The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit againts the US Conference of Catholic Bishops for allegedly being negligent for barring certain treatments or the mention of the treatments such as abortion. The lawsuit was filed in the case of a pregnant woman whose life was at risk from premature labor. The group says Mercy Health Read more
The newly elected leader of the United States’ Roman Catholic bishops says he will draw on his years as a pastor while seeking to reconcile Pope Francis’ message of a welcoming church with the conservative ideology of American bishops. Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Kentucky was elected Tuesday as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Read more
A report by the Associated Press said Pope Francis’ call to focus less on divisive social issues poses a challenge for US bishops. Catholic leaders in America have adopted a more aggressive style of defending the faith in recent years. They said they had to because society was moving so far from traditional beliefs on Read more
The reverberations can be heard nationwide. As church employees and volunteers receive notices requiring them to attend safe-environment trainings, their responses have become familiar: “Again?” “Didn’t we just do that?” “I went through this where I teach; do I need to do it in the parish too?” “I barely come in contact with kids; why Read more
The May 1 appointment of Kim Daniels as the first lay media relations officer for the president of the US Catholic Bishops signals the beginning of a new phase in media relations for the US Catholic Bishops. The appointment, which has surprised some, was foreshadowed last year by US Bishops’ President, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, when he Read more
While Cardinals from other countries continue to speak informally to media on the streets near the Vatican, the public daily media briefing by US cardinals has been shut down. The cancellation has come at the request of the ‘College of Cardinals’. A spokeswoman for the American cardinals said “concern” was expressed at Wednesday’s closed-door meeting Read more
You’ve got to feel a little sorry for the Catholic bishops. They declared that the Obama administration was making war on religion and not only was the president reelected but Catholics were the only Christian religious body to vote for him. To make matters worse, after devoting much talk and treasure to combatting the rising tide Read more
Anybody who’s seen the movie “Pulp Fiction” probably recalls the scene where John Travolta explains to Samuel L. Jackson that in France, McDonald’s calls the quarter-pounder a “Royale with cheese” because, in light of the metric system, the French wouldn’t know what a quarter-pounder is. (It turns out that the movie got the French slightly Read more
Catholic bishops chided US Vice President Joe Biden for saying during last week’s vice-presidential debate that Catholic hospitals and institutions will not be forced to provide contraception coverage to employees. The National Catholic Reporter said the US Conference of Catholic Bishops did not name Biden, but said the “inaccurate” statement “made during the vice presidential Read more
The US bishops’ conference has launched a Spanish-language Facebook page to cater to the growing number of Hispanic populations in many areas of the country. “Hispanics make up 16 percent of the total US population, almost 40 percent of US Catholics, and 50 percent of US Catholics under age 25,” explained Bishop John C. Wester Read more