Free Republic

(Reuters) - Supporters of a U.S. immigration reform bill are launching a push for the legislation this week that includes phone calls to lawmakers from Catholic bishops, visits to Capitol Hill from high-tech lobbyists and an ad blitz sponsored by organized labor. The lobbying frenzy is aimed at overcoming resistance among many Republicans in the House of Representatives to the biggest overhaul of U.S. immigration laws in nearly 30 years. Immigration reform, President Barack Obama's top domestic priority, passed the Democratic-led Senate with bipartisan support but its prospects in the Republican-led House are bleak. While House votes could still be...

"...It is curious that as Catholic leaders are campaigning essentially for amnesty, providing a plethora of images of “needy,” “struggling” families being “welcomed” by those who supposedly have “more,” there is scarce mention of another concept that many of these same Catholic leaders have highly prized, particularly in their recent struggles with the U.S. government: the rule of law. The notion that those who have come to the United States illegally should be exempted from the nation’s laws is not only not mentioned by these Catholic leaders, but also seemingly dismissed. The fact that many Americans have been the victims...

Despite his strong opposition to the portion of the new health care law that requires employers, including those with religious affiliations to cover birth control in employee health plans, the Archdiocese headed by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has been quietly paying for birth control for more than a decade. According to a report in The New York Times, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York has "reluctantly and indirectly" been paying for health plans that cover birth control and "voluntary pregnancy termination" for thousands of its unionized employees for more than ten years – a position that could...

SACRAMENTO -- Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archbishop Jose Gomez and several other Catholic Church officials in California took time from their retreat in Sacramento on Wednesday to make a push for Congress to keep up the momentum on changes to the country’s immigration laws. In a gaggle with reporters, Gomez said reform of the country’s immigration laws is “long overdue.” Gomez, who was joined by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, as well as several bishops from around the state, urged Congress not to delay in passing a bill, saying the bipartisan package of legislation that has come together offers hope...

Vatican may prohibit female alter (sic) service By Michaels, Amanda Published: Tuesday, October 14, 2003Updated: Wednesday, September 12, 2012 11:09   Only nine years after the Vatican gave women permission to serve beside their male counterparts at the altar, a new proposal threatens to force them back into the crowd. On Sept. 23, the Italian Catholic monthly, "Jesus," released advanced text of an article featuring excerpts from a draft document, or directive, written by the Vatican congregations for Divine Worship and the Sacraments and for the Doctrine of the Faith. Distributed on June 5, the document was an expansion on the papal...

Kim Daniels Washington D.C., Apr 30, 2013 / 04:22 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has hired religious liberty attorney and mother of six Kim Daniels as spokesperson for conference president Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan. The bishops’ conference said April 29 that it “welcomes” Daniels, who brings with her experience as director of Catholic Voices USA, a lay Catholic organization that “works to bring the positive message of the Church across a broad range of issues to the public square.” In recent years, Daniels has emerged as a leader in efforts to engage the culture and...

A U.S. cardinal said he expects Catholic Church leaders to intensify efforts on behalf of a new immigration law and gun control measures as congressional legislation on the issues move forward. Many undocumented immigrants are “family people” who “came to make a contribution to American society,” Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, retired Catholic prelate of the nation’s capital, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” which airs this weekend. The nation’s Catholic bishops will back up their endorsement of a path to legal status for such immigrants with more action once legislation is introduced, he added. “I’m...

President Obama said he expects Congress to introduce an immigration reform bill next month. The Los Angeles Archdiocese has played a key role in advocating for change. Before he was stripped of his duties for mishandling sex abuse cases, Cardinal Roger Mahony was a leading voice on immigration reform. snip Salas says that Mahony’s successor, Archbishop Jose Gomez, might not be speaking at rallies as much and certainly maintains a lower public profile, but he is very active in pushing for immigration reform. “I was in a meeting with President Obama a couple of weeks ago at the White House...

Sebelius listens as President Obama announces the contraceptive mandate at the White House Jan.12, 2012. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza. Washington D.C., Mar 21, 2013 / 05:12 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Despite proposals to modify the federal contraception mandate, the U.S. bishops said that the regulation is still unacceptable due to its narrow view of religion and resulting violations of religious liberty.   “The identity of the person or group having the religious freedom objection should not matter; what should matter instead is whether the person or group faces government coercion to violate conscience,” said a document filed...

Cardinal Timothy Dolan The U.S. bishops voiced sorrow over the news of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation, as well as appreciation for his eight years of leadership and service to the Church.“The Holy Father brought the tender heart of a pastor, the incisive mind of a scholar and the confidence of a soul united with His God in all he did,” said Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “His resignation is but another sign of his great care for the Church.”Cardinal Dolan’s Feb. 11 statement came hours after Pope Benedict announced...

