East Texas Catholic

WASHINGTON — Human cloning for any purpose is inconsistent with the moral responsibility to “treat each member of the human family as a unique gift of God, as a person with his or her own inherent dignity,” said the chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“Creating new human lives in the laboratory solely to destroy them is an abuse denounced even by many who do not share the Catholic Church’s convictions on human life,” said Cardinal Seán O’Malley, OFM Cap., of Boston. He said this way of making embryos will also be taken up by people who want to produce cloned children as “copies” of other people. “Whether used for one purpose or the other, human cloning treats human beings as products, manufactured to order to suit other people’s wishes.” He added, “A technical advance in human cloning is not progress for humanity but its opposite.” (more…)

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By Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Food and Drug Administration “acted irresponsibly” with its decision to lower the age limit from 17 to 15 for purchasing an over-the-counter emergency contraceptive, said an official of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“No public health consideration justifies the unsupervised sale of such drugs to young teens,” said Deirdre McQuade, spokeswoman for the USCCB’s Secretariat for Pro Life Activities.

Plan B One-Step now will be sold openly on pharmacy shelves while the generic brands will still be sold under pharmacy counters and only for those 17-years of age. Those who purchase the drugs will have to show identification to prove their age. (more…)

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By Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — New proposed regulations governing the contraceptive mandate under the Affordable Care Act continue to violate basic principles of religious freedom, said the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In comments filed March 20 with the Department of Health and Human Services, the USCCB raised a series of concerns, among them being that the new proposals keep in place “an unjust and unlawful mandate” regarding the provision of contraceptive and other pregnancy services and that the rules provide no exemption, or accommodation, for “most stakeholders in the health insurance process, such as individual employees and for-profit employers,” who are morally opposed to such coverage. (more…)

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By Dennis Sadowski Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — The needs of poor and vulnerable Americans must remain at the top of the country’s spending priorities as Congress debates the federal budget in the coming weeks, the chairmen of two U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops committees said.

Holding firm to earlier stances, Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, Calif., chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace, told members of Congress in a March 18 letter that budget expenditures reflect the priorities of a nation. (more…)

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WASHINGTON—On March 4 Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) and 50 other House members introduced H.R. 940, the Health Care Conscience Rights Act of 2013. Archbishop William E Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the USCCB’s Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, welcomed its introduction with the following statement:

“I am grateful to Congresswoman Black and other sponsors for their leadership today. I welcome the Health Care Conscience Rights Act and call for its swift passage into law. While federal laws are on the books protecting conscience rights in health care, this Act would make such protection truly effective. This overdue measure is especially needed in light of new challenges to conscience rights arising from the federal health care reform act.” (more…)

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WASHINGTON—Representatives of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and four Reformed Christian denominations publicly signed an agreement on baptism, Jan. 29, in Austin. The agreement affirmed that all of the churches involved recognize the validity of each other’s baptisms.

The signing took place at the opening of the annual meeting of the ecumenical association Christian Churches Together, which includes more than 40 Christian communions and groups. Each member group received a copy of the agreement, which Catholic and Reformed leaders hope will encourage them to consider how and whether they too will respond. (more…)

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By Patricia Zapor Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — In “amicus” or friend-of-the-court briefs in two Supreme Court cases that weigh the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops argues that redefining marriage as other than between one man and one woman is not required under the Constitution.

In separate briefs submitted Jan. 29, the USCCB urged the court to uphold California’s Proposition 8, in which voters said marriage should be limited to the traditional definition of one man and one woman and to uphold the federal Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA. (more…)

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WASHINGTON — Congress should avoid measures that harm at-risk students, low-income families and people currently benefiting from poverty-focused international assistance, according to a letter from the bishops who oversee the justice and peace efforts of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“As you work to avoid sequestration and enact responsible deficit reduction that protects poor persons from cuts and future generations from unsustainable debts, we hope longstanding moral principles and values will inform your decisions,” wrote Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, Calif., and Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, in a Nov. 13 letter to the House and Senate. Bishop Blaire and Bishop Pates chair the USCCB Committees on Domestic Justice and Human Development and International Justice and Peace, respectively. (more…)

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By Catholic News Service

BALTIMORE (CNS) — During their annual fall general assembly in Baltimore Nov. 12-15, the U.S. bishops voted down a document on the troubled U.S. economy, passed documents on penance and better preaching, approved a reorganization of their Communications Department and endorsed the sainthood cause of Dorothy Day.

Although the bishops discussed the economy, their document “The Hope of the Gospel in Difficult Times: A Pastoral Message on Work, Poverty and the Economy” did not gain the two-thirds vote required for passage Nov. 13. (more…)

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By Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Catholics, just like the rest of society, are using online social media, but they aren’t necessarily going to Catholic sites, according to a newly released study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

The study, “Catholic New Media Use in the United States, 2012″ was released Nov. 11 and presented that day during a meeting of U.S. bishops and Catholic bloggers just prior to the bishops’ annual fall general assembly in Baltimore. (more…)

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