Free Republic

As the Church throughout the world prepares for the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, led by Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay, has issued a 31-page statement entitled “Disciples Called to Witness: The New Evangelization.” “The New Evangelization seeks to invite modern man and culture into a relationship with Jesus Christ and his Church,” the document states. “The New Evangelization strives to engage our culture and to help us draw our inspiration from the Gospel. The New Evangelization calls all Catholics first to be evangelized and...

The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto has a fascinating interview with New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan, in which the president of the US bishops’ conference discusses the interactions he’s had with President Barack Obama over the last several months regarding the birth-control mandate handed down by the Department of Health and Human Services. Dolan describes the 45-minute meeting he had with Obama last November, at which he understood the president to say that the Catholic Church’s religious freedoms would be protected as the health-care law was implemented: “I said, ‘I’ve heard you say, first of all, that you have immense...

Siding with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a federal judge has declared that grants made to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to assist human-trafficking victims are unconstitutional because the grants represent a government endorsement of Catholicism. In 2005, the Department of Health and Human Services solicited grant applications to assist victims of human trafficking. In its application, the USCCB declared: As we are a Catholic organization, we need to ensure that our victim services are not used to refer or fund activities that would be contrary to our moral convictions and religious beliefs … Specifically, subcontractors...

New York Archbishop at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican last month when he was installed as a cardinal. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)Editor's Note: The leadership of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops this week issued a statement reiterating the conviction of the Catholic Church in the United States that President Barack Obama's mandate that all insurance plans--including those that are purchased by and provided by Catholics and Catholic institutions--must provide free coverage for sterilizations, contraceptives and abortifacients is an "unjust and illegal mandate."The Administrative Committee of the conference, led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, declared the mandate...

I have little to add to Kathryn’s excellent summary of the U.S. Bishops’ statement “United for Religious Freedom.”I do want to register my disappointment with Reuters, however, which attempted to muddy the waters of the bishops’ crystal-clear resolve the day before they issued their statement — while presenting absolutely no evidence to support that narrative: “Facing small but clear signs of discontent within their own ranks, U.S. Catholic bishops may be poised to rethink their aggressive tactics for fighting a federal mandate that health insurance plans cover contraception, according to sources close to influential bishops…… dozens of bishops, meeting this...

Statement of the USCCB on HHS Mandate The following press release was issued today by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Mandate. BISHOPS PROMISE TO CONTINUE ‘VIGOROUS EFFORTS’ AGAINST HHS VIOLATIONS OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN HEALTH CARE REFORM MANDATEDeclare government has no place defining religion, religious ministrySeek protection for conscience rights of institutions, individualsStress action with the public, White House, Congress, courtsWASHINGTON—The U.S. bishops are strongly united in their ongoing and determined efforts to protect religious freedom, the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the statement [click here] just released by the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:The statement, “United for Religious Freedom,” is the clearest exposition of contemporary Catholic thought on religious liberty in America. It leaves nothing on the table.It speaks directly to the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate that seeks to force Catholic non-profits to cover services it deems objectionable in its insurance plans. Mincing no words, the statement declares the HHS edict to be “unjust and illegal.”It debunks many myths about this issue: it is not about contraception;...

A philosophy professor at the University of Notre Dame has declared in the New York Times that the bishops no longer decide morality in the Church and that “the immorality of birth control is no longer a teaching of the Catholic Church.”Gary Gutting, Endowed Chair in Philosophy, argued that the will of many Catholics who choose to use contraceptives is paramount to the teaching of the bishops. …haven’t the members of the Catholic Church recognized their bishops as having full and sole authority to determine the teachings of the Church? By no means. There was, perhaps, a time when the...

USCCB President Timothy Cardinal Dolan has issued a new letter to his fellow Catholic bishops that is one of the strongest condemnations yet of the revised Obama mandate that pro-life advocates have blasted for trampling on religious freedoms.In the new letter issued Wednesday and co-signed by Bishop William Lori, Dolan condemns the mandate and urges support for the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, which would overturn the revision of the original mandate that forced religious employers to pay for birth control and drugs that cause abortions. The new mandate puts the onus for paying for them on insurance companies...

Yesterday I saw video clips of Kathleen Sebelius, catholic Dem who as Pres. Obama’s patsy is implementing his anti-Catholic agenda, testifying before a Senate committee. She admitted that the Administration did not to any significant degree consult with the US bishops before issuing their mandate. Of course, the Administration didn’t care what the bishops would have said. The President was going to do this no matter what.From The Catholic League: OBAMA MANDATE NEVER SCRUTINIZEDFebruary 16, 2012Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:Following her testimony yesterday before the Senate Finance Committee, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius...

