NEWS NOTES: February 2, 2012

Here are links to some items you might find of interest:

1) The St. Cloud Times reports that the St. Paul and Minneapolis “Archdiocese contributes $650,000 to support gay marriage ban.”  This amount is the lion’s share of the $750,000 raised by the Minnesota Catholic Conference and the more than $1.2M raised by marriage equality opponents in that state.  An Associated Press story, “Gay marriage ban supporters raise over $1.2M,” on MySanAntonio.com contains details.

2) The “Line between political spending and religious speech [is] getting blurrier” according to a MinnPost.com article which looks at religious organizations’ fundraising and other activities in the marriage equality debate in Minnesota.

3) The video of a moving speech made in the Maryland’s House of Delegates in 2011 during the marriage equality debate by Heather Mizeur, a Catholic lesbian state legislator,  is featured on the front page of the progressive political website MoveOn.org.

4) “Acceptance Melbourne,” an Australian gay Catholic organization will be celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, according to StarObserver.com.au article entitled, “Marching with pride.”

–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry