New York City, N.Y., May 17, 2012 / 02:08 am (CNA).- Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York debuted on Twitter last week, adapting his engaging, humorous style to the popular microblogging site and quickly becoming the third most followed cardinal.

“Hey everybody. It's Timothy Cardinal Tebow. I mean Dolan,” the cardinal’s first tweet said May 8, alluding to the new New York Jets quarterback and football star Tim Tebow.

The cardinal uses Twitter to talk about his daily actions, his appearances on SiriusXM Radio’s The Catholic Channel, and events like Mother’s Day.

Although limited to 140 characters per tweet, he has also touched on spiritual matters.

“St Therese of Lisieux reminds us that doing the ordinary things of life extraordinarily well, for the glory of God, is the path to sanctity,” he said May 10.

“Every person or institution will eventually let us down. Our ultimate trust must be in God and we will never be disappointed,” he said the day before.

Cardinal Dolan also uses Twitter to send his readers to the full texts of his speeches and statements. He published a link to his full commencement speech for the Catholic University of America and sent out a link to his May 9 statement which called President Obama’s support for same-sex marriage “deeply saddening.”

As of Wednesday, more than 7,500 people were following the cardinal, who heads the U.S. bishops’ conference. By comparison, the bishops’ conference itself has attracted about 18,700 followers on Twitter since its January 2009 debut.

The cardinal added over 2,500 followers on each of his first two days on Twitter, according to the website TwitterCounter.com.

At least six other cardinals have taken to Twitter. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council of Culture, has 18,600 followers, Cardinal Odilo Scherer of Sao Paolo has 13,700 and Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan has 7,200.

After Cardinal Dolan come Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, who has 3,800 followers, Cardinal Norberto Rivera of Mexico City with 2,800, and Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier of Durban, South Africa, who has 1,300 followers.

Cardinal Dolan’s Twitter page is at twitter.com/CardinalDolan.

Washington D.C., May 17, 2012 / 12:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. has By condemned Georgetown University's invitation to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to speak during commencement weekend.

In light of Sebelius' attempts to drastically redefine religious ministry in a way that threatens Catholic institutions, Georgetown should do more to “speak up for freedom of religion,” the archdiocese said.

In a May 15 statement, it explained that Catholics are understandably shocked by Georgetown’s decision to honor Sebelius, the architect of a contraception mandate that poses a serious threat to religious freedom in America.

It added that it is “also understandable that Catholics would view this as a challenge to the bishops.”

The Archdiocese of Washington said that it had previously “reserved public comment” in order to allow Georgetown University and the Jesuits to have “the opportunity to address the controversy.”

Georgetown announced on May 4 that Sebelius had been invited as a featured speaker at the university's Public Policy Institute awards ceremony during commencement weekend on May 18.

The move has been heavily criticized, largely due to the fact that Sebelius recently issued a federal mandate that will require employers to offer health insurance plans that cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, even if doing so violates their religious beliefs.

Catholic bishops from every diocese in the U.S. have spoken out against the mandate, warning that it poses a grave threat to religious freedom and could force Catholic hospitals, schools and charitable agencies across the nation to shut down.

More than 35,000 people have signed a petition objecting to Georgetown’s invitation to Sebelius.

A May 10 editorial in The Catholic Standard, the newspaper for the Archdiocese of Washington, called the invitation “disappointing, but not surprising.”

The editorial said that Georgetown has become secularized, largely because “the vision guiding university choices does not clearly reflect the light of the Gospel and authentic Catholic teaching.”

On May 14, Georgetown president John J. DeGioia responded to the controversy in a public statement. He defended the university’s decision, arguing that the invite is not an endorsement of Sebelius’ views or a challenge to the U.S. bishops.

“As a Catholic and Jesuit University, Georgetown disassociates itself from any positions that are in conflict with traditional church teachings,” he stated.

DeGioia said that Sebelius had been suggested by students last fall as “a leading policy maker” in America, due to her role in forming the Affordable Care Act. He also praised her “long and distinguished record of public service,” including two terms as governor of Kansas before working for the Obama administration.

During her time as governor of Kansas, Sebelius' staunch and long-standing support for abortion led Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City to ask her to refrain from receiving Communion until she had made a worthy confession and publicly changed her stance.

DeGioia said that Sebelius had been invited in early January, before the final rule on contraception coverage was issued.

While he acknowledged the bishops’ opposition to the mandate, he also said that Georgetown is “committed to the free exchange of ideas.”

The university community “draws inspiration from a religious tradition” that offers a moral, intellectual and spiritual foundation, he said, adding that “engaging these values” is necessary to becoming “the University we are meant to be.”

In its response, the archdiocese said that DeGioia’s statement “does not address the real issue for concern.”

It explained that the real problem in choosing Sebelius as a featured speaker is that her “actions as a public official present the most direct challenge to religious liberty in recent history.”

In allowing the invitation to stand, it said, the university has displayed an “apparent lack of unity with and disregard for the bishops” and all those who are fighting to defend religious liberty.

The fundamental issue underlying the mandate is not contraception but religious freedom, the archdiocese said, explaining that the mandate’s narrow definition of religious ministry excludes Catholic schools, hospitals and social service agencies.

It noted that even Georgetown would fail to qualify as a religious institution under the mandate because of its willingness to welcome both Catholic and non-Catholic students.

The archdiocese also pointed out that although it was only finalized in January, the mandate was first published in a problematic form last August, well before Georgetown extended the invitation to Sebelius.

It called on the university to “do more to challenge the mandate” and speak up in defense of religious liberty.

Antonia Messina was born into a poor family in a small town in Sardinia, Italy, in 1919. She was the second of 10 children and she had to leave school after only four years to help her bed-ridden mother tend to the house and the other children.Despite her heavy responsibilities at home, Antonia became a very active member of Catholic Action at the age of 10. When she was 16, she was attacked while out gathering wood. She was beaten and murdered by a would-be rapist, fighting him off to her last breath. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987 as a martyr of purity. She is a patron of rape vicitims.

1The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, of all things which Jesus began to do and to teach, 2Until the day on which, giving commandments by the Holy Ghost to the apostles whom he had chosen, he was taken up. 3To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion, by many proofs, for forty days appearing to them, and speaking of the kingdom of God. 4And eating together with them, he commanded them, that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but should wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard (saith he) by my mouth. 5For John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. 6They therefore who were come together, asked him, saying: Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? 7But he said to them: It is not for you to know the times or moments, which the Father hath put in his own power: 8But you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth. 9And when he had said these things, while they looked on, he was raised up: and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10And while they were beholding him going up to heaven, behold two men stood by them in white garments. 11Who also said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen him going into heaven.