United for Religious Freedom
A Statement of the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
March 14, 2012
The Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, gathered for its March 2012 meeting, is strongly unified and intensely focused in its opposition to the various threats to religious freedom in our day. In our role as Bishops, we approach this question prayerfully and as pastors—concerned not only with the protection of the Church’s own institutions, but with the care of the souls of the individual faithful, and with the common good. Read More

Honolulu, Hawaii, Mar 7, 2012 / 04:21 am (CNA).- A Hawaiian lawsuit asking a federal court to instate “gay marriage” shows that the recognition of same-sex domestic partnerships and civil unions is just a stepping stone to redefining marriage, several critics say.
“Same-sex unions and domestic partnerships are never a compromise, because they’re creating pseudo-marriages which confuse and undermine the understanding of young people about what marriage is all about,” William B. May, president of the California-based Catholics for the Common Good, told CNA March 6. Read More
 

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia today told a standing-room-only crowd of more than 500 Catholics to have "the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity" by society's sophisticates.

Scalia, the longest-serving justice on the high court and one of its most conservative, received a rousing welcome from a throng sprawled across several adjoining rooms of the Denver Convention Center. Read More

Providence, R.I., Mar 4, 2012 / 01:07 pm (CNA).- Noted author, theologian and widely read Catholic columnist George Weigel weighed in on the controversy over President Obama’s Health and Human Services mandate during a speaking engagement last week at a dinner meeting of the Providence chapter of the international Catholic business organization, Legatus. Read More
 

WASHINGTON - Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York voiced dismay in the Administration's handling of the church as the White House and the church seek to work out religious freedom problems found in a mandate in the new health care reform bill.
The mandate drew church ire when it required that all employers, including religious ones, pay for contraceptives - including abortifacients - and sterilization for employees despite church teaching against them. Read More