Archbishop Sample Visits State Capitol to Stand Up for Religious Liberty.

Archbishop Sample did something unprecedented by standing up for Religious liberty and visiting the Oregon State Capitol and welcomed by Senate Majority Leader Peter Courtney (D).   His presence was observed and inspired many that day.

Senate Bill 894 would require religious employers to provide health insurance to cover abortions.  There were only two who spoke in opposition to SB894 at the public hearing, a lobbyist for Oregon Family Council and a concerned gentleman.  Although our "dog in the fight" said he was in the audience at the hearing, he wasn't observed on tape or by those in attendance (he could have been watching on a monitor, but remember he lobbies for other organizations too. Since he still hasn't publicaly stated he is against abortion when he voted to legalize it when a legislator in 1969.) He also said he did lobbying by phone, however those "in the know" differ in opinion.  We are left to wonder.  

 However, Archbishop Sample stood up for Oregonians himself and we are thankful for that.  There are four Democrat Senators who are also standing up for Oregonian's religious freedom and a great thanks go to them.  We are grateful and humbled. 

Here is an article by Oregon Faith Report.

Religious liberty concerns over SB 894

April 1, 2015

By Oregon Faith News Note,

Senate bill would require religious employers to provide health insurance to cover abortions

If Senate Bill 894 passes, religious employers would be required to provide health insurance covering abortions for their employees. The bill does not exempt religious employers from the requirements that health insurance plans cover women’s reproductive health care, including contraception, abortion, and preconception and postpartum care. The bill also limits cost-sharing for services and drugs used to terminate pregnancy. The coverage under a health benefit plan for services or drugs used to terminate a pregnancy may not impose a co-payment or coinsurance that exceeds 10 percent of the cost of the service or drug and may not be subject to a deductible.



The bill declares that restrictions on abortion coverage interfere with a woman’s right to make personal decisions regarding her own body and negatively impact her health and well-being. Restrictions also deny her constitutionally protected right to a safe and legal medical procedure.
Those opposed to the bill, like Oregon Family Council,  argue that it forces religious organizations to violate their consciences and set aside strongly held moral values. They believe SB 894 infringes on their religious freedom.

The bill has over 30 sponsors and has been passed on to the Senate health care committee.
You can read the full text of SB 894 here.

Inspirational Moment: The Titanic-A Catholic Priest-Confessions

The untold story of the Titanic’s Catholic priest who went down hearing confessions

 Titanic

Amidst all the tales of chivalry from the Titanic disaster there is one that’s not often told.

It is that of Fr. Thomas Byles, the Catholic priest who gave up two spots on a lifeboat in favour of offering spiritual aid to the other victims as they all went down with the “unsinkable” vessel.

A 42-year-old English convert, Fr. Byles was on his way to New York to offer the wedding Mass for his brother William. Reports suggest that he was reciting his breviary on the upper deck when the Titanic struck the iceberg in the twilight hours of Sunday, April 14th, 1912.

According to witnesses, as the ship went down the priest helped women and children get into the lifeboats, then heard confessions, gave absolution, and led passengers in reciting the Rosary.

Agnes McCoy, one of the survivors, says that as the great ship sank, Fr. Byles “stood on the deck with Catholics, Protestants and Jews kneeling around him.”

“Father Byles was saying the rosary and praying for the repose of the souls of those about to perish,” she told the New York Telegram on April 22, 1912, according to the website devoted to his memory, FatherByles.com.

In the words of the priest’s friend Fr. Patrick McKenna, “He twice refused the offer of a place in a boat, saying his duty was to stay on the ship while one soul wanted his ministrations.”

Nearly two weeks after the disaster, The Church Progress in St. Louis, Missouri wrote this moving tribute to the heroic priest:

In almost every line that has been written, and in every sentence that has been spoken, there stands boldly out above every other expression a picture of sublime heroism that will be copied into the pages of history. And well it may, for it is deserving of that honor.

But when it is, mention should be made of one whom pens and tongues have almost forgotten in their accounts of this awful sea tragedy. Among those who safely reached the land again no one seems to have been aware of his presence on the ship, but we may hope that many who meet him in a blissful eternity will praise God that Father Thomas Byles was there to administer absolution unto them.