U.S. Roman Catholic bishops on Thursday rejected the Obama Administration’s latest bid for compromise over a hotly disputed health policy that requires employees at religiously affiliated institutions to have access to insurance coverage for contraceptives. Cardinal Timothy Donlan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said his group would redouble efforts to reach an agreement on the contraceptives issue after more than a year of protest and scores of federal lawsuits from Catholics groups and other social conservatives. But the cardinal, one of the most prominent voices in the American Catholic Church, said new federal rules...

Archbishop-elect Alexander Sample speaks with John-Henry Westen, LifeSiteNews' editor-in-chief WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 29, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As the Obama administration and the U.S. Bishops remain locked in battle over the HHS mandate, the question on the minds of many observers is: what lengths are the bishops willing to go to to oppose the mandate? The prelates LifeSiteNews spoke to after the Vigil Mass for Life in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 24th indicated that they intend to do everything they can to oppose the mandate, including risking imprisonment if necessary. "I would be willing to go to jail in defense of religious...

Pope Benedict XVI. (Credit: Anne Hartney) Vatican City, Dec 2, 2012 / 01:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has released an apostolic letter on charitable activities that asks bishops to improve their supervision of local charities and ensure that these groups’ work does not contradict Catholic teaching. The Pope’s six-page letter, released Dec. 1, notes the duty of the diocesan bishops and parish priests to see that in charitable service the faithful “are not led into error or misunderstanding.” Bishops and parish priests “are to prevent publicity being given through parish or diocesan structures to initiatives which, while...

A top American bishop said Tuesday the Roman Catholic church will not comply with the Obama administration requirement that most employers provide health insurance covering birth control.New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said church leaders are open to working toward a resolution with federal officials, but will meanwhile press ahead with challenges to the mandate in legislatures and in court.“The only thing we’re certainly not prepared to do is give in. We’re not violating our consciences,” Dolan told reporters at a national bishops’ meeting. “I would say no door is closed except for...

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone. Washington D.C., Nov 9, 2012 / 02:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The U.S. bishops' leader on defense of marriage issues is calling for prayer and a “renewed culture of marriage” in light of recent votes against preserving the meaning of the institution in four states. “In a society marked by increasing poverty and family fragmentation, marriage needs to be strengthened, promoted, and defended, not redefined,” said Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, who chairs the bishops' subcommittee on defending marriage. In a Nov. 7 statement, the archbishop explained that the previous day's election “was a...

In view of the information below about the U.S. bishops' domestic "charity," the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD),  I have a question: Who is more zealous about winning souls?The prince of this world or the U.S. bishops? ____________________________________ IT'S BAAACK...ANNUAL COLLECTION FOR CCHD -NOVEMBER 17-18 In about ten days, most dioceses in the United States will take up the annual collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. For years, researchers have demonstrated that a large portion of the collection goes to Alinskyite community organizing groups that advance abortion, contraception, same-sex activity, and cultural Marxism. In 2010 the controversy alarmed...

ObamaCare: The leaders of the vice president's church are calling him out for denying the Affordable Care Act's threat to religious liberty and the institutions that provide needed social services. As we noted in our post-debate analysis, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) were not amused with Joe Biden's other great debate lie — that ObamaCare doesn't threaten religious liberty or the ability of churches, particularly the Catholic Church, to put their faith in action. On Oct. 12, the USCCB denounced the VP's deceptive comments, noting that the so-called HHS exemption is a farce that unconstitutionally defines what a...

1st Amendment: Catholic bishops on Sunday issued a response to ObamaCare's mandates on providing contraception in violation of conscience and religious freedom. The message was simple: We will not comply. It was hardly a profile in courage when the Obama administration, hoping to kick the issue down the road past the November election, announced last Friday that Catholic hospitals and other religious institutions will have an extra year to comply with a new requirement that most health plans provide contraceptive benefits at no cost to their members. On Sunday, America's Catholic bishops in an open letter to their parishioners and...

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued the following statement, October 12. Full text follows: Last night, the following statement was made during the Vice Presidential debate regarding the decision of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to force virtually all employers to include sterilization and contraception, including drugs that may cause abortion, in the health insurance coverage they provide their employees: "With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear. No religious institution—Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital—none has to either refer...

From the USCCB: WASHINGTON—The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued the following statement, October 12. Full text follows:Last night, the following statement was made during the Vice Presidential debate regarding the decision of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to force virtually all employers to include sterilization and contraception, including drugs that may cause abortion, in the health insurance coverage they provide their employees: “With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear. No religious institution—Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital—none has to...