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Leftist media is politicizing the bishops’ meeting — not the other way around. And their almost every interpretation of the meeting is misguided and blatantly false.Last week, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to advance a document that will discuss “Eucharistic coherence,” which Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila called an “opportunity for me and all bishops to recommit ourselves to an unapologetic preaching of Jesus Christ.” In the aftermath, corporate media once again proved themselves to be arbiters of hypocrisy, with headline after headline criticizing the church for allegedly politicizing the Eucharist.Among others, NPR reported “Bishops Vote to Rethink...

Today Archbishop Kurtz issued a statement about the Supreme Court’s marriage ruling, calling it a “tragic error that harms the common good and most vulnerable among us.” Read the full statement here. Archbishop Kurtz compared the decision to Roe v. Wade and how it doesn’t change the truth- which is “unchanged and unchangeable.” He continues on to say that, “Neither decision is rooted in the truth, and as a result, both will eventually fail. Today the Court is wrong again. It is profoundly immoral and unjust for the government to declare that two people of the same sex can constitute...

US bishops conference mounts late drive against 'unacceptable' health-care reform October 29, 2009 The US bishops' conference is mounting a late drive to secure passage of a pro-life amendment to the health-care reform bill. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is asking pastors all across the country to include an insert in their weekly bulletins, urging parishioners to call their Congressional representatives and encourage a vote for a pro-life amendment. The USCCB's pro-life office has indicated that it will press bishops to promote the dissemination of these bulletin inserts. The insert exhorts parishioners to act immediately. "Congressional votes may...

After a presidential campaign in which it was widely perceived that the dominant message from the bishops was that Catholics were morally obliged not to vote for a candidate supporting abortion rights, exit polls show that Catholics voted 52 percent to 45 percent for Senator Barack Obama.

One of the undercovered stories of the election is that over sixty Catholic bishops felt compelled to speak out against Democratic politicians who claimed to be Catholic yet denied having a problem with supporting laws that allow and even fund ending the life of the unborn. The Catholic bishops have also openly corrected and tried to stop political groups using the name "catholic" from saying that abortion is no longer an important matter in this election. One bishop, Martino of Scranton, even raided one meeting held in a Catholic parish to correct the speakers who were distorting catholic teaching. This...

......Bishop Robert F. Vasa of Baker, Ore., in a column for the Oct. 21 issue of the Catholic Sentinel diocesan newspaper, warned against what he said were mistaken interpretations of the U.S. bishops' 2007 document, "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship." "The document does not say, for instance, that it is just fine to vote for a pro-abortion candidate as long as one votes for that candidate only because of his or her stand on other important social issues," he wrote. "Casting a vote, even for reasons other than the candidate's pro-abortion position, is still casting a vote for the preservation...

WASHINGTON, October 27, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A comprehensive list compiled by InsideCatholic.com reveals that more than 80 U.S. bishops have proclaimed abortion and the life issues to be the defining issues in the upcoming election, including 22 bishops who signed on to a joint statement by the New York bishops, and another 10 bishops who signed on to a Pennsylvania joint statement. Just three days ago, LifeSiteNews.com reported that popular Catholic writer and blogger Rocco Palmo had calculated that approximately 50 bishops have proclaimed abortion and the life issues to be the defining issues in the election; but according to...

Benedict XVI's Address to the U.S. BishopsBasilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Washington, D.C., April 16, 2008 * * * Dear Brother Bishops, It gives me great joy to greet you today, at the start of my visit to this country, and I thank Cardinal George for the gracious words he has addressed to me on your behalf. I want to thank all of you, especially the Officers of the Episcopal Conference, for the hard work that has gone into the preparation of this visit. My grateful appreciation goes also to the staff and volunteers of the...

24 July 2007 I’m seeing a trend CATEGORY: SESSIUNCULUM — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf @ 12:08 am I will ask for confirmation from you readers, but I am seeing a trend. The Motu Proprio is out, and we are feeling the calming of the adrenline.  Official statements of dioceses have been passed, and posted and parsed.  After posting lots of them, and reading even more, I see a pattern. Many bishops were warm in an unreserved way about Summorum Pontificum.  I must say many more were very guarded.  Over the last couple weeks the wagons have circled around a campfire...