From LifeSite News by Patrick B. Crane

HB 2678: Permits licensed nurse practitioners to sterilize sixteen-year-old males. Who went to the Public Hearing from Archdiocese?

https://legiscan.com/OR/bill/HB2678/2015  Is the link to follow this bill.

In order to make things "even", i.e. giving males the same opportunity to make their own medical decisions.  Even having someone take them off of school grounds and get a vasectomy without their parent's or guardians knowledge. I was told that Planned Parenthood was involved.

This House Bill is sponsored by two men.   One of the men, Rep. Robert Nosse (D),"lives in SE Portland and with his husband Jim and their two children." "Rob attends St. Philip Neri Church, a progressive Catholic Church in SE Portland, where he serves on the Pastoral Council. In that role, Rob has worked to ensure all Portlanders feel welcome and affirmed, including gay Catholics."

This information is from his website http://robnosse.com/meet-rob when he ran for the House.

No one lobbied against this bill.  It had it's public hearing in early February with no response from the Archdiocese of Portland, no one.  It seems like a "done deal" and they keep undermining the family with no resistance.

We have to ask ourselves, does Roger Martin, who lobbies for many others, NOT want to put his reputation on line with legislators that might take "offense" at Catholic moral values?  One wonders.

Our Archbishop and new Auxiliary Bishop haven't seen anything like Oregon.

GUEST POST: 'Pizza, Cupcakes and Flowers: Where is the Catholic Church?"

I don’t particularly care for Bill O’Rielly, especially on matters involving the Catholic Church. Too often, in discussions of issues involving the Catholic Church, he acts as a disinterested moderator and fails to defend the Church. It may be just my way of looking at things but if you really believe in the Truth of the Catholic Church then why not proclaim it?

But every once in a while he gets things about the Catholic Church right. Everyone now knows about the religious freedom law that the legislatures of Indiana and Arkansas passed and sent to their governors to sign. And the governors did sign them. And then they caved. 

And we all know about a courageous young 21 year old owner of a pizza parlor in Indiana who witnessed to her faith and whose reputation and family business may be never be the same for her witness. Across the country many Protestant organizations have spoken out loudly in defense of this young woman. But there is one organization that has been missing from this national battle and O’Rielly nailed it this past week.

Where, he asked several times this week on his show, are the Bishops of the Catholic Church in America? And indeed, where are they?

Catholics are still waiting to find out where they are. I haven’t seen anything saying they all died recently or retired, so I assume they are still around in their chancelleries. But it begs the question: What in God’s name are they doing in these buildings? Do they not know the fury that is waging outside their offices?

A homosexual tsunami is washing across the country and in its path are the livelihoods of decent Christian folks who are targeted for destruction because they will not participate in homosexual weddings. And our Bishops are where? Well, they are nowhere. Silent. 

Here in the Northwest we have two nationally known cases where small business owners are facing bankruptcy and government fines for actually living out the teachings of their Christian faith. A florist and a baker. Just average people trying to make a living while testifying to their belief in their Christian faith.

Has anyone heard any statement from the Archdioceses of Oregon or Washington expressing any sympathy for these poor martyrs. Any statement condemning the government forces that are persecuting these poor folks? Yes, I said martyrs. Martyrdom is not always bloody. 

But I think I understand why the American Catholic Church is silent. Remember during the Obamacare debate the American bishops opposed abortion mandates and contraceptive coverage for religious institutions? And while things have not been settled totally it appears that they may succeed in preserving the religious freedoms of Catholic institutions.

But I have always felt something has been missing in this fight. What has been missing is a vocal concern for the plight of the average Catholic who doesn’t work for a Catholic institution. Who fights for us? Who fights for florists, bakers or pizza parlor owners? Apparently no one. The battle waged by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was not for Catholics, it was for Catholic institutions. The laity were left to their own devices. 

Has anybody in the Archdiocese of Oregon heard any public sympathy from the Chancellery for the owners of Sweet Cakes Bakery who are undergoing a literal persecution by the State of Oregon? Nothing. Silence. I’ve searched the archives of the Catholic Sentinel, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Oregon and found nothing.

Now lets think about another scenario (and trust me it is coming). The State of Oregon (or fill in your state of choice) has determined that, unless Catholic priests perform homosexual marriages, marriages performed by Catholic priests will not be civilly recognized by the State of Oregon.

