PAULINE JONES

PAULINE J. JONES

At 99 years of age, united with her Lord on November 18, 2008.

Founder of the Washington Catholic Interracial Council.

Organized the participation of her parish in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

Prefect of the Parish Sodality

Member of the St. Augustine Parish Council

Founder of the St. Augustine Parish Black History Week Celebration.

Beloved wife of the late Walter A. Jones.

Tireless advocate for social justice.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Pauline J. Jones Scholarship Fund, c/o St. Augustine Catholic School, 1419 V St. NW, Washington, DC 20009.

OBAMA FAMILY VOLUNTEERS FOR CATHOLIC CHARITIES; LAUDED AT CATHOLIC SCHOOL

President Elect Barack Obama and his family distributed food Wednesday at St. Columbanus Catholic Parish in Chicago. They spent an hour working as volunteers for Catholic Charities, handing out chickens, potatoes, bread and other Thanksgiving food to families who otherwise would be in need.

Many of the poor and homeless -- some of whom come for food every Wednesday -- screamed in disbelief as they entered the parking lot of St. Columbanus Church at 71st and Calumet Drive and realized the reason they had been wanded by the U.S. Secret Service was because Obama, his wife and daughters, were standing there ready to pass out the food usually handed out by volunteers.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Michelle Obama and their daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7 , stood beside their father also handing out food in the 43-degree weather beneath the elaborate 99-year-old stained glass windows of St. Columbanus church. Obama wore a leather jacket while Michelle and the girls were bundled in winter coats and hats.

The President Elect said it was important to bring his daughters because, "I want them to know how fortunate they are and that they have to give back."

The pastor of the parish, Father Mark Eyerman expressed his appreciation of the President Elect for helping with the Thanksgiving program. But he was not the only one in the parish thankful for the Obamas.

As he finished handing out the chickens, the President Elect turned and looked up at the windows of St. Columbanus School where the pre-K through 8th graders were furiously waving and screaming from their second- and third-floor windows. The President Elect then shook hands with Catholic grade school students ecstatic to see him.

According to the Sun-Times, the President Elect said "Hey Michelle, look," he pointed as she waved back. "We've got to go in there and say 'hi' to those kids," much to the chagrin of the Secret Service, which frowns on spontaneity.

The Secret Service asked school officials to bring the school's 300 students down to the assembly hall. The enthusiasm of the Catholic school children was off the charts as Obama entered the room and attempted to shake hands with the children as young as five and pre-Kindergarten. Some grabbed onto his leather jacket sleeves and would not let go, trying to climb up in his arms.

Religious Extremists Attack Obama

Religious extremists are making the following attacks on the President Elect this week:

“aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic"

[Obama is] "the direct opposite of honourable black Americans," he is a "House Negro"

“We weep over the violence concealed behind his rhetoric and that of Joseph Biden and what appears to be that of the majority of the incoming Congress.”

[the election was a ] “a cultural earthquake”

"new face of America only masked a heart full of hate"

You can sort out for yourself which hatemongers made which statement. Regardless, none of them have a place in a serious discussion among a free people governing themselves.

CATHOLIC CAMPAIGN FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

As a response to the current economic crisis, the U.S. Catholic Bishops have issued statement of strong support for the Campaign for Human Development annual collection. Read their entire statement here.

The CCHD Collection will be held in most parishes this coming Sunday, November 22 & 23. Please do everything you can to promote the collection. For more information and CCHD resource materials click here.

Pope Expected to Welcome Obama at Vatican

Breaking news reports indicate that the Holy Father will receive President Barack Obama at the Vatican early this summer. This may even have been discussed in the telephone conversation the Holy Father and the President Elect had recently.

Many American Catholics are very pleased with the warm relationship being developed by the President Elect and His Holiness so soon after the election. Normal protocol usually puts these matters off until after the inauguration, but both men seem to have an interest in each other and a desire to move beyond the standard formalities.

Lay Catholics Take Lead in Changing the Conversation on Abortion

Catholic voters' shift
Why the flock disregarded some bishops' advice and helped sweep Barack Obama into office
By Patrick Whelan and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
November 16, 2008

Catholics voted decisively in this month's election for Barack Obama, 54 percent to 45 percent, according to exit polls. This was a big reversal from four years ago, when Catholics favored George W. Bush by 5 percentage points. Now the debate is on. The U.S. Bishops, meeting last week in Baltimore, wrestled with the implications of election results that showed Catholics rejecting the dictates of the most conservative and outspoken bishops, who urged parishioners to vote Republican.

The putative argument for these bishops was that only Republicans are sufficiently pure on the abortion question. The facts show otherwise. Analysis of abortion statistics over the past 28 years demonstrates that Democrats do a better job of reducing the number of abortions than Republicans. Significantly more progress was made against abortion during the Clinton administration than during any of the three Republican administrations that preceded or followed it.

Overall, the national abortion rate fell about 50 percent faster under President Bill Clinton than it has under President George W. Bush. We conservatively estimate that an additional 274,800 children might be alive today had abortion rates continued to drop during the first five years of the Bush administration at the same rate that they fell during the same period under Mr. Clinton.

In other words, while the Republicans have been focused on laws such as the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act that have not been proved to have stopped even a single abortion, the Democrats oversaw meaningful reductions.

What was stunning about this election is that a number of leading pro-life Catholics, including some staunch Republicans, switched their allegiance to Barack Obama. Law professors M. Cathleen Kaveny, Douglas W. Kmiec and Nicholas P. Cafardi joined groups like ours in vigorously advancing abortion-reduction strategies. Indeed, Mr. Obama included these strategies - such as expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program, expanding prenatal care and facilitating adoption - in the Democratic platform for the first time. We believe such strategies have been shown to be much more effective than the Republican focus on promoting the possibility that some abortions in some smaller states might be made illegal if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned someday.

When the Democrats used Catholic language to advance the reduction strategies, Republican operatives, conservative columnists and some bishops accused the Obama advocates of "misusing" the bishops' words to support the more liberal candidate. A few, such as Bishop Robert W. Finn of Kansas City, went so far as to suggest that a trip to hell was the likely outcome for voters who marked Mr. Obama on their ballots.

All this talk about abortion and the need to vote Republican demonstrates what is really at the heart of some of the bishops' concerns: They wanted the Republican to win. But Catholics care about many issues: torture, war and peace, health care, immigration - as well as how to be a good neighbor, how to care for the least among us and how best to work for the common good.

That is what most of the bishops care about too. In fact, bishops have told us in private that they applaud our efforts to advance a Catholic ethos within the Democratic Party. We hope that in the course of their deliberations, these bishops will speak out and recommit to the "faithful citizenship" ideas that represent the heart of Catholic teaching.

This election has demonstrated that American Catholics want leaders who are serious, deliberative and have a sense of gravitas about the questions confronting us. Pope Benedict XVI has reached out to President-elect Obama, and there is a new spirit alive in the Vatican for focusing on the big questions of our day. We stand ready to join our bishops, in this moment of new hope and opportunity, to work for the common good.

Dr. Patrick Whelan, a pediatric specialist, is president of the Catholic Democrats. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a former lieutenant governor of Maryland, is on the group's board.

Actually, He is a Very Nice Man

"Catholic" dissident to run for Chairman of Republican Party

Former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele, a so-called "Catholic" who falsely believes that a person can call himself pro-life and yet support a pro-choice candidate, had declared his candidacy to lead the National Republican Party. It can be expected that Pro-Life groups and conservative Catholics will quickly point out to him that it is a sin to support a pro-choice candidate and selecting him as National Party Chairman would be an insult to millions of orthodox Catholic Republicans.