The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
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the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, recent posts in Facebook groups on the Knights of Columbus fund raiser for children with disabilities , once again turned into a bigoted diatribe of attacks on the organization , The Knights of Columbus raises thousands from very generous folks driving through town for this “Shake the Can” fundraiser. Of which 100% goes straight to charity.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, State senator Joe Pennacchio today called on the United States Senate to condemn U.S. Senators Kamala Harris (D-California) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) in light of reports that the two Democratic Senators made what Pennacchio cited as anti-Catholic and bigoted comments during their review of Brian Buescher’s judicial nomination to the U.S. District Court in Nebraska.
During last years divisive Village Council Election the Harwin campaign funded by developers and Democrat special interest groups launched into a series of anti Catholic diatribes including circulating a letter attacking Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Ridgewood.
Pennacchio also questioned why New Jersey’s U.S. Senators, Cory Booker and Bob Menendez, who represent a large Catholic population, have yet to speak out. During the hearing, U.S. Sens. Harris and Hirono insinuated that Buescher would not be able to rule fairly and impartially because he is a longtime member of the Knights of Columbus.
“Religious intolerance and bigotry of any kind has no place in the halls of government,” said Pennacchio. “I have yet to hear either of our U.S. Senate representatives condemn these remarks. Their silence is deafening. No one should be excluded from serving in the judiciary because of their faith.
“Roman Catholicism is the second largest religion in the United States, and the Knights of Columbus is an honorable service organization that has given back to millions of people,” the Republican state senator from Morris County added. This is not a cause for concern and insinuating otherwise is irresponsible and misleading. Make no mistake – the attack on the Knights of Columbus was an attack on the Church itself. The U.S. Senate should formerly condemn Senators Harris and Hirono immediately and their colleagues in Congress should speak out against their conduct. As a Catholic and an American, I am absolutely appalled. It seems that being anti-Catholic or anti-Semitic has become politically-chic, and we should all be alarmed.”
Pennacchio noted that this is not the first time Catholic judicial nominees have been attacked by Democratic U.S. representatives. In 2017, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) levied similar anti-Catholic attacks against judicial nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. He noted that in 2011, Governor Christie and members of the Legislature on both sides of the aisle rallied to support a Muslim judicial nominee who was being attacked for his faith. Pennacchio emphasized that Catholic judicial nominees who are qualified and worthy of serving on the bench should be given the same support.
“We should all be concerned about the rise of bias in this country,” said the senator. “The hateful rhetoric must come to an end and we should shed light on anyone who is spewing hate, regardless of their party affiliation or the faith they are attacking. It is no more acceptable to attack someone for being Catholic, than it is to attack someone for any other religious belief.”
May 6,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, This weeks (May 5th/6th, 2018) Our Lady of Mt. Carmel bulletin message from Fr. Ron :
“I was hoping I would not have to do this but because of a recent scurrilous mailer, which identified the parish (by name, if you went to the website) as the source of a “$25,000 prize—that’s right, $25,000! – from an organization at the center of the parking garage debate and a seemingly illegal meeting held—without any public notice or follow up minutes—to discuss the parking garage issue,” (factually incorrect). I am constrained to re-iterate the parish position, on the garage only, and I quote directly from my column in the bulletin of June 12, 2016: “For clarity again, and simply stated, relative to the parking deck, the parish opposes any plan that eliminates on-street parking on the church side of Hudson Street. The parish opposes the re-direction of Hudson and Passaic Streets. The parish is neutral on the aesthetics of the deck, its size, its proportionality to surrounding buildings and the streetscape it creates. This is a decision that should be made by the individual resident of Ridgewood.” I think that statement should be clear enough.”
By Marc Thiessen
October 15, 2016
In a speech not long before she launched her 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton made a stunning declaration of war on religious Americans. Speaking to the 2015 Women in the World Summit, Clinton declared that “deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.”
Religious beliefs have to be changed? This is perhaps the most radical statement against religious liberty ever uttered by someone seeking the presidency. It is also deeply revealing.
Clinton believes that, as president, it is her job not to respect the views of religious conservatives but to force them to change their beliefs and bend to her radical agenda favoring taxpayer-funded abortion on demand.
This is the context in which we must read a recently released trove of e-mails — which, according to WikiLeaks, come from the accounts of Clinton staff — showing the rampant anti-Catholic bigotry that permeates Clinton World.
In a 2012 e-mail WikiLeaks says was sent to John Podesta, now chairman of the Clinton campaign, Voices for Progress president Sandy Newman writes that “there needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic church” and proposed the Clinton team “plant the seeds of the revolution” to change Catholic teaching.
Podesta replies, “We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to organize for a moment like this . . . Likewise Catholics United.”
By PAUL BEDARD (@SECRETSBEDARD) • 10/13/16 4:04 PM
Outraged by the anti-Catholic bigotry displayed in leaked Team Clinton emails this week, the powerful Philadelphia bishop blasted bothPresident Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton for their efforts to undermine church teachings.
In his weekly column for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Archbishop Charles Chaput Thursday demanded that Clinton repudiate the emails — then added that he doesn’t expect her to.
Mocking the theme in the emails that Catholics are backward thinking for views on abortion, marriage and other core issues, Chaput wrote, “Of course it would be wonderful for the Clinton campaign to repudiate the content of these ugly WikiLeaks emails. All of us backward-thinking Catholics who actually believe what Scripture and the Church teach would be so very grateful.”
He described Clinton as “a scheming, robotic liar with a lifelong appetite for power and an entourage riddled with anti-Catholic bigots.”
