WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court decisions June 26 striking down part of the Defense of Marriage Act and refusing to rule on the merits of a challenge to California’s Proposition 8 mark a “tragic day for marriage and our nation,” said Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, chair of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.
Tag: court
Fr. Tait Schroeder heads fully-staffed Tribunal
On December 13, 2012, Fr. Tait Schroeder went before a panel of five canon law professors at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Santa Croce) in Rome to defend his doctoral dissertation.
Judges on board deserve our thanks
It is difficult to think of a scandal as a good thing. But the scandal triggered by violations of election and lobby laws 10 years ago, that led to reforming state regulation of both activities, had a positive effect.
One such reform merged the State Elections Board and the State Ethics Board into a new Government Accountability Board (GAB) with different membership. This has proven to be a very good thing.
Most members of the former Elections Board were designees of partisan leadership in the legislature. Board members did their best, but they had limited powers and were often expected to represent the interests of partisan leaders who appointed them.
It’s not just an issue in Pakistan and China
Thirty-some years ago, I spent a fair amount of time on religious freedom issues: which meant, in those simpler days, trying to pry Lithuanian priests and nuns out of Perm Camp 36 and other GULAG islands.
Had you told me in 1982 that one of my “clients,” the Jesuit Sigitas Tamkevicius, would be archbishop of Kaunas in a free Lithuania in 2012, I would have thought you a bit optimistic.
If you had also told me, back then, that there would eventually be serious religious freedom problems in the United States, I would have thought you a bit mad.
Fr. Thomas Marr sentenced, must pay restitution
On February 22, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Jacqueline Erwin sentenced Fr. Thomas Marr, 66, former pastor of St. Bernard Parish in Watertown, to nine months in a county jail as a condition of a seven-year probationary period. The sentencing followed a no-contest plea and guilty verdict.
Charges filed in financial irregularities case against Fr. Marr
It was brought to the Diocese of Madison’s attention late last week that the State Attorney General’s office would be bringing felony charges against Fr. Thomas Marr pertaining to last year’s financial irregularities at St. Bernard Parish in Watertown.