White House Promises Support to Maine Catholic Charities

Seems kind of ironic how a non-Catholic President seems to be much more open to defending the religious liberties of a Catholic institution from Secularist Fundamentalism than a certain alleged Catholic presidential candidate would probably be. (BTW, I don't believe the Catholic Charities CEO is the same John Kerry who is running for President. At least I hope not.)

President Bush's top adviser on faith-based programs assured Catholic Charities Maine Thursday that the White House is ready to battle local government when it comes to funding religious groups. Catholic Charities, the social-service arm of the Roman Catholic Church and one of Maine's largest such organizations, is barred from receiving certain federal funds from the city of Portland unless it provides some benefits to same-sex or unmarried partners of employees.

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"We don't have to be concerned about the fairness with which we treat religious and religiously sponsored organizations. That's because we have one rule that applies to everybody: You can't practice discrimination," said Cloutier, who was mayor when Catholic Charities sued the city in March 2003, charging religious discrimination.

Sigh...we are inching ever closer to having government run churches, a-la-Communist China.