Dolan and Cordileone Speak Out about DOMA Decision: No Catholic Church Bells to Be Rung!

Yesterday, I noted how, under the leadership of His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the U.S. Catholic bishops have as a body invested much time, money, and energy in defending the Defense of Marriage Act, which the Supreme Court (with its majority of conservative Catholic justices) has just struck down. In the past decade, the bishops have spent untold millions of dollars (money given by the faithful to pursue works of mercy and keep churches and Catholic schools open) to outlaw same-sex marriage. 

More Anti-Gospel Meeting Gospel: Michael Bayly Responds to Archbishop Cordileone about Marriage Equality

U.S. Catholic Bishops Continue "Fortnight for Freedom" Events, Call on Catholics to Pray to Uphold DOMA and Prop 8

As the day ends: note the bulletin insert that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has produced under the leadership of San Francisco archbishop Salvatore Cordileone to be placed in bulletins of Catholic parishes throughout the U.S. It's entitled "Marriage and the Supreme Court," and asks Catholics to pray, fast, and sacrifice with the intention that the Supreme Court uphold both the Defense of Marriage Act and proposition 8 in California. I say that this insert comes from Cordileone because he heads the USCCB subcommittee on marriage and family, though it's, of course, an initiative with the backing of the entire USCCB.

Archbishop of San Francisco Cordileone Calls Rhode Island Marriage Equality "Injustice"

And in other news related to Dirty Freddie and how the Catholic church "welcomes" him: the bishop of Rhode Island, Thomas Tobin, has made yet another statement about the deep "injustice" done to Catholics in Rhode Island when gay folks who have long been denied justice now have the right to enjoy all the benefits of civil marriage that everyone else enjoys. No, hang on. Wait a moment.

The Marie Antoinette Syndrome and Gay Unions As Essentially "Different": Engaging Arguments Against Marriage Equality

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Andrew Sullivan on Bishops' Opposition to Violence Against Women Act: "Looking for Bigger Rocks"

As last week ended, I noted the vocal opposition of a group of key U.S. Catholic bishops to the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act--because that act affords protection to lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women, who are, it appears, worthy of assault in the minds of some pastoral leaders of the Catholic church. How else to construe these bishops' opposition to an act that seems, to many of us as we read the gospels and think about Catholic moral teaching at its best, a no-brainer?

"Don't Say Gay," Cordileone Tells His Flock, and I Think Hannah Arendt and George Orwell

When I read this--San Francisco's archbishop Salvatore Cordileone decreeing that Catholics are not to say "gay marriage"--I think of this:

In Catholic News: A Whole Lot of Stuff for Your Stockings

Also in Catholic news during this week of preparation for Christmas joy:

Questions for Archbishop Cordileone: Where Does the Fixation on Demonizing Gays Come From?

Two questions I'd like to ask Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone:

Father Geoff Farrow on Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone's "Meteoric Rise" in American Hierarchy: Aiming for Red Hat as He Targets Gays

More Catholics-in-the-news news:

He Said, He Said: Cordileone's Installation, Shunning of a Brother Bishop, and Church as Den of Thieves, Thugs, and Criminals

He wrote: 

In working together with the Archdiocese of San Francisco, however, I will not change my course with regard to the full inclusion of all people in the full life of the church.  I hope that public disagreements can be handled respectfully and that criticisms of public statements may be met with mutual respect. Some Catholics may

Joking about Drunk Driving While Being Made Bishop: New Evangelization and the Reality of American Catholicism Today

Headline at USA Today site yesterday: "SF Prelate Jokes about DUI Charge at Installation."

Because what's funnier, after all, than operating a vehicle when you're drunk?  At night.  On busy streets in a major city.  With your elderly mother and a yet to be identified young man in the car.

Raymond Cardinal Burke: "The Face of Catholic Conservatism"

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch yesterday featured a Religion News Service article by David Gibson about Cardinal Raymond Burke of St. Louis as "the face of Catholic conservatism" these days.  The picture at the top of the posting is from the article.   Points the article makes:

Catholics and Politics: Intra-Catholic Discussions Enter Public Square in 2012 Elections

One of the interesting side-effects of the overt politicking of the U.S. Catholic bishops of late is that the bishops are succeeding in pushing conversations previously held entre nous, within the confines of the Catholic sanctuary, right out into the public square.  Where God and everyone's aunt can see the serious fault lines running right through the center of American Catholicism.

A Reader Writes: "There's a Rich Vein of Understanding about Marriage That Remains to Be Discovered"

Another stellar comment here in the past few days by boltingmadonna, who writes the following in response to my posting earlier in the week about Archbishop Cordileone and Cardinal George and the knotted knickers of Catholic leaders vis-a-vis their gay brothers and sisters:

Cordileone Slams Gays Receiving Communion While George Knocks Gay Relationships: Catholic Leaders Exercising Pastoral Leadership

In a Los Angeles Times article by Maria L. La Ganga about the selection of Salvatore Cordileone for the position of archbishop of San Francisco, Jesuit Father Thomas Reese is cited saying, re: the Vatican and the U.S. bishops on marriage equality,

They're serious, and they're not going to back down.

Further Commentary on Cordileone Story: Colleen Baker, Thom Curnutte

When I posted yesterday about my experience after I had shared the news of Bishop Cordileone's arrest at my Facebook page, I didn't realize that two fellow bloggers whom I very much esteem had also posted about this same story, in ways that my own posting echoed--without realizing it.  (I tend to read what I think of as "news blogs" daily to catch up on the news, but I read "commentary blogs" less frequently.)

Bishop Cordileone Gets Arrested, and I Get Slapped Upside the Head for Noticing

So here's how my day went, two days ago: when the news broke that the rabidly anti-gay archbishop-to-be of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone, had been arrested in San Diego for DUI, I posted a link to one of the reports of this breaking news on my Facebook page.  I learned the news when a friend of mine, a retired Catholic theologian living in San Francisco with his partner, called to tell me the news as soon as it broke.

Weekend News: Regnerus Study Again, More on Sally "Ad Multos Annos" to San Fran!

In the news as the weekend gets underway:

The Regnerus study, which an auditor of the processed used by the journal Social Science Research chose to vet the study calls "bullshit."  Peter Montgomery has a summary of the auditor's report at Religion Dispatches, citing a Chronicle of Higher Education article by Tom Bartlett.

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: Sally to San Fran! Ad Multos Annos!

The announcement comes down that the rabidly anti-gay bishop of Oakland, Salvatore Cordileone, is to be the new archbishop of San Francisco, and reader John Anderson responds to the Catholic News Service report of this at NCR:

Ad multos annos!