in The Scotsman, a leading newspaper in Scotland. The column, penned by Tom Woods, a former deputy chief constable in Edinburgh’s regional police force, argued that “religiously segregated education” is the source of sectarian demonstrations and violence in the country.

“I have no doubt that the provision for separate Roman Catholic education as enshrined by The Education (Scotland) Act 1918, was a good idea 100 years ago, but is it acceptable that in the 21st century, we emphasise differences by separating five-year-old children based on their parents’ religion?” Woods asked.

“As Scotland moves forward with equality as our watchword, our century-old practice of segregated education is contradictory to say the least,” he wrote, adding that “if we really want to dig out the roots of sectarianism, we must do what’s difficult, and have the courage to tackle the historical anomaly of religious segregation in our schools.”

Kearney wrote that “there is not a shred of empirical evidence to back up” Woods’ claims.

“To suggest that children who aren’t schooled together can never interact or relate harmoniously to one another in adult life is clearly absurd. Taken to its extreme this would suggest that children from different parts of the country or from different countries or with different languages are doomed to perpetual strife as adults, since they didn’t share a playground.”

The disagreement emerged after several political marches and demonstrations have turned violent in Scotland in recent weeks, with clashes between Republican and Loyalist groups leading to a ban on some political marches in the city of Glasgow.

Scotland has experienced significant sectarian division since the Scottish Reformation of the 16th century, which led to the formation of the Church of Scotland, an ecclesial community in the Calvinist and Presbyterian tradition which is the country’s largest religious community.

Sectarianism and crimes motivated by anti-Catholicism have been on the rise in Scotland in recent years.

An April 2018 poll of Catholics in Scotland found that 20 percent reported personally experiencing abuse of prejudice toward their faith; and a government report on religiously-motivated crime in 2016 and 2017 found a concentration of incidents in Glasgow.

Kearney said that schools are not to blame for the strife, which he attributed partially to anti-Catholicism.

“Sectarian, like racial, discrimination is not taught in schools but bred, through ignorance, in homes and spread through society at large.”

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Washington D.C., Dec 5, 2019 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Thursday rejected the suggestion that she “hates” President Donald Trump, and said that her Catholic faith prevents her from hating anyone. 

“I don’t hate anybody. I was raised in a Catholic house, we don’t hate anybody—not anybody in the world,” said Pelosi. She had been asked by a journalist during her weekly press briefing if she “hates President Trump.”

Pelosi had earlier announced the House Democrats would begin drafting the articles of impeachment. 

“As a Catholic I resent you using the word ‘hate’ in a sentence that addresses me,” a visibly angered Pelosi said, pointed her finger at the journalist. She went on to claim that she prays for Trump “all the time.” 

“So don’t mess with me when it comes to words like that,” she added. The Speaker said that any disagreement with Trump was rooted in policy, not in who he was as a person. 

Pelosi has in the past encouraged people to pray for President Trump. In October, Pelosi said that people should pray for the president’s health after she abruptly left a meeting with the President. In September, Pelosi said that she prays for the Trump family “all the time,” and that she “wish(es) that he would pray for the safety of other families and do something courageous on guns.” 

On Twitter, Trump said that he did not believe Pelosi prays for him, “not even close,” and that Pelosi had suffered a “nervous fit” during her briefing. 

“She hates that we will soon have 182 great new judges and sooo much more,” said Trump. “Help the homeless in your district Nancy,” he added. 

Pelosi has repeatedly cited her Catholic faith in the political realm, and used it to justify her positions, especially her long-standing support for abortion. Pelosi’s statements have occasioned significant pushback from members of the Catholic hierarchy at different times. 

In 2008, in her second year as Speaker of the House, Pelosi stated on an August 24 episode of “Meet the Press” that “as an ardent, practicing Catholic, [abortion] is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition,” and that her faith “shouldn’t have an impact on a woman’s right to choose.” 

At least 22 bishops released statements correcting Pelosi on this statement, and clarified the Church’s teachings on abortion. 

“While in canon law these theories led to a distinction in penalties between very early and later abortions, the Church’s moral teaching never justified or permitted abortion at any stage of development,” said a statement published Aug. 25, 2008 by Cardinal Justin Rigali and then- Bishop William Lori. 

At the time, Rigali was the chair of the USCCB’s pro-life activities committee, and Lori led the USCCB Committee on Doctrine. Lori is now the Archbishop of Baltimore and Rigali retired in 2011. 

In June 2013, Pelosi opposed a bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks gestation and said that the bill was an effort to ensure that “there will be no abortion in our country.”

“As a practicing and respectful Catholic, this is sacred ground to me when we talk about this,” she said at the time. “I don’t think it should have anything to do with politics.”

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