National News
Catholic-owned Michigan company wins injunction against HHS mandate
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (CNS) -- A federal district court judge in Ann Arbor granted a Michigan business, Weingartz Supply Co., a temporary injunction from the Health and Human Services' contraceptive mandate. In the Oct. 31 ruling, Judge Robert Cleland of the Eastern District of Michigan said the "loss of First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury." He did not rule on the mandate's constitutionality, but his decision keeps the company from having to comply with the mandate until the constitutional claims are resolved.
November a month to remember the dead, also celebrate life, says priest
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (CNS) — Death does not mean the end. “Life is changed, not ended,” said Father Gregory Labus, coordinator of the Office of Liturgy and Worship for the Diocese of Brownsville. November, he pointed out, is the month dedicated to remembering the dead. [hotblock] On All Saints’ Day, Nov. 1, Catholics honor the saints, […]
Catholic hospital systems, including Catholic Health East, mulling merger
Two of the United States' largest Catholic hospital systems, Pennsylvania-based Catholic Health East and Michigan-based Trinity Health, are exploring a consolidation that one spokesman said benefits from "mission overlap." In the Philadelphia area, CHE operates St. Mary Medical Center, Langhorne; and Mercy Health System, which runs Mercy Hospital of Philadelphia and Nazareth Hospital in Philadelphia, Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby, Mercy Suburban Hospital in Norristown and Mercy Home Health Services in Springfield, Delaware County.
After Sandy, ‘people need everything,’ says Catholic Charities official
NEW YORK (CNS) -- The damage from the wind, rain and flooding brought by Hurricane Sandy "is almost overwhelming," said Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York. "We're reaching out to parishes and getting them to directly assist those in critical need -- they know their own people and their neighborhoods," he said Oct. 31. Several Catholic agencies and religious communities have stepped forward to address the greatest needs of victims of the super storm.
Curriculum aims to help students understand range of pro-life issues
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The pro-life issue “is one of most important issues our culture faces” and “we thought the time had come for someone to take it as serious as math or science or English,” said one of the developers of a new curriculum with that aim. Camille Pauley is co-founder and president of Healing […]
Internal matters top agenda of bishops’ fall assembly in Baltimore
Statements on preaching and ways that bishops can respond using new technologies to modern-day challenges to their teaching authority are among the items the U.S. bishops will consider when they gather in Baltimore for their annual fall assembly. Set for Nov. 12-15, the assembly also will consider a statement on work and the economy proposed by the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development as a way to raise the profile of growing poverty and the struggles that unemployed people are experiencing.
Supreme Court declines to hear Oklahoma ‘personhood’ law case
WASHINGTON (CNS) — An Oklahoma ruling that stopped an attempt to amend the state constitution to define “personhood” in order to ban abortion will stand, after the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal. Without comment Oct. 29, the court rejected an appeal of the state Supreme Court’s order last spring that stopped a citizens’ […]
Hurricane Sandy a storm ‘many have feared for a long time,’ says N.J. Catholic official
Hurricane Sandy "is a storm that people in southern New Jersey have feared for a long time because of its direct impact on the coast," an area with that is highly developed and also has a significant rate of poverty, said an official of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Camden, N.J. "Ocean City, N.J., which is in Cape May County, that was completely covered with water ... and that's a fairly large area," Kevin Hickey, executive director of Catholic Charities, told Catholic News Service Oct. 30. He said Wildwood, N.J., was similarly underwater and flooding would be a severe problem anywhere where rivers met bays or estuaries.
Bishops to consider new document on preaching at fall meeting
WASHINGTON (CNS) — “My dad used to say, ‘I know what happened 2,000 years ago. I need to know how to live my life today.'” These words, from Archbishop Robert J. Carlson of St. Louis, get to the heart of a new proposed document on preaching to be considered by the U.S. bishops at the […]
Catholics urge more focus on social justice, new national survey shows
WASHINGTON (CNS) — A large national study on faith and political views released Oct. 23 highlighted Catholics’ interest in having social justice take a bigger role in the church’s policy priorities. The American Values Survey by Public Religion Research Institute queried a cross section of all Americans but zeroed in on the opinions of Catholics, […]