WASHINGTON(September 29, 2010) —In visits to the White House and the State Department, religious leaders representing the Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities offered support for the Obama administration’s efforts to continue peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

WASHINGTON (September 28, 2010) —The United States Oriental Orthodox-Roman Catholic Consultation held its 2010 meeting at the Passionist Spiritual Center in Bronx, New York, on September 20 and 21. The meeting, co-chaired by Catholic Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, New York, and the Right Reverend Chor-Episcopos John Meno of the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, focused primarily on pastoral issues facing both churches.

WASHINGTON (September 28, 2010)—In a statement to mark Respect Life Month, October 2010, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston addressed direct threats to human life and called Catholics to “constantly witness to the inestimable worth and dignity of each human life through a loving concern for the good of others.” He also encouraged participation in the worldwide “Vigil for All Nascent Human Life” called for by Pope Benedict XVI at the start of Advent.

WASHINGTON (September 27, 2010)—Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, head of the U. S. bishops’ special Task Force on Haiti, introduced September 27, the report “The Displaced of Haiti:  Long-Term Challenges and Needed Solutions” on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Mission to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas.

“As we saw from the storms that hit Port-Au-Prince over the weekend, Haiti is still in a fragile state,” Archbishop Wenski said. “Nearly nine months after the earthquake, 1.3 million persons remain homeless, living in tent camps, and clean-up and reconstruction efforts proceed at a very slow pace. Despite the outpouring of support from the international community in the aftermath of the disaster, attention to the long-term recovery of Haiti has begun to lag. Full assistance to help the country rebuild has yet to be delivered, and displaced Haitians, particularly vulnerable children, remain in dangerous situations.”

Please join the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for a press event:

WHAT: "The Displaced of Haiti:  Long-Term Challenges and Needed Solutions"
Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami and staff from CLINIC as well as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will provide a briefing on a recent mission to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas to study the situation of Haitians displaced by the January earthquake.

WASHINGTON—The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will elect a new general secretary of the Conference at the annual Fall General Assembly in Baltimore, November 15-18. The two candidates are Msgr. Ronny Jenkins, JCD, a priest of the Diocese of Austin, Texas, who is currently serving as associate general secretary of the USCCB, and Msgr. David Kagan, JCL, who is currently serving as the vicar general for the Diocese of Rockford, Illinois.

WASHINGTON(September 23, 2010)—The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has named Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington to guide the incorporation of Anglican groups into the Catholic Church in the United States.

WASHINGTON (September 22, 2010)—The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Doctrine has issued a statement in response to a request from the former and current archbishops of Omaha to review the content of a book by Creighton University professors Todd Salzman and Michael Lawler, The Sexual Person: Toward a Renewed Catholic Anthropology. In the statement, "Inadequacies in the Theological Methodology and Conclusions of The Sexual Person: Toward a Renewed Catholic Anthropology," the Committee asserts that the authors of The Sexual Person "base their arguments on a methodology that marks a radical departure from the Catholic theological tradition" and "reach a whole range of conclusions that are contrary to Catholic teaching."

WASHINGTON (September 21, 2010) —The chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, New York, urged Congress to give priority attention to working poor families and their children as it debates tax policy.

WASHINGTON(September 20, 2010) —Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of auxiliary Bishop Ignatius A. Catanello of the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, in accordance with canons 411 and 401 paragraph 2 of the Code of Canon Law, outlining the retirement of a bishop for reasons of health or other serious reasons.

WASHINGTON (September 20, 2010)—The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should not require coverage of contraception or sterilization in group and individual health plans as part of “preventive” services for women, said representatives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) as HHS continued its deliberations on a final list of required preventive services under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

WASHINGTON(September 17, 2010)—The Anglican-Roman Catholic Theological Consultation in the United States held its sixty-eighth meeting in Alexandria, Louisiana, on September 9 and 10. Bishop Ronald P. Herzog of Alexandria, the Catholic co-chairman of the Consultation, hosted the session, which took place at the St. Joseph Catholic Center in Alexandria. Episcopal Bishop John Bauerschmidt of the Diocese of Tennessee (Nashville) also co-chaired the meeting, replacing Bishop Thomas Breidental of Southern Ohio, who announced his resignation at the last meeting due to other responsibilities.

WASHINGTON—The annual Fall General Assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will be November 15-18, at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel.
During the meeting, the body of bishops will vote for the chairmen-elect of six committees, as well as the treasurer of the Conference.

WASHINGTON (September 16, 2010)— As the U.S. Senate prepares to hold a hearing on human embryonic stem cell research (hESCR), a new public opinion poll shows that a plurality of Americans (47 percent) oppose federal funding of stem cell research that involves destroying human embryos, while only thirty-eight percent (38 percent) support such funding. The poll, conducted by ICR / International Communications Research, surveyed 1,006 adults September 8-14. It was commissioned by the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

WASHINGTON—Pope Benedict XVI has named Bishop J. Peter Sartain of Joliet, Illinois, 58, to succeed Archbishop Alexander Brunett of Seattle, 76. At the same time, the pope accepted Archbishop Brunett’s resignation from the pastoral governance of the Seattle Archdiocese.

WASHINGTON—The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), with Sheed & Ward, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, will release September 19 Benedict XVI: Essays and Reflections on His Papacy, an unprecedented look into the first five years of Benedict’s reign. Edited by Mercy Sister Mary Ann Walsh, director of media relations for the USCCB, it features forewords by King Abdullah II of Jordan and President Shimon Peres of Israel, and articles by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Cardinal Francis George, OMI, USCCB president, and John Thavis, Rome bureau chief for Catholic News Service.

WASHINGTON—The 2010-11 Respect Life Program is now available in preparation for Respect Life Sunday, October 3. This year’s theme is “The measure of love is to love without measure.”

The Respect Life flyer explores this theme with three vignettes of common situations calling for heroic love – a college student’s unplanned pregnancy, an elderly loved one who needs assistance with feeding, and a baby diagnosed with a life-threatening disability.

WASHINGTON—Catholic Bishops dealing with interfaith, domestic and international concerns voiced concern for anti-Muslim prejudice surrounding the threat of Koran burnings in Florida.