New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- In a column appearing in the liberal magazine Salon today, former "Catholics for a Free Choice" president Frances Kissling is renewing her bid to kick the pro-life Vatican out of the United Nations. Kissling is a relentless abortion advocate who dislikes that the Catholic Church advocates pro-life principles.

Kissling tries to make the case that the Vatican isn't really a state and therefore shouldn't have permanent observer status at the United Nations.

Deal Hudson, a prominent Catholic writer, offers his input on Kissling's column.

"Kissling has been trying to get the Vatican booted from the UN for years," he notes...

(CNSNews.com) - One day after the White House contradicted an assertion by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that all current versions of the health-care bill permit funding of abortion, the Catholic bishops declared they would “vigorously” oppose the bill if it was not changed to include language to prohibit abortion funding.

On Sept. 30, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which represents the approximately 300 active bishops in the United States, sent a letter to members of the U.S. Senate in which the bishops said: “So far, the health reform bills considered in committee, including the new Senate Finance Committee bill, have not met President Obama’s challenge of barring use of federal dollars for abortion”...

(CNSNews.com) – The health care bills currently under consideration in the House and Senate do not bar federal funds from being used to pay for abortion, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) explains in a Sept. 30 letter sent to members of the Senate.

“So far, the health reform bills considered in committee, including the new Senate Finance Committee bill, have not met President Obama’s challenge of barring use of federal dollars for abortion and maintaining current conscience laws,” states the letter. “These deficiencies must be corrected”...

(CNSNews.com) - When asked whether he agreed with Cardinal Justin Rigali, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' pro-life committee, that the House health care bill funds abortion and needs to be amended to prohibit abortion funding, Cardinal Roger Mahony told CNSNews.com that the issue of abortion funding in the health care bill is “way beyond my field.”

When asked whether he believed abortion should be funded under the bill, Cardinal Mahony said: "No, but that's what the president said, too, so."

Mahony is the Roman Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles. Rigali is the Roman Catholic archbishop of Philadelphia...

(CNSNews.com) – A Catholic church in San Francisco was recently vandalized apparently by pro-homosexual marriage activists, and part of the blame for the damage rests with Mayor Gavin Newsom and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, according to the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

“This was not an isolated event in terms of how San Francisco treats Catholics,” Susan A. Fani, communications director for the Catholic League, told CNSNews.com. “For a city that’s very open and into diversity, we find that it is a hostile atmosphere for Catholicism”...

CNN called Bishop Stephen Blaire of the Stockton Diocese, requesting an interview Monday. St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Modesto had all four of its receptionists answering calls throughout the day. The church even had to add a special link to its Web site to accommodate the surge of e-mail comments.

The attention stems from a Nov. 21 letter from the church's pastor, the Rev. Joseph Illo, to his parishioners that referred to President-elect Barack Obama's stance on abortion...

Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards recently claimed that most Catholics are pro-abortion.

LifeNews.com reports Richards said 54 percent of Catholics voted for Obama in the recent election. But Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League (ALL), disputes that statistic, claiming there were some disturbing pre-election events. He cites one example in Philadelphia...

The Roman Catholic Church is cutting off funds to the community organizing group ACORN, citing complaints over its voter registration drives in the November 4 election as part of the reason.

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development froze its contributions to the group in June amid allegations that Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke, had embezzled nearly $1 million.

This week, as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops met in Baltimore, Maryland, the campaign's chairman said it was cutting all ties with the group...

The nation's Catholic bishops on Tuesday served notice to the future Obama
administration that they will oppose "a culture of coercion" on abortion, even
if they have to suffer doing so.

The five-paragraph statement, which was debated at length during an afternoon
session of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' annual meeting, said the 223
bishops present were "completely united and resolute in our teaching and defense
of the unborn child from the moment of conception"...