As progressive Catholics come out against Sarah Palin, more staid leaders are using their influence to rail on Barack Obama.

Roman Catholic Bishop Rene Henry Gracida has recorded two radio ads - one in English and one in Spanish - demanding the devout retreat from the Democratic Senator. And he's using the "Hussein" argument to help make his heavy-handed point:

This is Bishop Rene H. Gracida, reminding all Catholics that they must vote in this election with an informed conscience. A Catholic cannot be said to have voted in this election with a good conscience if they have voted for a pro-abortion candidate. Barack Hussein Obama is a pro-abortion candidate.

He might as well say "If you vote for Obama, you're going to burn in hell," because that's what he means.

John McCain enlisted Sarah Palin in part to bolster his standing with the Republican party's religious base. Unfortunately for McCain - and Palin - some Catholic leaders are questioning the Alaska governor's spiritual tolerance.

Frank L. Cocozzelli, head of CrossLeft, and his peers today released a statement today scrutinizing Palin's association with the New Apostolic Reformation, a movement Cocozzelli claims has a "long, strong streak of anti-Catholicism."

…Bishop Thomas Muthee, who has spoken repeatedly at the Wasila Assemblies of God Church and personally blessed and anointed Governor Palin in 2005, engages in what NAR terms "spiritual warfare"– with an aim to de-Catholicize communities and nations. "Brazil is occupied by Catholics," declared Muthee in a militant sermon he gave on March 14, 2004 at a United Kingdom church, 'but people are being saved anyway!"

C. Peter Wagner says that the Roman Catholic Church is under the sway of a great demon he calls the "Queen of Heaven."

Top NAR leaders go on spiritual warfare expeditions to try to decrease the power of this "demon."
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"As a Catholic," said Cocozzelli, "I am deeply concerned about Governor Palin's ongoing involvement with Pastor Ed Kalnins and Bishop Thomas Muthee, both of whom are engaged in the anti-Catholic New Apostolic Reformation movement."

In fairness, we do not know what Governor Palin believes. But her involvement with this movement requires us to ask, Does Sarah Palin share this view of Catholicism? Does she view Catholicism as demonic or anything other than a legitimate, international faith?

CrossLeft goes on to demand that Palin either make clear she doesn't agree with NAR's beliefs and to explain why she associates with the "religious bigots of the NAR movement." That can't be good….

Spain's Socialist Party successfully seduced moderate voters during 2004's election. The party has repeatedly clashed with Spain's establishment since taking power, particularly with regard to gay marriage. With the national parliament dissolved and elections set for March 9, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and his comrades are steering toward the center:

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has developed an image as a firebrand ready to shake up Spain's conservative Catholic establishment. His Socialist party passed Europe's most progressive same-sex marriage legislation, introduced fast-track divorce and chipped away at religious education in public schools.

But ahead of a fiercely-contested national election scheduled for March 9, Zapatero is trying to polish his credentials as a moderate. His nemesis, conservative Popular Party (PP) leader Mariano Rajoy, is doing the same.

Despite his conservative leaning, Rajoy promised not to overturn Spain's same-sex marriage laws, which may alienate his voter base. We're happy to hear, however, that gay rights aren't being used as a wedge issue, as they are here in the United States.

Dinesh D'Souza continues to astound us! The Hoover Institute conservative previously wowed us when he used the Catholic Church's gay scandals to support Don't Ask, Don't Tell. It was, in a word, remarkable.

D'Souza occupies himself with the gays and religion once again this week. Well, sort of religion. In his Town Hall piece, D'Souza writes against British theorist Richard Dawkins' revolutionary idea that atheists should stage a "coming out" a la the gays. Such a suggestion, of course, doesn't sit well with D'Souza.

Dawkins has also suggested that atheists, like gays, should come out of the closet. Well, what if they don't want to? I doubt that Dawkins would support "outing" atheists. But can an atheist "rights" group be far behind? Hate crimes laws to protect atheists? Affirmative action for unbelievers? An Atheist Annual Parade, complete with dancers and floats? Atheist History Month?

Honestly, I think the whole atheist-gay analogy is quite absurd.

Indeed.

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There's simply no pleasing Bill Donohue!

Donohue and his Catholic League raised a stink last month over Miller Beer's sponsorship of the Folsom Street Fair, which used the last supper as its advertising inspiration. Despite Donohue's protests, Miller refused to pull its sponsorship, but did ask the fair's organizers to pull their logo from the offending poster.

