Bishops Say Mandate Fight Is About
Government Defining Religion
WASHINGTON, DC, March 14, 2012 -- The U.S. bishops are emphasizing that their opposition to the Obama administration’s contraception mandate is not about birth control or health care, but about the government’s attempt to impose its narrow definition of religion on the country. 

Pope Benedict: Proper Understanding of Sexuality
A Fundamental Right for Children
Message Correlates with Stand with Children's Mission

VATICAN, March 9, 2012 -- Pope Benedict XVI gave a strong message about children, sexuality, and marriage Friday, in his message to bishops from Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota during their ad limina visit. His words resonated with the Stand with Children project which draws on the particular wisdom of Blessed John Paul and Pope Benedict, asserting the natural rights of the child. Children receiving a distorted understanding about human sexuality propagated by the culture and powerful interests are being deprived of a fundamental human right to know the truth about love and relationships that will contribute to their flourishing.

HHS Mandate Threatens
Little Sisters of the Poor Elder Care
BALTIMORE, MD, March 8, 2012 -- The Little Sisters of the Poor say the HHS contraception and sterilization mandate threatens their continued ministry to the impoverished elderly. They are “strongly objecting” to the federal rule and say it should be repealed as soon as possible.

Virginia Bill Passes
Protects Rights of  Child-Care Agencies
To Decline Homosexual Adoptions
RICHMOND, VA, March 7, 2012 -- A bill that ensures that faith-based adoption agencies in the state of Virginia won’t be forced to place children in households led by same-sex couples has passed both houses of the General Assembly and is heading to the desk of Gov. Robert McDonnell, a supporter of the legislation, who is expected to sign it soon.

Hawaii Lawsuit Shows
Civil Unions Help Redefine Marriage
HONOLULU, HI, March 7, 2012  -- A Hawaiian lawsuit asking a federal court to instate “gay marriage” shows that the recognition of same-sex domestic partnerships and civil unions is just a stepping stone to redefining marriage, several critics say.

Cardinal Dolan: Religious Liberty Concerns
"Off the Table" for White House
NEW YORK, NY, March 6, 2012 -- Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York is urging his fellow bishops to “prepare for tough times” after the Obama administration told the bishops’ conference that it is not willing to address religious liberty concerns raised by its contraception mandate.

Cardinal Dolan's Secret Letter
Freedom of Conscience is in Danger
ROME, March 5, 2012 – Even in the homeland of law and democracy, freedom of conscience is in danger. This is the unprecedented accusation that the bishops are hurling against the president of the United States. Here is the confidential letter in which they explain why.

Court Challenge to Marriage in Hawaii
Governor Refuses to Defend
HONOLULU, March 5, 2010 — Hawaii's new civil union law took effect on January 1.It did not take long for three same-sex couples to file suit in federal district court claiming that the law gay rights groups advocated denied then equal protection and requested that Hawii's law protecting traditional marriage be overturned.

Asia Bibi's Story from Prison
In a New Book Tells
LAHORE, PAKISTAN, February 27, 2012 -- A new book on Asia Bibi's imprisonment and death sentence in Pakistan includes an unpublished letter she wrote to her husband and children urging them to have faith in God.

Cardinal Timothy Cardinal Dolan
Signs Letter with More Than 500 Leaders
Rejecting HHS Mandate
WASHINGTON, DC, February 27, 2012 -- Today, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Archbishop of New York, His Eminence, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, joined more than 500 leading scholars, university presidents and other academic administrators, activists, and religious leaders from a multitude of faiths, in a statement rejecting the governmental Health and Human Services mandate requiring employers to provide, directly or indirectly, insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraceptives, and also rejecting President Obama’s so-called “accommodation” of religious liberty as a mere “accounting trick” that changes nothing of moral substance.

Jesus, Our Contemporary
VATICAN, February 2012 -- An important conference was held in Rome in early Feburary with a provacative title, "Jesus, Our Contemporary." Strikingly, it was part of an interreligious dialogue that brought together not just Catholics, but Protestants, Jews, Muslims, agnostics, nonbelievers. It is part of an ongoing project by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, in support of Pope Benedict's emphasis of the mission of the Church to lead people to God. The question is what God? As Pope Benedict has written to the bishops of the world, "Not just any god, but the God who spoke on Sinai; to that God whose face we recognize in a love which presses 'to the end' – in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen." Read Cardinal Ruini's own description of the conference.

Victory for Conscience in Washington State
Pharmacists Can’t Be Forced to Sell Abortion Drugs
TACOMA, WA, February 22, 2012— A federal court in Washington state ruled Wednesday that the state board of pharmacy cannot force pharmacists to stock drugs that risk taking human life if the pharmacists have a religious, moral, or ethical objection. The court determined that the pharmacists should be allowed to do what they have sought from the beginning, which is to refer patients seeking such drugs to other pharmacies.

Pope Benedict: Faith Without Love
Would No Longer Be an Authentic Christian Faith
VATICAN, February 19, 2012 -- Pope's homily at mass in Vatican Basilica, with the newly-created cardinals, on the solemnity of the Chair of Saint Peter. "The Church does not exist for her own sake, but she has to point beyond herself, to the realms above..."

Cardinal-designate Dolan Outlines
‘Creative Strategy’ for Evangelization
"Missio ad Gentes" (Mission to the Nations)
VATICAN, February 17, 2012 -- In remarks to the Pope and the College of Cardinals, Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan outlined a seven-point “creative strategy of evangelization” to counter secularism and bring people to Jesus.

What Did CHA's Carol Keehan Know
And When Did She Know It?
WASHINGTON, DC, February 14, 2012— National Catholic Register news analysis: As threats to religious liberty escalate, critics say it’s time to establish who truly speaks for the Church in the United States.