Law (Secular)

Ruling over teacher’s firing could have far-reaching implications
Jan 16 2012
WASHINGTON – The direction the courts will take with other cases related to religious employment is far from clear, but the Supreme Court’s Jan. 11 ruling opens a whole track of possibilities.

Making the old new: Vatican encourages a recovery of ‘apologetics’
Jan 15 2012
VATICAN CITY – In the Catholic Church, it’s true that everything old can be new again, and the Vatican wants one of those things to be the art of “apologetics” – dusted off and updated to respond to new challenges, including those posed by militant atheists.

Supreme Court upholds church school’s exception to laws against firing
Jan 12 2012
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court Jan. 11 upheld the idea that a “ministerial exception” to anti-discrimination laws means the church can’t be sued for firing an employee who the church classified as a minister.

Newman website fosters faith, fellowship among students, campus ministries
Dec 07 2011
MELBOURNE, Fla. – They are the future of the church and world and it just makes sense that as young adults pursue advanced education for their careers, they should be able to deepen their faith with prayer, fellowship and knowledge about their faith at the same time.

Bishop Finn avoids indictment, signs agreement with county prosecutor
Nov 17 2011
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Bishop Robert W. Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph has agreed to meet monthly for the next five years with a county prosecutor to avoid a possible criminal misdemeanor indictment for failing to report a priest suspected of child abuse.

Court weighs rights of church to fire teacher as an exception to law
Oct 07 2011
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court justices struggled Oct. 5 with where to draw the line for what is known as a ministerial exception that exempts religious institutions from some civil laws when it comes to hiring and firing.

More comments filed objecting to HHS mandate, religious exemption
Oct 04 2011
WASHINGTON – Catholic organizations filing comments on the federal Department of Health and Human Services’ mandate that health insurance plans cover contraception and sterilization and a proposed religious exemption registered their strong disapproval.

Archbishop Hannan, Baltimore assistant pastor and Kennedy counselor, dies at 98
Sep 29 2011
NEW ORLEANS – Retired Archbishop Philip M. Hannan of New Orleans, a World War II paratroop chaplain who befriended and secretly counseled John F. Kennedy during and after his historic run for the White House as the first U.S. Catholic president, died Sept. 29 at age 98.

Religious exemption to HHS mandate ‘wholly inadequate,’ CHA head says
Sep 27 2011
WASHINGTON – The proposed religious exemption to the federal mandate that health insurance plans cover contraceptives and sterilization is “wholly inadequate to protect the conscience rights of Catholic hospital and health care organizations,” the head of the Catholic Health Association told the Department of Health and Human Services.

Media send unhealthy messages to women, says Catholic talk show host
Sep 16 2011
ROME – A new book by a Catholic talk show host looks at how media and culture are sending unhealthy messages to women and how the church can fill the emotional and spiritual void left behind.

Polish Catholic journal criticizes church handling of clergy sex abuse
Sep 13 2011
WARSAW, Poland – A Catholic journal has criticized the Polish church’s handling of sexual abuse by priests, following repeated claims that local church leaders failed to confront the problem.

Martyrdom in Pakistan
Aug 25 2011
Sixty-four years ago, on Aug. 14, 1947, Great Britain’s empire in the Indian subcontinent was divided into the independent, self-governing Dominions of India and Pakistan. The division of the subcontinent into two states was bitterly opposed by the Indian Congress Party and Winston Churchill, but supported by the Muslim League (with Congress, one of the two major pro-independence parties in the British Raj) and the Attlee government, which had displaced Churchill in 1945. Congress proposed power-sharing plans that would hold the subcontinent together as a political unit; they were all rejected by the leader of the Muslim League, a Scotch-drinking, pork-eating, and rather secular lawyer named Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

State contraceptive mandates widespread but not as broad as HHS plan
Aug 09 2011
WASHINGTON – In more than half of the states, Catholic officials have been living for years with mandates that health insurance plans must cover FDA-approved contraceptives in their prescription drug plans.

Bill aimed at repealing Defense of Marriage Act gets U.S. Senate hearing
Jul 21 2011
WASHINGTON – Legislation pending in both houses of Congress would repeal the 15-year-old Defense of Marriage Act, allowing legally married same-sex couples to take advantage of the same benefits married heterosexual couples receive under federal law.

Laity has its say in parish planning process
Jun 29 2011
Make better use of social media to spread good news that is millennia old.