WASHINGTON (February 25, 2011)—Pope Benedict XVI has named Father William J. Waltersheid, Secretary for Clergy and Consecrated Life of the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as auxiliary bishop of Pittsburgh. The appointment was publicized in Washington, February 25, by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States.

WASHINGTON (February 24, 2011)—Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, California, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, expressed his “support for and solidarity” with the Wisconsin bishops’ statement on the rights of workers.

WASHINGTON (February 23, 2011) — The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issues the following from its Office of General Counsel:

“Marriage has been understood for millennia and across cultures as the union of one man and one woman.  Today, the President has instructed the Department of Justice to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law reiterating that definition of marriage, passed by a Republican Congress and signed by a Democratic President just fifteen years ago.  The principal basis for today’s decision is that the President considers the law a form of impermissible sexual orientation discrimination.

WASHINGTON ( February 17, 2011)—The Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) welcomed the approval in committee of the Protect Life Act (H.R. 358). Sponsored by Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-PA) and Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) and 123 co-sponsors, the Protect Life Act would apply longstanding federal policies on abortion funding, and conscience rights on abortion, to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) passed last March. On February 15, the full House Energy and Commerce Committee approved H.R. 358 in a bi-partisan vote (33 to 19), and rejected three amendments that would have weakened the bill.

WASHINGTON (February 15, 2011)—Al J. Notzon III of the Archdiocese of San Antonio has been appointed the next chair of the National Review Board (NRB) by Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). He will succeed the current chair, Diane Knight, at the conclusion of her term following the June 2011 meeting of the USCCB.

WASHINGTON (February 15, 2011)— Expressing concern over proposed federal budget cuts in the Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Appropriations Resolution, the heads of two U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) committees and the president of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) sent letters to Congress on February 14, reminding elected officials that “decisions on how to allocate opportunities and burdens in setting budget priorities are more than economic policies — they are significant moral choices.”

WASHINGTON (February 14, 2011)— The national Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe will take place on Ash Wednesday, March 9, in parishes across the country.

With the theme Great needs remain, the collection seeks to highlight the great material and spiritual needs for the Church in the region. In dioceses throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union regions of Asia, aging physical structures, insufficient funding, and a lack of trained lay persons and religious are common challenges.

WASHINGTON (February 14, 2011)—Peter J. Murphy, director of the Office of Family Life of the Archdiocese of Washington since 2005, has been named executive director of the Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The appointment will be effective March 7.

BALTIMORE, Md. (February 11, 2011)— The annual meeting of the leadership of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Council of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Latin America (Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano or CELAM), accompanied by four bishops from the four regions of Latin America and the Caribbean — the presidents of the Conferences of Bishops of Peru, Chile and Panama, as well as the Secretary General of Brazil­ — took place in Baltimore, Maryland on February 7 - 9.  The purpose of the meeting was to foster collegial bonds among the bishops of Canada, the United States and Latin America.

WASHINGTON (February 8, 2011) — A permanent ban on abortion funding is long overdue, which is why the U.S. bishops support the No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Act (H.R. 3), said a representative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in February 8 testimony to the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the House Judiciary Committee.

“H.R. 3 will write into permanent law a policy on which there has been strong popular and congressional agreement for over 35 years: The federal government should not use tax dollars to support or promote elective abortion,” said Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). “Since 1976 this principle has been embodied in the Hyde amendment to annual appropriations bills funding the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and in numerous similar provisions governing a wide range of domestic and foreign programs.  It has consistently had the support of the American people.”

WASHINGTON (February 7, 2011) —In a joint letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano February 7, Archbishop José H. Gomez, Coadjutor Archbishop of Los Angeles and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Migration, and Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, chairman of the Board of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ international humanitarian agency, expressed opposition to the recent resumption of deportations to the nation of Haiti.

“We are disturbed and dismayed over the January 20, 2010, deportation of 27 Haitians, one of whom is reported to have died from cholera. We ask that you cease these deportations indefinitely,” they wrote.

WASHINGTON (February 1, 2011)—Pre-orders for the Altar and Chapel editions of the new Roman Missal will be accepted starting March 1, by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Both the larger Altar edition and the more versatile and compact Chapel edition are highly readable and beautifully designed and bound, consistent with USCCB versions of previous liturgical books.

WASHINGTON (February 2, 2011) — Women entering religious orders today are highly educated and experienced in numerous church activities, according to a national survey.

The survey reportThe Profession Class of 2010: Survey of Women Religious Professing Perpetual Vows was released February 2, the Church’s World Day for Consecrated Life. It was conducted by the Georgetown University-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) and commissioned by the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations. The survey was sent to sisters represented by the two conferences of religious women, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, as well as contemplative communities.  Respondents represented 52 religious orders. A total of 68 out of 79 sisters contacted completed the survey.