In a budget hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) asked Ms. Sebelius whether she contacted the bishops on the issue. “I know that the president has spoken to the bishops on several occasions,” she said. However, Ms. Sebelius said she did not know if the White House contacted the bishops before the changes in the contraception rule were solidified. The bishops said over the weekend that the administration didn’t consult them in crafting the new policy. Mr. Hatch then asked if other groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood were...

Last Friday, I posted on Ricochet a piece entitled American Catholicism’s Pact With the Devil. In it, among other things, I traced the crisis now faced by American Catholicism to the reign within the American Church of Joseph Bernardin, Cardinal-Archbishop of Chicago. In my haste, I got a detail or two wrong, and I was challenged not only with regard to the Cardinal’s cursus honorum but also with regard to the role he played in the scandal concerning the sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic clergy. This post is meant to correct the record with regard to minor details,...

Imagine that you’re a politician. You know that a story is going to come out, and you know that the story will be damaging to your interests. You can’t control that. But you can control when the story comes out. How should you plan it?That’s easy. Arrange for the story to come out Friday evening. People don’t spend much time with the news on Saturday mornings. Many people won’t even notice the story; you may be able to bury it.OK, now imagine that you’re working in the Obama White House. You want a bit of a favorable “bump” when you...

You have to hand it to Barack Obama. He has unmasked in the most thoroughgoing way the despotic propensities of the administrative entitlements state and of the Democratic Party. And now he has done something similar to the hierarchy of the American Catholic Church. At the prospect that institutions associated with the Catholic Church would be required to offer to their employees health insurance covering contraception and abortifacients, the bishops, priests, and nuns scream bloody murder. But they raise no objection at all to the fact that Catholic employers and corporations, large and small, owned wholly or partially by Roman...

In your "Letter to the Faithful" regarding the Obama Administration's abortion, contraception, and sterilization diktats, you made the following statement: "...like the martyrs of old, we must be prepared to accept suffering which could include heavy fines and imprisonment..." DARE YOU decree the role of "martyr" upon the faithful who will suffer because of the Bishop's collective failure to heed their warnings when the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" was being discussed publicly prior to being voted on? DARE YOU take the mantle of "martyr" upon yourselves, who failed to recognize the obvious threat to liberty -- religious and...

They may be outraged now, but the American Catholic Church has been forging alliances with the secular state on social issues for too many years. Now, the Bishops who promoted and shilled for ObamaCare look like schmucks. Excerpt: "They got what they deserved", he said. "They fell into bed with the secular left, and then wondered why they force them to do what the secular left wants them to do." Link to Video (2 mins, 25 seconds)

Standing with the Bishops February 6th, 2012 by Father Shenan J. BoquetOne hundred fifty-one and counting… That is the number of Bishops who, at the time of this writing, have issued public condemnations of the Obama administration’s confirmation of its radical and unjust “contraceptive mandate.” Led by USCCB president and Cardinal-elect Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, our shepherds are stepping out in front of their flocks and challenging the administration in no uncertain terms. The unprecedented move by this administration has been met in turn by an unprecedented display of outspoken and public unity in the Church. Even liberal...

The White House so delicately catered to the religious sensitivities of Osama bin Laden’s sympathizers that the administration ordered his corpse washed, wrapped it in a white sheet, and made it the subject of Islamic prayers. American Catholics, 54 percent of whom supported Barack Obama in 2008, have no such luck winning the administration’s religious toleration.At issue is Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’s bureaucratic mandate that all employers—including Catholic schools, hospitals, and charities—pay for contraceptives, sterilization, and morning-after pill abortifacients through their health insurance plans. The administration recently revealed that the only relief Catholic conscientious objectors will receive...

Moments ago Pope Benedict XVI named 22 new cardinals, including Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the United Conference of Catholic Bishops; Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, former Archbishop of Baltimore and current pro-grand master of the Equestrian Order (Knights) of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, based in Rome; and Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto. During the announcement, the pope asked people to "pray for those newly nominated." Four of the newly elevated cardinals are over 80, making them ineligible to vote for a pope. The consistory will be held Feb. 18. Here is the full list

Freshly released by the New York Chancery, here, the statement of the Big Apple archbishop and USCCB president, Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, on this morning's announcement of his elevation to the Papal "Senate": On this “Twelfth Day of Christmas” the traditional celebration of the Epiphany, I have received a gift from Pope Benedict XVI, as he announced just a couple of hours ago at the end of Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica that I would be among those to become a cardinal in Rome at the consistory of February 18th. Yes, I am honored, humbled, and grateful, ...but, let’s be...