Flynn Calls on Kerry to Renounce Litmus Test

THE BOSTON GLOBE, Oct. 11 — Bishops are not the only ones speaking out against pro-abortion candidates in this year's presidential and congressional elections. Raymond Flynn, the former Boston mayor and ambassador to the Vatican, has gone public with his disappointment with fellow Bay Stater John Kerry.

Flynn, who helped Kerry get elected to the Senate, excoriated the senator in an ad in The New York Times over his insistence that, if elected president, he would appoint only judges who would uphold Roe v. Wade, The Boston Globe reported.

“Removing political correctness from that statement, Senator Kerry, you have announced that you will only support people to the federal judiciary who support killing unborn children,” Flynn wrote. He asked Kerry to announce that he will not impose any abortion litmus test on candidates for the federal judiciary. He said someone like Harvard Law School professor Mary Ann Glendon, a Catholic, is the kind of jurist who would be excluded under such a standard.

The ad was funded by an organization Flynn heads — Liberty, Life and Family of Washington.

Knights of Columbus Eye Expansion of Headquarters

NEW HAVEN REGISTER, Oct. 9 — A 22-story office building just won't do it anymore. The Knights of Columbus reportedly want to build another such structure next to its international headquarters in New Haven, Conn., the New Haven Register reported.

The 1.7 million-strong Catholic men's fraternal organization is also an $11 billion insurance organization. It is talking to the city of New Haven about erecting an office building and courtyard or park on a block the city had proposed for residential-commercial use. If the deal goes through, the city's Long Wharf Theatre, which had first eyed the site, would relocate to the old New Haven Coliseum. That would give Long Wharf more flexibility, a theater spokesman said.

The Knights' headquarters was built in the late 1960s. New Haven is also home to St. Mary's Church, where Father Michael McGivney founded the Knights in 1881, and the Knights of Columbus Museum, where the model that Michelangelo used for the dome of St. Peter's Basilica is on loan from the Vatican until January.

Cross in Southern California May be Saved

THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, Oct. 12 — The 1998 sale of a half-acre of land surrounding a cross on Mount Soledad in southern California is void, a federal judge ruled Oct. 12. That means the city of San Diego owns the land and is free to resell it if voters approve, the San Diego newspaper reported.

The decision puts an end to the plan by the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association to remove a 43-foot cross that has stood on the peak for 50 years. The veterans group was ready to give in to the demands of an atheist, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, who sued San Diego in 1989, saying the presence of the cross on city property violates the U.S. and California constitutions. The city, and voters in 1992, approved the sale of the land to the memorial association, but judges said the sale showed preference to a group that wanted to preserve the cross.

The city plans to put the question of sale of the land on the ballot Nov. 2, which means the new owner could decide to keep the cross where it is.