My friends, you would hear a collective roar from the Chancellery that would be heard across the United States. And justly so. But a baker or a florist? One can just hear the excuses for not publicly defending such persons. “We’ve got to pick our battles carefully” “Its not the right time”. “This isn’t one we can win”.

There is something very odd going on here. Are we lay people not part of the flock also? Are our persecutions not important? Is it only when the privileged few who work in Catholic institutions have their freedoms threatened that the hierarchy begin to stir? Are only the health insurance plans of Catholic institutions important? What about the rest of us Catholics? Are our medical plans or livelihoods not important? 

And one more point: When that inevitable Oregon law is passed by the Oregon Legislature mandating priests officiate at homosexual marriages, who is going to stand up for the rights of Catholic priests? Those Protestant bakers and florists and shop owners who heard the Catholic Bishops collectively say, by their silence, “We do not know that baker or florist”?
But perhaps they will be more Christian than those who denied them. Isn’t it very interesting that this Indiana case became so public during Holy Week.

I had a dream the other night. My mind has been on this subject a lot this week. It was at the entry to Heaven. St. Peter and angels were calling out the names of those awaiting entry through the pearly gates. And the names of many of our Protestant brethren were being called and being welcomed to Paradise by Peter.

They were bakers and florists and pizza parlor owners and came from many places and organizations such as Focus on the Family or the Family Research Council. But there was one group whose line seldom seemed to move and continued to grow longer. It was the line for American Catholic Bishops.

Finally one of the Bishops called out, “Peter, Peter, why are those Protestants gaining entry to Heaven but not us. We were Bishops and Cardinals.”. Peter looked to them with deep sadness in his eyes and replied “My brothers, Our Lord says He does not know you but he knew them”. 

My friends, we must pray for our Bishops who are charged with protecting the flock. It deeply troubles me to write these words. I don’t know what these men fear from the homosexual movement. But this attack on God’s plan for men and women is gathering a momentum that can only be stopped by the Catholic Church under the leadership of its bishops. And they won’t come out of their Chancelleries and speak to us. What do they fear except the loss of the respect of men?

They won’t lose their residences if they speak out in support of Christians who will not worship Baal. They won’t starve if they speak out against the loss of our freedom to live our faith. Yes, they will be ridiculed by those who have the media and the godless politicians in their hands.

There is no doubt that Christianity is being pushed back. But it is not for a lack of numbers of lay Catholics. There are enough of us Catholics who will fight (though not as many as in the past). It is due to a lack of Bishops who will call us to battle.

If it is not important for a Bishop to speak about something then who is at fault if nothing is done? Soldiers do not lose battles or wars. Soldiers fight when called. Wars are lost when there are no generals willing to lead and fight. 

The War on Marriage is being lost because the largest religious organization in the United States will not engage the enemies of the divine institution of marriage. 

In the early fifthteenth century, France was being defeated by English armies because the royalty of France feared to fight the English. Out of a small French town came a young girl named Joan who told the King that France could defeat the English. 

After being rebuffed by the aristocracy of France, she finally raised an army herself and defeated the English. Her reward was to be burned at the stake by the embarrassed elites of France. We now know her as Joan of Arc. No one knows or cares about the names of the French nobility that scorned Joan. She is a saint.

Perhaps someday, many will know the name of a young woman in a small town in Indiana who turned the tide of morality in America. One wonders if anyone will remember the names of the Catholic hierarchy who ignored her. 

Jim Welch,
Nehalem

The Everlasting Man on Easter Morn.

  
“On the third day the friends of Christ coming at day-break to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. 

Christ as a Gardener Appearing to Mary Magdalene by Rembrandt

In varying ways they realized the new wonder; but even they hardly realized that the world had died in the night.

What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but the dawn.”

-G.K. Chesterton
The Everlasting Man

Easter Message to VOCAL Passed on to You. Happy Easter, The Lord is Risen!

Happy Easter!

Each Easter for many years I have celebrated Easter with some very dear friends and as luck sometimes has it, I have been asked to give a blessing before dinner.

Last year I realized that the youngest children really could not grasp the prayer I offered or its meaning--it was just too adult. So this year I have begun the quest for a prayer that the kids will understand. While researching that prayer I came across this little gem--although not addressing my search--is something I thought I would like to share with you. Since this season is a time to reflect on the wonder of God's love I thought you might enjoy the following Short Easter Blessing:

May the celebration of resurrected life bring new hope to your being.
May the victory over earthly death turn your eyes to the promises of heaven.
May the empty tomb help you to leave your sorrows at the foot of the cross.
So that God's hope, promises and forgiveness reign in your life forever.
Amen.

