WASHINGTON (December 22, 2010)— Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, NY, chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, commended today’s ratification of the New START Treaty by the Senate.   

“I welcome today’s ratification of the New START Treaty by the Senate,” Bishop Hubbard said.  “It was important that senators joined across party lines to support this Treaty. The Holy See and our Bishops’ Conference have long supported efforts to promote nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation based on the Church’s moral concern for indiscriminate and disproportionate weapons.”

WASHINGTON (December 21, 2010)—The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith issued a statement regarding “a number of erroneous interpretations” of the pope’s comments on human sexuality and the use of condoms following the publication of the book-length interview Light of the World by Benedict XVI.

The statement denounces the manipulation of the pope’s thought “for ends and interests which are entirely foreign to the meaning of his words”.

WASHINGTON (December 21, 2010)—Archbishop Jose Gomez, coadjutor archbishop of Los Angeles and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, today described the vote on the DREAM Act in the U.S. Senate as a “setback, not a defeat.”   The DREAM Act, short for the Development, Relief, and Education of Alien Minors Act, failed to attain the sixty votes needed to end a filibuster on the bill, thus ending its prospects for passage in the 111th Congress.  The final vote count was 55 in favor of cloture, 41 against, five short of the needed number.

WASHINGTON (December 16, 2010)— Yves Lacourcière has been appointed as the first director general of the newly established architecture and engineering unit of the Haitian Bishops’ Conference. Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, chairman of the Haiti Advisory Group of the USCCB Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America, confirmed the appointment made by the Haitian Conference of Catholic Bishops (Conférence Épiscopale d’Haïti) on December 16.

WASHINGTON (December 16, 2010)—Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Archbishop Eusebius Beltran, 76, from the pastoral governance of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, and has named Bishop Paul Coakley, 55, until now Bishop of Salina, Kansas, as his successor.

WASHINGTON (December 16, 2010) — Renewing Hope, Seeking Justice is the primary theme for the 2011 National Migration Week, to be held January 2-8 in parishes and dioceses around the country.
           
Following the lead of Pope Benedict XVI, who has focused on migrant families in his 2011 World Day of Migrants and Refugees message, the U.S. Catholic bishops focus this year’s National Migration Week message also on the family by highlighting the stresses and strains that migration has on families and the effects that economic underdevelopment has in this process.

WASHINGTON (December 15, 2010)—Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Bishop Ronald Gilmore, 68, from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Dodge City, Kansas, and named Father John Brungardt, 52, a priest of the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, to succeed him.

WASHINGTON (December 15, 2010)—Father J. Brian Bransfield, a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, has been appointed associate general secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The appointment was made by Msgr. Ronny Jenkins, general secretary-elect of the Conference and current associate general secretary, in consultation with the USCCB Executive Committee and Cardinal Justin Rigali, archbishop of Philadelphia. It will take effect when Msgr. Jenkins assumes the position of general secretary in June 2011.

WASHINGTON (December 13, 2010)—Declan Murphy, Ph.D, has been named associate director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Office of National Collections and director of the Collection for Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe. Murphy previously served as president of the Eurasian Cultural Fund, a foundation that supported faith-based civil society initiatives in Russia and Eastern Europe, deputy director of the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies at the Smithsonian Institution and Russia and Eastern Europe special projects manager at the Library of Congress.

WASHINGTON (December 10, 2010)—A mini-documentary on homelessness by the seventh grade religious education class at St. John Vianney Catholic School in Kailua, Hawaii, won the grand prize of the 2010 Multi-Media Youth Arts Contest sponsored by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the anti-poverty program of the U.S. bishops. The prize is being given today at the National Conference on Catholic Youth Ministry in New Orleans. Around 2,500 youth ministers will be attending the conference.

WASHINGTON (December 10, 2010)—Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, coadjutor archbishop of Los Angeles and chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration, today commended the House of Representatives for passing the DREAM Act December 8.

WASHINGTON (December 9, 2010)—The Catholic Church in the United States will celebrate National Vocation Awareness Week, January 9-15.

The week begins on the Church’s celebration of the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which falls on January 9 in 2011.The feast marks the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry.

Vocations week celebrates vocations to the priesthood, diaconate or consecrated life in particular. During these days families and the parish community are urged to nurture the faith of their children to prepare them to respond to whatever God’s call is for them.

WASHINGTON (December 8, 2010) —Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta has been named Moderator of Jewish Affairs for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), succeeding Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, newly elected USCCB president, in that role.

WASHINGTON (December 7, 2010) — Representatives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) called for the ratification of the New START Treaty in a December 7 media conference call.

WASHINGTON (December 7, 2010) — Congress should protect vulnerable communities, particularly low-income families and children, and support the continuation of the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit and Emergency Unemployment Compensation, said the U.S. bishops in a December 6 letter to both houses of Congress. The priorities of the letter were reflected in a tentative deal struck by Congress and the Obama administration later that day.

WASHINGTON (December 6, 2010)—Spokespersons for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Association of Evangelicals are making a joint call for a vote on the New START Treaty's ratification. In a news conference Tuesday, leaders for both organizations will lay the moral ground for their support and will call for immediate and bipartisan action.

WASHINGTON (December 6, 2010) — Leaders of some of the largest religious communities in the United States have come together to express their commitment toward the protection of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. In an open letter released today, entitled “The Protection of Marriage: A Shared Commitment,” leaders from Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Evangelical, Jewish, Lutheran, Mormon, Orthodox, Pentecostal and Sikh communities in the United States affirmed the importance of preserving marriage’s unique meaning.

WASHINGTON (December 3, 2010)—In a letter to Congress December 2, Coadjutor Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Migration, called on Congress to pass the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM), calling it “the right thing to do.”

“With the passage of the DREAM Act, we can welcome a new generation of Americans who will one day become leaders of our nation,” wrote Archbishop Gomez.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will launch an extensive new website dedicated to the new book Benedict XVI: Essays and Reflections on His Papacy, which was published this fall by the USCCB in conjunction with Sheed & Ward, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. The site, www.popebenedictbook.com, goes live Wednesday, December 1.

WASHINGTON (December 1, 2010) — Pope Benedict XVI has named Co-Adjutor Bishop David M. O’Connell, 55, as bishop of the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey, and accepted the resignation of Bishop John M. Smith from the pastoral governance of the Trenton Diocese.

The same day the pope named Msgr. Edward M. Rice, 50, director of vocations in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, as an auxiliary bishop of St. Louis and accepted the resignation of Auxiliary Bishop Robert Hermann from the office of auxiliary bishop of St. Louis.