American cardinal retires from Vatican post
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Cardinal James Stafford

Vatican City, Jun 2, 2009 / 10:48 am (CNA).- The Vatican announced this morning that the Pope has accepted the resignation of 77-year-old Cardinal James Francis Stafford, the former Archbishop of Denver, from his post as the Penitentiary Major. He will be replaced by Archbishop Fortunato Baldelli, the current apostolic nuncio to France.

As head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, Cardinal Stafford has dealt with matters related to sin, mercy and forgiveness. The Penitentiary is one of the three tribunals within the Holy See, and according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, is divided into two sections. The first section deals with the granting of indulgences, while the second is dedicated to resolving sins reserved to the Pope and matters of conscience forwarded to the Holy See.

The Cardinal in charge of the Penitentiary also assists the Pope during Jubilee years and prays certain prayers with the Pope while he is dying.

Recent indulgences granted by the Penitentiary include one for participants at World Youth Day in Sydney, one for the Year of St. Paul and one for the Year of Priests.

Cardinal Stafford has also been outspoken about his view of the election of President Barack Obama.

In a speech he gave at Catholic University of America, he described Obama as "aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic" and went on to speak about a decline in respect for human life and the need for Catholics to return to the values of marriage and human dignity.

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Subscriber comments:
Published by: Brian in Wisconsin
Necedah, WI, USA 09/28/2009 01:41 PM EST
Louie, yeah, that's great, totally negate what this good servant of the Church has done with good will and not having any reason to think he was doing any wrong. You make it seem like he knew that the United Way was going to be a huge funder of Planned Parenthood back in the '70s. This is spurious, and I saddened the moderators of this website even saw fit to let it go through. What's satanic is trying to cast dirt on this good man's name and spur up division for something he obviously had no idea was going to happen. Given his record, it is clear that had he known this, he never would have done it. You should be ashamed, Louie. This is worse than detraction, it's calumny. Go to confession.
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Published by: Louie Verrecchio
Hampstead 06/02/2009 07:28 PM EST
Cardinal Stafford's legacy bears an undeniable blemish thanks to his involvement in forging the relationship between the Catholic Campaign, later Catholic Charities, and the United Way back in the 1970's during his time in Baltimore.

United Way is a major funder of Planned Parenthood, and whatever good intentions then Msgr. Stafford envisioned coming about through this alliance have clearly not played out.

While United Way may split hairs to make Catholic donors believe they are not funding abortions, the truth is that a portion of every dollar a Catholic gives to a good cause via United Way is retained by the organization to fund their operations; and these operations involve a tenacious commitment to killing unborn children.

It is a deception of Satanic proportions that good hearted Catholics unknowingly fund abortions through this unholy alliance. Cardinal Stafford washed his hands of this mess years ago, even after the unintended consequences of his decision had been brought to his attention, and unless he decides in retirement to undo the mess he helped create, albeit inadvertently, his good works will always bear the stain of innocent blood.
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