Sincerely,
Francis

Happy Triduum.

The Controversy Surrounding Catholic Relief Services

Many people have been asking about Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and if they're an organization worth donating to.  This article can answer almost all of them.


From LifeSite News

March 26, 2015

By Matt C. Abbott

(I'd first like to commend the pro-life leaders who staged a peaceful protest at House Speaker John Boehner's office the morning of March 25. Click here to read about it. Also, Michael Hichborn, president of the Lepanto Institute, recently posted a very good open letter to Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski regarding his unjust treatment of a Catholic schoolteacher. Click here to read it.)

---

Over the last several years, there has been considerable controversy surrounding the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), both of which were founded by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The focus of this particular column is CRS.

In a recent article at the website of Crisis Magazine, Stephen Phelan, director of mission communications at Human Life International, wrote (briefly excerpted; click here to read the article in its entirety):

In trying to understand the ongoing controversy regarding 'the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States,' there are two primary ways one might err. The first would be to deny that Catholic Relief Services does an incredible amount of good in bringing aid to the poor around the world. The second would be to argue that because CRS does so much good work, good Catholics must look away when questions are raised about how some of its work is done, and with whom CRS partners to do this work....

...Those of us who receive CRS's fundraising pitches (this writer is a former donor) or who have visited CRS's website in the last few years are likely to see a clear identification with the Church. On the mission delivery and secular communications side of the organization, however, CRS takes a different tack: It apparently takes pride in not sharing the Gospel and in not preferentially hiring Catholics to do the Catholic charity's work, and it partners with organizations who together spend billions annually on immoral, and often coercive, means of population control....

....In 2013 (a typical year, percentagewise), only around 3 percent of CRS's revenue came from Catholics in the pews via the annual collection and rice bowl campaign. 70 percent of its revenue and donated services came from the federal government and another 10 percent or so came from private foundations that, while not listed in the latest published financial reports, in the past has included organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The remainder primarily comes from investment revenue and other standard fundraising such as mailings and events.

The Crisis Magazine article prompted the following response from CRS:

Stephen Phelan's March 18, 2015 Crisis Magazine article is the latest in a series of coordinated attacks by a small number of groups whose claims about CRS have proven to be misleading and inaccurate. This latest attack is more of the same, restating claims that have been addressed again and again. It is unfortunate, but not surprising, that no answer CRS provides satisfies these critics, since their goal is not to help us build up a culture of life and love, but to tear down our efforts to do so.

Our Catholic identity is the heart of our mission, and we have implemented comprehensive processes to help ensure that we remain faithful to Catholic teaching in all our programming. We rigorously monitor and frequently review all our relationships and activities to ensure that they are faithful to Catholic teaching. If a problem does arise, we work to resolve it immediately. This includes applying policies developed by the CRS Board of Directors in consultation with the Holy See, the USCCB Committee on Doctrine, the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, the National Catholic Bioethics Center, and other leading moral theologians. Information on these policies, as well as responses to the various allegations that Mr. Phelan repeats in his article, can be found at 'CRS Upholds Catholic Teaching and Values.'

The groups behind these allegations advocate for CRS' retreat from public engagement and even its dissolution. While these groups may have their opinions, they do not speak for the Catholic Church. CRS must follow the direction we receive from Church leaders about how to apply Catholic teaching to our work. Mr. Phelan and others are free to disagree with those leaders, but as an agency of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), we will continue to follow their guidance. We are grateful for the support of the USCCB Administrative Committee, which affirmed in a statement of support for CRS that 'The U.S. Catholic bishops stand firmly behind CRS in its commitment to promote and defend human dignity and the sacredness of every human life from the moment of conception until natural death, and at every moment in between.'

I asked Mr. Phelan to comment on the CRS statement. He wrote the following in an email to me:

CRS' attack on our motives is predicted in the article. Why would we want to 'tear down' their ability to 'build a culture of life and love?' What a terrible thing to say. I assume there are lots of good folks at CRS who are doing their jobs the best way they know how. And as for the bishops, anyone who has known a bishop knows how busy they are and how much they have to rely on others to gather information, especially in complicated matters.