This wasn't enough for Donohue, who upped the activist ante by sending Miller lewd pictures. Why? Because apparently he thinks some naughty pictures would shame them into apologetics. And it worked! Miller apologized. But poor Donohue still isn't happy. Someone get this man a beer!

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Bishop Franco Agostinelli wants you to think the media attention made his cancel his meeting with gay group Aricay. It seems, however, he may be - how do we put this nicely? - full of shit.

Catholic World News reports that Vatican officials pressured Agostinelli to pull out of what would be a historic conference with the queers. We suppose the media's not as powerful as we'd like to think - tear.

Bishop Franco Agostinelli ain't a man of his "good" word. The Catholic leader had planned to meet with gay group Aricay, but pulled out after the media caught wind of the clandestine rendezvous.

"My gesture was to have been a sign of welcome," the bishop explained, but "not one of recognition for Arcigay." When the meeting plans were aired publicly, he said, he could not go through with the meeting without implying support for the group.

So, in Agostinelli's eyes, the media can turn a simple sit down into an endorsement. Does that mean their more powerful than God?

Agostinelli's explanation's nearly as irrational as Monsignor Tommaso Stenico, who claimed he scheduled a gay tryst for "research". One would think the Catholic leadership would be able to come up with better lies.

• "Lady loving" Ricky Martin received a hall on the walk of fame. Muy caliente!

• Ellen Degeneres broke down in tears after a doggy adoption agency took back a dog she adopted and then gave away. And here we thought Rosie was the resident crazy lesbian.

• "Fuck you" loses power. Tear, tear.

• Don't forget Larry Craig's pow-wow with Matt Lauer tonight on NBC at 8pm!

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An Anglican Bishop has left the Episcopal Church to join the less gay-friendly Catholic Church.

Rev Jeffrey Steenson, Bishop of Rio Grande, accused his Episcopal colleagues of defying the internatioanl Anglican Communion. Insisting the Episcopals aren't an autonomous church, Steenson said,

This is not the Anglicanism in which I was formed, inspired by the Oxford movement and the Catholic Revival in the Church of England. Perhaps something was defective in my education for ministry in the Episcopal Church, but, honestly, I did not recognize the church that this House described on that occasion.
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It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Episcopal Church has rejected the discipline of communion but wants it only on its own terms.

Steenson will now enlist with the Catholic Church, where, you know, there aren't so many open gays. Just the closeted kind, which are preferable. Obviously.

From the editors at National Catholic Register:

There is an “inconvenient truth” that few are willing to mention. Homosexual lifestyles are not healthy — physically, emotionally or morally.

Doctors advertise heavily in homosexual publications, because male homosexual sex routinely injures its participants.
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Children are bound to suffer if their parents are part of the homosexual scene. From the Village People song “YMCA” to the Showtime television show Queer as Folk homosexual culture has long celebrated sex with teens. One of the most-often searched for pornography terms on the Internet is a homosexual slang word for teenage boys.

That word, we think, must be twink, although we're not sure it's a "pornography term" so much as it's a social category.

Governor Bill Richardson knows he made a bad move at last night's "gay debates," when he intimated that being gay is, in fact, a choice: a tired argument conservatives use against gay rights. If gays "choose" their "lifestyle," then they don't deserve "special" rights. Not the implication you want to make at a forum on gay rights.

Within minutes, the presidential hopeful had his team release a statement clarifying his position.

What a perfect conversation starter for Richardson and our editor, who met up with Richardson this morning. Get the goods on Richardson's poor choice of words, what to do about anti-gay Saudis and who's going to hell, after the jump…

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Catholic Citizens' president Larry Cirignano got no judicial love this weekend.

Judge David Ricciardone tossed Cirignano's plea to toss a civil rights violation and misdemeanor assault and battery charges filed by Sarah Loy, a gay marriage activist Cirignano allegedly shoved during a December VoteOnMarriage event.

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Playing God sure can get expensive. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to a record-setting, jaw-dropping $660 million pay out for over 500 abuse victims. The settlement stems from a 2002 lawsuit in which hundreds of victims took advantage of the lift of a one-year statute of limitations.

In addition to the payoff, which will be raised through property sales, the Church agreed to release documents detailing the holy men's attempts to cover their tracks. One of the cases main lawyers, Ray Boucher, told the press, "Transparency is a critical part of this and of all resolutions." In addition to empty therapy, the Church moved priests and layman to new locations, rather than firing them.

And right wing Christians think gays are evil?

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