Well articulated statement from the Oregon Catholic Conference on Judge-gone-wild Michael McShane's ruling overturning the will of the voters. At the same election this vote was taken, Oregon elected Obama as the president. This shows that the issue of upholding traditional marriage transcends partisan lines and is the express will of the people. Here is the OCC statement:
The Oregon Catholic Conference is deeply grieved by Judge Michael McShane's ruling to redefine marriage. It is a travesty of justice that marriage, as the foundation of society, received no defense in the U.S. District Court. Attorney General, Ellen Rosenblum, in an extreme dereliction of her sworn duty to uphold the law, refused to represent the interests and the people of Oregon. It is a sad day for democracy when one federally appointed judge can overturn, without any representation, the express will of the people of Oregon.
Despite the judge's ruling, authentic marriage remains what it has always and only been according to God's design: the loving union between one man and one woman for the mutual benefit of the two who have become one flesh and any children born of their union. Redefining marriage confuses the true purpose and meaning of marriage. An act deliberately ensuring that more children will grow up motherless or fatherless is not an act of love. The Oregon Catholic Conference will continue to uphold the true meaning of marriage and advocate for genuine marriages and families in Oregon, and it urges all people of good will to continue to reject the flawed notion that a pairing of two people of the same gender constitutes a marriage.
The Price Iraqi Catholics Paid for America's War on Terror
ZENIT reported that Catholicism in Iraq has been "ruined" since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq:
“1,400 years of Islam could not uproot us from our land and our churches, while the policies of the West [have] scattered us and distributed us all around the world,” Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako said.
The patriarch, who has governed the Eastern Catholic Church since February 2013 said, “intervention by the West in the region did not solve the problems" but instead "produced more chaos and conflict.”
“Democracy and change come through upbringing and education rather than through conflict,” he added.
Before Saddam Hussein’s regime, the patriarch said there had been about 5,000 families and over 240 students preparing for their First Holy Communion in the Church of the Ascension. Yet, late this April, he celebrated the Holy Mass for First Holy Communion with “13 students only.”
Iraqi authorities are partially responsible for “this migration for failing to restore security and stability,” he said.
