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President Biden's and the Democrats’ Build Back Better Act includes a provision that specifically prohibits religious schools from using infrastructure grants to improve their facilities. The bill, which House Democrats hope to vote on this week, includes a provision that provides infrastructure grants to improve child care safety, specifically to help child care providers "acquire, construct, renovate or improve" their facilities. However, further down in the bill’s text, it includes a prohibition against religious organizations like churches and synagogues that also have schools or child care services from using funds....

Complete Headline: Obama: 'If Catholics Have Their Schools and Buildings and Protestants Have Theirs ... That Encourages Division' Likening religious schools to segregation--a racist system that forced blacks to attend different schools and use different facilities than whites in the American South--President Barack Obama told a town hall meeting for youth in Belfast, Northern Ireland on Monday that there should not be Catholic and Protestant schools because such schools cause division. "Because issues like segregated schools and housing, lack of jobs and opportunity--symbols of history that are a source of pride for some and pain for others--these are not...

US President Barack Obama has argued that parochial schools are an impediment to the establishment of a lasting peace in Northern Ireland. Speaking to a crowd in Belfast, during a trip to Northern Ireland for a G8 summit meeting, Obama said that “segregated schools” block the path to full reconciliation. “If towns remain divided, if Catholics have their schools and buildings and Protestants have theirs, if we can't see ourselves in one another, if fear or resentment are allowed to harden, that encourages division, it discourages cooperation," he said. …

WICHITA, KN -- A lawsuit boiling in Wichita, Kansas over an English-only policy could have major ramifications for a Catholic school. Saint Anne's Catholic school, its principal, the church and the diocese are being sued for implementing an English only policy at school. When some students refused to sign a pledge to honor the policy they were expelled and their parents filed suit. Three families are suing alleging that the policy discriminates against those who speak other languages and lawyers for the families say it's racial discrimination and therefore violates their civil rights. The school says the policy was a...

Stephan Goyne entered teaching as a "fight the good fight" kind of guy, taking a job in East Oakland right out of college. "I come from a family of teachers. It wasn't even a question of whether to do that," Goyne said. "The question was whether to do elementary, middle or high school." But after six years in the trenches -- transferred from campus to campus, forbidden from organizing field trips and ordered to teach math only after lunch -- Goyne left the profession. Now he works in real estate and runs a Brazilian jiujitsu studio in Oakland. "That last...

If Jesus were the Bishop of Amarillo, what would He do? A pastoral letter by Bishop John W. Yanta July 16, 2006 - Feast Day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, if Jesus were the Bishop of Amarillo, how would he run the Diocese of Amarillo? What would Jesus try to teach us? Would Jesus be evangelizing the people of God? How? Doing what? Saying what? Would Jesus be trying every means possible to call us to holiness? Would Jesus not only invite us to become his disciples but provide all the means of...

Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, OSP     The early years of Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, the foundress of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, have been delineated more by oral tradition than by anything else. Elizabeth was born in the 1780s, a native of the Caribbean where havoc was constantly being created by both weather and the will of man. Her country of birth is not documented but oral tradition says she was born in Haiti and moved with her family to Santiago, Cuba.  She received an excellent education and in the early 1800s Elizabeth left Cuba and settled in the United States. By 1813, Providence directed her to Baltimore, Maryland where a...

Moms, dads are fighting back after schools are closedBy BONNIE ADAMSbadams@leader.net PITTSTON - Parochial school parent Joseph Rogo has found it easier to e-mail the Vatican than the Diocese of Scranton regarding local school closures. The Vatican responded this week to Rogo's e-mail and included the mailing address for Pope John Paul II's personal secretary. But Rogo and other parents accuse the Diocese of Scranton of blocking their e-mails to Bishop Joseph Martino. Rogo had e-mailed the Vatican to complain that Martino closed two schools without warning and lied about the process. The response from the Vatican Information Service advised...

************************************************************************** ISBE DECIDES TO SHUT OUT PRIVATE SCHOOL STUDENTS Citing budget constraints, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has decided to eliminate its state recognition process for nonpublic schools starting with the 2004-2005 school year. Last year, about 800 private schools, most of them parochial schools, were certified by the State. This accreditation is important for many reasons, including: - Participation in IHSA athletics - Student access to many scholarships - Many colleges and universities require attendance at a state recognized secondary school as a prerequisite for admission - Many federal, state, and local grants are only open to...