I just got a PDF in my email from John V. that has the amendments made by the USCCB (meaning, the changes to the changes, this does not include the parts of the new translation the Americans left unchanged) - it's the Newsletter of the Committee on the Liturgy. Since PDF's can be a pain, I put the relevant parts of it in regular format: (Update: welcome, readers from countless blogs, click here for the rest of today's topics) USCCB Amendments to the ICEL Translation of the Order of Mass The Latin Church members of the USCCB accepted sixty-two amendments...

America has always been a country built of many immigrant peoples, who bring with them richness in cultures and diversity from all areas of the world. Our nation has consistently welcomed immigrants, refugees, and exiles fleeing injustice and oppression and seeking liberty and the opportunity to achieve a full life. They have found work, built homes and lives, and provided security for themselves and their families. During the past 20 years, about 23 million newcomers have arrived in our nation, surpassing the “first great wave” of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in terms of the numbers of immigrants...

CHICAGO, January 19, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an annual interview with Chicago Sun Times reporter Cathleen Falsani, Chicago Cardinal Francis George revealed that last year the United States Bishops visiting with the Pope asked the Vatican to delay release of the long-awaited document on homosexuality and the priesthood. The document entitled, "Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders", reinforced Church teaching barring men "who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called 'gay culture'", from becoming priests....

WASHINGTON - Catholic bishops, burdened by abuse costs and internal divisions, are beginning their fall meeting today for their U.S. conference. Two dioceses have declared bankruptcy in the face of millions of dollars in clergy sex abuse claims, and a third plans to file at the end of this month. More dioceses are expected to follow. The presidential election exposed deep divisions among bishops over how they should respond to Catholic politicians -- and to all Catholics -- who are at odds with church teaching on abortion and other issues. SULLIED BY FALLOUT And as the meeting opens today, the...

DENVER, USA, Jun. 18 (CNA) - The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) approved on Friday a statement highlighting that Catholics public officials who dissent from key Catholic teachings should refrain from taking communion, but leaving to each individual bishop the decision of denying Communion to individuals. The bishops say in the statement that those who formulate law are obliged in conscience “to work toward correcting morally defective laws,” and calls on Catholics in public life to protect the unborn and oppose legal abortion “lest they be guilty of cooperating in evil and in sinning against the common good.”...

VATICAN CITY (AP) _ The Vatican gave its approval Monday to the revised U.S. bishops' policy to combat sex abuse in the clergy, declaring the need to restore the image of the priesthood in a scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Approval had been expected after differences in the original plan were worked out by a joint U.S.-Vatican commission in November. The Vatican released a letter from Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re to Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, pledging the Holy See's support to ``combat and to prevent such...

WASHINGTON, DC, Sep 20, 02 (CWNews.com) - The US bishops' conference will not vote on a proposal to hold an extraordinary plenary council when the bishops meet in November.Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokesman for the conference, said the executive committee decided that the idea needed more study and was not ready to be presented to the full bishops' conference at its November meeting. Several US bishops had proposed over the summer to hold a plenary council, the first since the 19th century, at which the bishops could re-affirm Church teaching on sexuality and priestly celibacy and examine the root...

CatholiCity PollShould the Vatican reject the Bishop's proposed "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People"? No. It is fine the way it is.Yes. Parts need to rewritten.Yes. It should be scrapped in its entirety.I don't know.

US Bishops and the “S” Word By Mary Jo Anderson© 2002 MJ Anderson Some Catholic pundits have begun to talk sotto voce about “after Dallas” as an historic moment in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States. They use the phrase in the same manner that aging liberals use the phrase “after Kent State” or the Reagan Republicans employ “after the fall of the Berlin wall.” What do Kent State and Berlin and Dallas have in common? They are seen as watershed events—a pivot in history that sent developments in an utterly different direction. It is...

<p>VATICAN CITY -- The closely watched meeting that took place here last week between Vatican officials and America's ranking Catholic churchmen was widely viewed as an extraordinary reaction to an immediate crisis: namely, the ongoing revelations of sexual abuse by many U.S. priests.</p>

The head of the US episcopal conference Wilton Daniel Gregory said there was an ongoing struggle within the Catholic Church to ensure that the priesthood is not "dominated by homosexual men". Gregory and Chicago Archbishop, Cardinal Francis George, told reporters that the issue of homosexual priests had been discussed in a solemn morning meeting between Pope John Paul II and US cardinals on the issue of paedophile priests. "It is an ongoing struggle. It is most importantly a struggle to make sure that the Catholic priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men," Gregory told a news conference after the...