Pope Earns Rare Praise from Leading German Leftist

Pope Benedict XVI waves as he arrives to lead the weekly general audience at his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo in southern Rome August 24 2011 REUTERS Alessandro Bianchi

Gregor Gysi, a prominent Left-wing German politician, has praised Benedict XVI for insisting that society needs  strong moral foundations in order to function properly.

Is A Vote for John McCain a Mortal Sin?

"Sometimes party loyalty asks too much."

For Catholics, more than one quarter of the American electorate, the possible nomination of John McCain, as with the Democrats, would pose a serious moral dilemna. According to the Catholic Answers Voter Guide:

"there are five non-negotiable issues in current US political discourse: abortion, euthanasia, gay marriage, embryonic stem cell research, and human cloning. Catholics are told to 'find out where each candidate stands on each of these issues. Eliminate from consideration any candidate who is wrong on any of the five issues. Vote for one of the remaining candidates.'

Despite his claims to the contrary, the record of John McCain on pro-life issues, like so many of his positions, has been spotty at best. In the following video the Editor of CNS News tells the Catholic cable network, EWTN, that John McCain opposes the Republican pro-life plank, which is consistent with Catholic teaching, because it does not include rape and incest provisions.

Secondly, John McCain has been an adamant supporter of federal funding for embryo-killing stem cell research. He not only believes in the killing of persons created in an in vitro fertilization clinic, he supports the taxing of Catholics and others opposed to such research to pay for it.

Finally, McCain voted against a federal marriage amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.