Various institutions within the American church have been of concern to the US bishops over the past few years — and now it is the turn of the Girl Scouts. In a recent article, Joan Chittister writes that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Catholic Charities in the US, Caritas, and now the Girl Scouts, Read more
In the US, it’s an election year, and the atmosphere is toxic. The incumbent president Barak Obama is up for re-election in November. The Republican primaries have taken a lot of airtime. One of the contested policy issues is Obama’s 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA). Many of the US Catholic Bishops have been critical of Read more
Some of our bishops are acting like bullies, abusing the authority of their offices in the name of enforcing orthodoxy. Dealing with U.S. women religious, these bishops’ actions appear governed more by a desire to enforce obedience than to develop fidelity in our sisters. Catholics see through this guise. They are upset, fed up with Read more
On the hotly debated topics of religious freedom, contraception and same-sex marriages, a new survey suggests that bishops and the majority of American Catholics are not singing from the same hymn sheet.
A vocal contingent of Republican presidential candidates and church leaders are railing against the Obama administration’s “war on religion,” but most Americans can’t seem to find the fight.
A majority (56 percent) of Americans say religious liberty is not threatened in the U.S., according to a new poll released Thursday (March 15) by the Public Religion Research Institute, which conducted the survey in partnership with Religion News Service.
The poll, which asked a wide range of questions, also found significant support for same-sex marriage.
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The Obama administration announced what it saw as a new accommodations on the controversial contraception mandate that obliged Catholic organisations to provide contraceptive health care coverage. Under attack from the US Catholic Bishops, Catholic hospitals and other institutions, the proposal seeks to shift the cost of providing birth control coverage onto insurance companies and prohibiting Read more
The US Catholic bishops maybe about to re-think their objection to Obama-mandate, that employers’ health insurance cover must cover contraception. The bishops are meeting in Washington this week, and while there is no public indication of their dropping their fight, Reuters reports there are small but clear signs from within the Conference that suggest they Read more
Engaging in a preventive war without clear proof that an attack is imminent cannot fail to raise serious moral and juridical questions Bishop Richard Pates wrote in a March 2 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Pates, chairman of the US Catholic Bishops Committee on International Justice and Peace of the United States Conference of Read more
Take your lead from liberal Catholics is the Obama administration’s message to the US Catholic bishops on the contraceptive coverage debate, according to Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Dolan says White House aides urged the bishops to listen Catholics who have accepted the administration’s plan, such as the editors of America magazine. Writing on his blog, Dolan Read more
This weekend would be an ideal time for the leaders of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to reconsider the political strategy they have adopted in their fight against the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate. In their bid to undo that offensive mandate, the bishops could theoretically look for help from each branch of the Read more
Someone reminded me of this document put out by the USCCB on communion in 2006, which states: In virtue of our membership in the Catholic Church we are ordinarily free to receive Holy Communion. In fact, it is most desirable that we receive the Lord’s Body and Blood, so that Holy Communion stands out clearly as Read more