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
Bishop of Kansas City, Robert Finn, convicted of a misdemeanour charge for failing to report suspected child abuse, must either resign or be removed, according to an editorial in NCR. NCR says that if Finn were a layperson he would not be allowed to volunteer at a Kansas City parish, teach a religious education class Read more
Bishop Robert Finn is the first US Catholic bishop to be convicted of a misdemeanour for failing to report suspected child abuse. Finn, the Bishop of Kansas City – St Joseph, Missouri has been sentenced to two years probation and will not serve any jail time, nor pay a fine. The offence carried a maximum Read more
The U.S. Catholic bishops’ point man on sexual abuse, Bishop R. Daniel Conlon of Joliet, paints a gloomy picture of the Church’s handling of sexual abuse, saying the church’s credibility is “shredded”. Conlon compared the situation to the Reformation, when “the episcopacy, the regular clergy, even the papacy were discredited.” Bishop Conlon last month told a conference of Read more
The nun’s short speech got less attention than the rousing address by former President Bill Clinton, or the cutting remarks by Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, but in her own way, Sister Simone Campbell said something remarkable at the Democratic National Convention. Campbell, one of the so-called Nuns on the Bus who have toured the country Read more
Twelve-year-old Jake Finkbonner leaned over and ran his hand through a pool of water from a natural spring at the National Shrine of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, in Fonda, N.Y.. With that simple gesture, on a recent July weekend, the boy connected literally to the story of the 17th-century Native American woman who the Roman Catholic Read more
The recently completed “Nuns on the Bus” tour garnered a great deal of publicity for the sisters involved, who claimed they were making the trip to protest proposed federal budget cuts they say would hurt the poor. However, there were many more undercurrents to the nine-state, two-week trip than most people realize. The giant banner Read more
America’s annual celebration of Independence Day was accompanied this year by the U.S. bishops’ Fortnight for Freedom, a round of prayer and advocacy dedicated to the preservation of religious liberty. The exercise renewed debate over whether there is or isn’t a war on religion in America, fueled, of course, by the politics of the 2012 Read more
U.S. Catholic bishops announced plans on Thursday for an ambitious public relations drive to soften and shape their image and reach out to the younger generation using social media. In a lively session at their national conference in Atlanta, several bishops expressed dismay that they are slow to get their talking points across and are Read more