Sam Brownback questions political foes' Catholicism

[proud2BlibKansan]

Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback, in a fundraising letter for a new Washington-based antiabortion group distributed under his signature, questioned whether six of his Democratic colleagues and the Speaker of the House are genuine Catholics.

"Real Catholics need a new voice — not the likes of Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi who have campaigned as Catholics while voting to undermine the values that we hold most dear," according to the undated Brownback letter.

NCR received the letter in the mail Feb. 17.

"The same can be said for the five 'Catholic' senators sponsoring the Freedom of Choice Act," continues the letter, which then specifically cites Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) as among those who "openly and unabashedly claim to be Catholic — every year at election time" but who then "once in office … willfully cast life-destroying votes at every turn."

The letter, carried in an envelope that bears Brownback's signature in a manner similar to official Congressional correspondence, was distributed on behalf of Catholic Advocate, a project of the Washington-based Morley Institute for Church and Culture, publisher of Inside Catholic, a conservative Catholic Web site.

But Brownback spokesman Brian Hart said, "Our chief of staff ... had never seen, heard of, or approved it." Hart said Brownback's Senate staff has "reached out to both the organization responsible and the mail house and directed them not to use Sam Brownback's name, signature, likeness or representation in any way moving forward and expressed that we are not pleased with the content of the letter."

more . . . http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/3345

[Drunken Irishman]

1. Hey Brownfuck, there is more to Catholicism than abortion.

You'd find most American Catholics aren't anti-choice like you, you dumb fucking piece of shit.

[OmahaBlueDog]

10. DI, I agree with you, but the Church and EWTN are making that harder to see.

Many archbishops (our local one and St. Louis leap to mind) are saying - without coming out and saying it - that if you voted Obama, you shouldn't be taking communion. The World Herald just did an article on our Archbishop, and wrote, "Most recently, Curtiss sent his parishes a letter just before the November election. Without mentioning names, he strongly implied that Catholics should not vote for Barack Obama because of his position on abortion."

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10564729

[SoxFan]

2. Brownback should explain why he attends a conservative Baptist church in Topeka

He has flitted from mainline Protestantism to evangelical Christianity to a ultratraditionalist brand of Catholicism. he does not strike me as a spiritual heavyweight or a man with deep convictions.

Brownback is part of the weird quasi-cult surrounding Father C. John McCloskey, a priest affiliated with Opus Dei and unofficial spiritual advisor to several right-wing converts, including Brownback, Robert Bork, Robert Novak, Larry Kudlow.

[gratuitous]

5. How DARE you question Sen. Brownback's Catholicism?

When he's questioning everyone else's?

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. I thought he went to that crazy conservative Catholic church in St Mary's, KS

My grandmother grew up in St Mary's and it used to be one of my favorite Kansas towns. Then the crazy Catholic cultists moved in and took over the seminary there and the town went to shit. Anyhow, I could have sworn Sam was a member of this church.

http://www.smac.edu/

[OmahaBlueDog]

12. That's a really interesting question

This is what is in WikiPedia

<<Brownback told Rolling Stone that he had moved from mainline Protestantism to evangelicalism before his 2002 conversion to Catholicism, and that in 1994 he became involved with The Fellowship, a conservative Christian U.S. political organization. Raised as a Methodist, Brownback later joined a nondenominational evangelical church, Topeka Bible Church, which he still regularly attends, even though in 2002, he converted to Catholicism. He joined the Church through Opus Dei priest Father C. John McCloskey in Washington DC.Brownback himself, however, is not a member of the Opus Dei organization.>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Brownback

Then there's this little gem from Kansas City News:

<<Here's what the Strip finds really kooky: Brownback's connection to a second elitist group.

Brownback, you may remember, got in a little trouble in 2003 when reporters learned that he and five other members of Congress paid cheap rent to live in a stately townhouse near the Capitol. The house belonged to the Fellowship.

Sponsors of the National Prayer Breakfast, the Fellowship (also called the Family) was founded in the 1930s by a Norwegian immigrant who trembled at the influence of socialism in Seattle. The Fellowship eventually moved to Washington, D.C., providing a place for public officials, businessmen and foreign dignitaries to pray and keep world order.

When prying busybodies question its secrecy, the Fellowship's leader, Doug Coe, cites biblical warnings against doing good deeds in public view. >>

http://www.pitch.com/2006-05-18/news/opus-sam/


Another fasinating article on both Brownback's connections with Opus Dei and Fellowship can be found here:

http://www.crossleft.org/node/5106

[CatholicEdHead]

3. That is typical for the neo-retro movement Catholics

I was told endless times on Catholic Answers' board that I was not Catholic unless I followed the Bishops/Rome 100%. If you are out of line one little bit then you apparently not be called Catholic. :crazy: :puke:

Brownback is a convert I believe so he is extra zealous. Eventually this neo-retro movement will run its course and the Church will be about the world again, not about every little thing that goes on in the Church building proper.

[ljm2002]

7. So I wonder if following the Bishops / Rome...

...also included being against the invasion and occupation of Iraq? Especially since the Pope came out against it, unequivocally...

Do I really need a sarcasm tag?

[Ikonoklast]

4. He would not pass the Inquisition.

He is not a practicing Catholic; Brownback is a Catholic in name only.

[SoxFan]

8. Sammy, try this on for size...

At the 10:30 AM Mass this morning, who was in the pew in back of me? The executive director of the state Democratic Party.

[Warpy]

9. Men like Brownback, the Pope, and nearly all the televangelists

out there think if they ban the sins of other people, the world will become a more perfect place. They never consider banning their own sins, of course, since they are strong enough to withstand the damage and they know they are going to heaven no matter how many they commit. It's you and me who are the problems in this world, and we must be saved from ourselves.

Our job is to know these hypocrites for who and what they are and to make sure the wall between church and state stands firm. We need to start a movement to tax any church that tries to make its dogma part of our civil law.

Only a visit from the IRS and a demand to open all their books to public scrutiny will dissuade these men from creating a hell on earth, which is what happens whenever they get their way. Look at Prohibition. Look at the Drug War. Look at what women faced when abortion was illegal.

We need to stop thinking of these men as anything Christlike. Christ accepted our right to choose sin and offered mercy for it.

Those men need to do the same before I will ever think of them as Christians.

[tigereye]

11. that guy is such a hypocritical tool...

People like that (and errant, abusive priests) make me embarrassed to have been raised RC....

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Me too

And they keep me from ever even thinking about going back to the RCC.

[Kansas Wyatt]

14. Brownback would tax a homeless child's tin cup rather than tax a rich person.

The asshole has no business questioning anyone's faith and morals.

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. His only redeeming quality

is he isn't quite as evil as Pat Roberts.