Setting the record straight

Yesterday the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights complained that we had downplayed last Friday evening’s letter from Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, to his fellow bishops. The cardinal’s strongly worded letter charged that the White House was ignoring the bishops’ religious freedom concerns in the rules that would mandate contraceptive [...]

Politics of peace? Patriarch’s visit does not include Washington

As Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai begins a visit to the United States, one prominent city is missing from his itinerary. The patriarch will not be visiting Washington, D.C., nor will he be meeting with U.S. President Obama, despite a meeting Maronite officials said was scheduled at the White House for 2 p.m. Oct. 3. To [...]

After the Arab dictators fall, will democracy follow?

A big question on everyone’s mind since the Arab Spring began  and dictators from North Africa to the Arabian peninsula began falling like dominos is “what will take their place?” In some places — Egypt, Tunisia and Libya the most recent — the rebels prevailed. Yet the opposition is unorganized. Who will fill the power [...]

Bishops join in fighting cuts to anti-poverty programs

Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, Calif., and Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, Calif., have joined an ecumenical effort to oppose budget cuts to anti-poverty programs and congressional plans to make additional reductions in spending on programs supporting the poor. The two California bishops will join evangelical, mainline Protestant, African-American and Latino Christian leaders in a [...]

Faces of note in the gallery for presidential address

While news reports focused on all the collegial aisle-crossing in the House chamber for the State of the Union address Jan. 25, there were some interesting people in the gallery seats above the floor as well. Washington Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl was among the guests of House Speaker John Boehner, along with an assortment of [...]

Pax Christi calls for celebrations to mark Convention on Cluster Munitions

The Convention on Cluster Munitions enters into force Aug. 1. The agreement, which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of cluster munitions, was seen as a milestone among disarmament proponents when it was adopted by 107 countries meeting in Dublin in 2008. Since then, countries have been formally considering the convention. To date, 106 [...]

Inside the John Paul II-Gorbachev meeting

VATICAN CITY  — The release of a transcript of the 1989 meeting between Pope John Paul II and Mikhail Gorbachev offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse of one of the more important papal audiences of the 20th century. It’s a translation of the Russian record of the private meeting, released by the National Security Archive, an independent [...]

St. Damien: A model for public servants

When Congressional leaders, ambassadors and others gathered in a U.S. Senate hearing room to honor St. Damien de Veuster Nov. 19, Honolulu Bishop Larry Silva compared the work of the Belgian-born saint to that of public servants. Bishop Silva noted that St. Damien — known for his work in Hawaii with victims of Hansen’s disease, or [...]

Scripture, Canada and the health care debate

Health care reform in the United States has gone from heated debate to raging firestorm over the past couple of months. The smoke is drifting north of the border into our sister nation, Canada. During the discussions about what universal health care in the U.S. might look like, many have held up the Canadian system [...]

Ambassador’s ceremony draws an eclectic crowd

A Supreme Court justice, an actor and a Catholic university president walk into the State Department….. … and formalize the swearing in of their mutual friend, constitutional lawyer Douglas Kmiec, as ambassador to Malta. What sounds like the opening to a stand-up routine was instead the scene in the Treaty Room at the State Department [...]