In this case, Archbishop Coakley has been singled out since he is the president of the CRS board and has made several statements in their defense, but one can't seriously call him a weak bishop. Just look at the situation with the black mass in Oklahoma City last year, though there are several other examples – this is a strong shepherd who is not afraid to defend the faith and the faithful. I think rather that the bishops are only hearing part of the story, and have been advised to ignore those who raise concerns due to our supposed ill intentions. This is why this is public.

So for the person who is understandably overwhelmed by all of the back and forth and doesn't know what to think, I would say that maybe the way to start to understand this is to take just one case. This takes only about ten minutes.

Start with the disagreement over MEDiCAM, beginning just with the facts that no one denies:

1) CRS is still a dues-paying member of MEDiCAM (source). Though not a large amount of money (around $3,000), dues are typically fungible, in that they go to an organization's general fund.

2) CRS has had staff members on the organization's steering committee, which "concerns itself with the overall visions, strategies and policies of the organization." (source, page 7, for just one such reference) So CRS is not a mere spectator within the organization.

3) MEDiCAM is a consortium of various organizations in Cambodia who discuss and forward a broad range of public health concerns in practice and in policy. MEDiCAM, as an organization, also consistently advocates for increased access to abortion (source, p. 19; source, p. 7; source, p. 5; hundreds more available on MEDiCAM web site), and for contraception.

Given these undisputed facts, concerns were raised in 2012 having to do with scandal in CRS maintaining a paid membership and leadership positions in an organization that consistently promotes abortion and contraception, without challenging the problematic positions in public venues where the concerns would have to be addressed by its partners.

Now read CRS's reply to those who raised concerns here.

1) As to the risk of scandal, CRS says that their 'staff who participate in these associations acknowledge our differences, air our disagreements on these issues, and contribute our Catholic voice to the conversation.' Even if we grant this, one wonders what message is really sent when CRS's pro-life position is rejected by the organization, CRS's support is assumed for the public positions taken by MEDiCAM and this is not challenged by CRS in public, and CRS continues to pay dues for its membership year after year.

2) MEDiCAM is presented in the CRS statement as a neutral setting for medical professionals and advocates who happen to disagree on some issues. But this ignores the fact that the organization itself consistently advocates for abortion and contraception. MEDiCAM is not neutral in these debates or in its policy recommendations.

3) CRS makes a comparison: 'Catholic physicians are not prohibited from joining the American Medical Association even though there are areas of practice which violate Catholic teachings.' Of the many problems with this comparison, perhaps most obvious is that CRS, an agency of the Catholic Church and not an individual who is Catholic, is itself paying to be a member and for its staff to hold leadership positions in a group that promotes abortion and contraception. A Catholic doctor would also be well justified in abandoning an organization that consistently advocates for the destruction of unborn human life, but if she held a leadership position and her position was ignored in the organization's public statements, she would have to publicly condemn the promotion of evil and resign.

4) CRS has still not, as far as we can find, released a public statement distancing CRS from the groups' consistent advocacy for abortion in a venue where MEDiCAM's partners would have to confront the challenge. A press release to American Catholics, only after concerns are raised, is not equivalent.

5) Would CRS also pay to belong to an organization that does good work but promotes racism? Of course not – the scandal would be too great. CRS would immediately stop paying dues and would very publicly condemn the racist views of the organization. If the organization were dominant in terms of its influence in industry practice and national policy, CRS would try to build another such coalition, one that did not promote evils along with the good. Indeed, this is what love, truth and courage would demand.

6) To peruse CRS's own 'complete and accurate information' on condoms and other means of HIV/AIDS prevention is to marvel at the lack of Catholicity in the materials, even if CRS often avoids (though certainly does notalways avoid) the direct promotion of condoms. But at some point a question must be asked: Where is CRS's positive case for the Church's life-giving teaching on marriage and human sexuality? With all of the "sex education" its experts are involved in, why is there not a robust and thorough presentation of the beauty of human sexuality available for all to see on CRS's web site, and which must be used for all such purposes? The honest answer will have something to do with the fact that as a government grant recipient, CRS cannot present the fullness of Church teaching on marriage and sexuality, which is why it spends so much time funding organizations that are hostile to this teaching, and participating in coalitions, negotiating for slight improvements in mind-numbing technical documents that often promote terrible things. This is not to say that CRS leadership directly opposes the Church, it is to say that CRS obviously does not have control over all the projects it funds or is aligned with, because it gets most of its money from the U.S. government.

