National News
Now-public clergy files focus attention on Los Angeles Archdiocese’s abuse response
LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- The release of thousands of pages of personnel files by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles detailing allegations of clergy sexual abuse has focused new attention on the roles of church leaders and their handling of the cases over four decades.
Appeals court sides with manufacturing company against HHS mandate
ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- An appeals court issued a preliminary injunction Feb. 1 against the federal government's contraceptive mandate, saying a Catholic-owned company, Annex Medical, does not have to comply with that part of the Affordable Care Act while its legal challenge makes its way through the courts.
College presidents urged to equip students for faith-based outreach
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Carolyn Woo, president of Catholic Relief Services, wants to see graduates of Catholic colleges become more involved in service -- globally and even locally within their own parishes -- and said university presidents should do more to make sure this happens. "Young people love to volunteer," she said, but what she "finds missing" from them is a "lifelong commitment" to the poor and a sense of "responsibility for building up the church."
Struggling moves people to ‘higher level of spirituality,’ says priest
MELBOURNE, Fla. (CNS) — Franciscan Father Richard Rohr told a Florida audience that he is about to end 43 years of giving retreats all over the world “and I haven’t found a single perfect person.” “We all come to God by falling, by doing it wrong,” he said. “The ego doesn’t like that.” The San […]
In defending lawsuit, Catholic hospital ‘morally wrong’ to cite law denying personhood
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (CNS) -- Attorneys for a Catholic hospital were "morally wrong" to cite Colorado's Wrongful Death Act as one line of defense in a suit brought against the hospital by the widower of a woman seven months pregnant with twins, all of whom died at the hospital in 2006, according to the hospital chain of which it is a member. Catholic Health Initiatives, which runs St. Thomas More Hospital in Canon City, and Colorado's three bishops said the law "does not consider unborn children to be persons, which contradicts the moral teachings of the church."
Catholics, four Reformed denominations recognize each other’s baptisms
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Representatives of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and four Protestant denominations in the Reformed tradition have publicly signed an agreement that recognizes the validity of each other’s baptisms. The four Protestant bodies are the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Christian Reformed Church in North America, the Reformed Church in America and the […]
Priest says slain Texas man ‘exact opposite’ of those who took his life
NEDERLAND, Texas (CNS) — A Texas Catholic pastor remembered a former parishioner killed in an attack on an Algerian gas facility as being “a good man to everyone he met.” “Victor Lovelady was the exact opposite of the people who took his life,” Msgr. Dan Malain, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Church in Nederland said […]
Churches, faith groups across nation plan ‘preach-in’ on global warming
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Events that ended with the suffix “-in” were a staple of the late 1960s and early ’70s. But organizers think the time is right for a “preach-in” on the effects of climate change and global warming. Interfaith Power & Light, which is sponsoring the nationwide event Feb. 9-10, has already lined up […]
HHS offers new contraceptive insurance options, broadening exemptions
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Exemptions from certain requirements for contraceptive coverage in the Affordable Care Act will be broadened to include many more types of religious institutions and accommodate the needs of self-insured church entities.
Once more into the immigration law process: a familiar road
WASHINGTON (CNS) — They’ve been down this road before — trying to pass a far-reaching reform of the U.S. immigration system. The last time Congress passed a substantial immigration reform law in 1986, then-Father Nicholas DiMarzio, as director of Migration and Refugee Services for the U.S. Catholic bishops, was a part of coalition-building among interest […]