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- Pope Accepts Resignation Of Scranton Bishops
(09-177)
August 31, 2009
- Pope Accepts Resignation Of Scranton Bishops
(09-176)
August 31, 2009
- U.S. Bishops get Vatican ‘RECOGNITIO’ for Change in Adult Catechism
(09-174)
August 27, 2009
WASHINGTON—The Vatican has given its “recognitio” to a change in the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, which is set to go into a second printing. - Delegation of U.S. Bishops to Visit Church in Zimbabwe and South Africa
(09-175)
August 26, 2009
- Committee on Divine Worship Introduces Roman Missal Formation Website
(09-173)
August 21, 2009
- Pope's Strong Witness to Marriage and the Family Is an Example for All
(09-171)
August 14, 2009
- U.S. Bishops Launch Web Site on Health Care Reform, Their Position and Concerns
(09-170)
August 14, 2009
- Delegation of U.S. Bishops to Visit Church in Cuba to Follow Up on Hurricane Relief Aid
(09-169)
August 13, 2009
- ABORTION PROVISIONS IN HOUSE'S HEALTH CARE BILL UNACCEPTABLE, SAYS CARDINAL IN LETTER TO HOUSE
(09-168)
August 11, 2009
- Respect Life Program Packet for 2009-10 Now Available
(09-167)
August 10, 2009
- Interrupted Lives, Story of Nun Heroes, Distributed to ABC TV
(09-166)
August 7, 2009
WASHINGTON—Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Bishop Joseph F. Martino from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, for health reasons. The decision was announced August 31, by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States.
The pope has also accepted the resignation of Bishop John M. Dougherty, until now Auxiliary Bishop of Scranton, who has served past the mandatory retirement age for bishops. Cardinal Justin F. Rigali of Philadelphia, the Metropolitan Archbishop, has been appointed Apostolic Administrator for the Diocese of Scranton.
WASHINGTON—Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Bishop Joseph F. Martino from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, for health reasons. The decision was announced August 31, by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States.
The pope has also accepted the resignation of Bishop John M. Dougherty, until now Auxiliary Bishop of Scranton, who has served past the mandatory retirement age for bishops. Cardinal Justin F. Rigali of Philadelphia, the Metropolitan Archbishop, has been appointed Apostolic Administrator for the Diocese of Scranton.
The change clarifies Catholic teaching on God’s covenant with the Jews. The first version, in explaining relations with the Jews, stated, “Thus the covenant that God made with the Jewish people through Moses remains eternally valid for them.” The revised text states, “To the Jewish people, whom God first chose to hear his Word, ‘belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ.’ (Romans 9: 4-5; cf. CCC, no 839)
WASHINGTON—Two U.S. Catholic bishops, Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola, Florida, and Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, Utah, will visit Zimbabwe on behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), August 26-28. They will be joined by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, retired Archbishop of Washington, in South Africa from August 28-September 6. The bishops are members of the Subcommittee on Africa and will be visiting Church officials and projects funded by the Pastoral Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa.
“As we saw clearly during Pope Benedict’s recent trip to the Cameroon and Angola, the Church in Africa is not only growing rapidly. It is also fully alive and rich in vocations,” said Patrick Markey, executive director of the USCCB Office of National Collections who is organizing the trip. “The Church in Africa also faces many challenges and for that reason Catholics in the U.S. have so generously responded to a call from the bishops to give them a hand.”
WASHINGTON—A new Website from the U.S. Conference of Catholic will educate Catholics about the forthcoming English translation of the new Roman Missal.
The site, www.usccb.org/romanmissal, launched August 21, includes background material on the process of development of liturgical texts, sample texts from the Missal, a glossary of terms and answers to frequently asked questions. Content will be added regularly over the next several moths. The bishop’s Committee on Divine Worship hopes the site will be a central resource for those preparing to implement the new text.
WASHINGTON—"Marriage and the family are institutions that must be promoted and defended from every possible misrepresentation of their true nature, since whatever is injurious to them is injurious to society itself." This is just one of many of Pope Benedict's decisive statements on the unique good of marriage and the family, recently gathered into a new volume of USCCB Publishing's "Pope Benedict XVI – Spiritual Thoughts Series," this time on the "Family."
The timely publication of this new volume collects in one place the Pope's strong teaching and witness to the unique value and truth of marriage and the family. The pope addresses the range of teaching on marriage and strategically zeroes in on the unique nature of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
WASHINGTON—The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) launched a Web page promoting its support of "truly universal health policy with respect for human life and dignity." The page, www.usccb.org/healthcare, includes letters from bishops to Congress, videos, facts and statistics, frequently asked questions, and links for contacting members of Congress.
Letters to Congress include an August 11 letter by Cardinal Justin Rigali, the bishops' Pro-Life chairman, criticizing abortion provisions in the House version of health care legislation and a July 17 letter from Bishop William Murphy, the bishops' Domestic Social Justice chairman, outlining the bishops concerns and priorities for health care reform as a whole.
WASHINGTON—A delegation of three U.S. Catholic bishops will visit Cuba on behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), August 17-21. Cardinal Sean O'Malley, OFM Cap., of Boston, Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando, Fla., and Auxiliary Bishop Oscar Cantu of San Antonio will join Father Andrew Small, OMI, director for the Church in Latin America at the USCCB, on the journey to meet with Cuban Church leaders and visit parishes.
WASHINGTON—Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia urged preservation of "longstanding federal policies that prevent government promotion of abortion and respect conscience rights," and called current House health care legislation "seriously deficient" on the issue of mandated coverage and funding of abortion. He cited his concerns in an August 11 letter to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Cardinal Rigali, Chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities, reaffirmed the bishops' position that genuine health care reform that respects life and dignity is urgently needed. He also welcomed provisions in America's Affordable Health Choices Act (H.R. 3200) that do not preempt state laws regulating abortion or current federal conscience laws on abortion. But he criticized the bill for delegating to the Secretary of Health and Human Services "the power to make unlimited abortion a mandated benefit in the ‘public health insurance plan' the government will manage nationwide." He called this a "radical change" since federal law excludes most abortions from federal employees' health benefits, and no federal health program mandates coverage of elective abortions.
WASHINGTON—The 2009-10 Respect Life Program is now available in preparation for Respect Life Sunday, October 4. This year's theme—"Every Child Brings Us God's Smile"—comes from a homily of Pope Benedict XVI (January 7, 2007, Feast of the Baptism of the Lord).
The Respect Life flyer explores this theme and provides a fascinating timeline of fetal development along with photos showing the humanity of unborn children.
WASHINGTON—Some were nurses. Many were educators. Still others cared for orphans, the elderly, the mentally ill. But all were women religious enduring the communist regime in Eastern Europe after World War II.
Their story is told in "Interrupted Lives: Catholic Sisters Under European Communism," a one-hour documentary distributed on Sunday, September 13 to ABC-TV stations and affiliates (Check local listings. Scheduling is at the discretion of the local station.)
Interrupted Lives explores the experiences of Greek and Roman Catholic Sisters of Eastern and Central Europe sisters who at the end of World War II were trapped under Soviet domination as Josef Stalin seized control.