So, just in this one case, I ask the reader if CRS's reply on the MEDiCAM matter accurately represents the claims made by those who raised concerns, and if it sufficiently addresses the concerns. The more you check into each set of claims and compare them to CRS's statements, especially when they issue blanket denials that only raise more questions, the more you see why bishops don't know what to make of this whole matter.

Finally, someone I respect raised a fair point regarding the question of the high incomes of CRS leadership in the Crisis article. I didn't present this well – it came across as ad hominem, and everyone I've met who knows Carolyn Woo speaks highly of her. The idea was to present a fact that puts the question of CRS's identity in stark relief: for a government-funded NGO that takes in just under a billion dollars per year, $460,000 is not unreasonable for a CEO's salary. For a Catholic charity that serves the poor, it shows a disconnect bordering on the extreme. So to defend the salary, CRS has to grant the critics' main point about the split identity of CRS, which is why CRS will not acknowledge the question. That Obama's ambassador to the Vatican has received somewhere in the neighborhood of a million dollars in deferred compensation since he left CRS – at an annual rate higher than the current CEO – is a scandal of an entirely different order, which is again why CRS won't address it, and is why they attack our motives.

We have to pray for all involved. This scandal will not go away until the matter is brought in line with truth, which gets more difficult with every denial from CRS.

© Matt C. Abbott

Oregon Bishop Will Not Endorse Common Core Standard.

Bishop Points to Concerns with Common Core Standards, Says He Cannot Endorse Them

March 16, 2015, at 2:30 PM  |  By Justin Petrisek  | 

Bishop Liam Cary of the Diocese of Baker in Oregon has responded to growing alarm regarding the Common Core State Standards and their impact on Catholic education.

In his “Thoughts Along the Way” column for The Diocesan Chronicle, Bishop Cary listed points of concern with the standards and remarked that he cannot endorse them.

“Catholic schools develop their own standards and design their own curriculum; they are not subject to the State of Oregon’s decision to adopt Common Core,” wrote Bishop Cary.

He explained in his column, “there are more than a few reasons to be cautious about adopting Common Core.” These concerns include the rejection of final drafts of the Common Core by the “highly regarded educators involved in drafting the standards for math and literature” and their impact on curriculum integral to Catholic education.

Bishop Cary explained further:

“[N]o one knows what standards Common Core will propose for history, health education, and social studies. These subjects treat hotly contested matters of the highest moral importance for the formation of young minds: the character of the American people, sexual development, and the nature of marriage—to say nothing of birth control, homosexuality, or abortion. Why should parents assent to the adoption of Common Core before its standards for history, health education, and social studies have even been made known? 

“As bishop I cannot endorse a program that might undermine the very values which Catholic parents expect Catholic schools to impart to their children,” he wrote in his article.

“Common Core standards have only recently been implemented in Oregon, and more time will be needed to assess their effectiveness,” Bishop Cary explained in the piece. “The Diocese of Baker, therefore, will not adopt the Common Core State Standards as a whole. Instead, we will monitor them against national testing and public high school entrance requirements and develop our own standards accordingly.”

The Cardinal Newman Society’s Deputy Director of K-12 Programs Denise Donohue noted that "This is the time of year when schools are planning new curricula for the fall, so it makes sense to undergo a review of how the standards have enhanced student learning, or not.”

Donohue continued:

In accordance with the school's mission of the integral formation and evangelization of its students, questions such as "How have standards brought students closer to becoming the person God wishes them to be?", "How have we successfully integrated standards into a Catholic worldview?", "How are the instructional shifts required by the standards fulfilling the burning questions that students have regarding the deeper meaning of life?”, and “Are these views in accordance with Church teaching?" might be starters for discussion. 

The Cardinal Newman Society’s Catholic Is Our Core initiative provides information about the controversial Common Core standards and concerns about their impact on Catholic schools and students. A brief overview of the concerns is addressed in “10 Facts Every Catholic Should Know About the Common Core”.

Catholic Education Daily is an online publication of The Cardinal Newman Society. Click here for email updates and free online membership with The Cardinal Newman Society.






email updates and free online membership with The Cardinal Newman Society.