Free Republic

The Maryland Catholic Conference is on board with Gov. Martin J. O’Malley on his top legislative priority: raising the state’s minimum wage. As the state’s largest provider of social services, the Catholic Church has a unique vantage on the challenges facing low-earning workers, said Mary Ellen Russell, executive director of the MCC, which advocates for public policy on behalf of the state’s bishops. Russell and the MCC’s associate directors spoke with the press Jan. 10, two days after the start of the General Assembly’s 2014 session. The following issues are among those they highlighted as legislative priorities in this year’s...

A STATE parliamentary committee will investigate Perth Archbishop Barry Hickey's remarks that Catholic politicians supporting stem cell research could be refused holy communion and may face excommunication from the church. Archbishop Hickey came under fire yesterday after he reportedly said Catholics who did not condemn the cloning of human embryos for medical research were acting against the teachings of the Catholic faith. Archbishop Hickey said such people should not go to communion and he may consider excommunication, but he would rather the issue be resolved voluntarily by the politicians themselves. His threat mirrored that of Cardinal George Pell in Sydney,...