The Obama administration had dragged its feet on providing the final version of HHS mandate regulations, a tactic that effectively prevented many groups suing for their religious freedom to be allowed to do so, on the basis that the government had not actually finalized the regulation they were objecting to. They released it today, and… (read more)
Bishop Swain, when he was still Monsignor Swain, was pastor of Madison’s Holy Redeemer Church at the time he was appointed bishop of Sioux Falls. That was only a short while after I returned to the practice of my Faith, so I never met him, though I did attend a talk he gave here to… (read more)
Bishop Morlino was on a secular conservative talk radio program, the Vicki McKenna Show, yesterday. I looked up a podcast of this program. His interview starts at about 20:00. First, McKenna asks him about the “pathologically silly” belief that the world might end when the Mayan calendar ended, jettisoning their own core value system, to… (read more)
After going to see the Nuns on the Bus in Janesville, WI, I found on facebook a video the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters had recorded of Sr Simone Campbell earlier the same day, in which Sr Simone described candidly that “we asked for help in DC, and our colleagues, all the big players, they came together… (read more)
Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act surprised me–and upset me a good deal. The bishops immediately called (again) for Congress to fix the problems with the law that infringe our religious liberty, though making clear they had never joined in “efforts to repeal the law in its entirety”. But neither did they… (read more)
Recently the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a long awaited doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an official Church organization consisting of the leaders of most (but not all) of the communities of active religious sisters in the United States. One point of concern was the association of the… (read more)
Our Stand Up For Religious Freedom Rally was a great success, with stirring speakers and head count of 300 attendees! I believe and hope that everyone who attended was encouraged and formed by the experience–one of the organizers said afterward “I see the event as an opportunity to inspire/train the spiritual warriors attending”. Rally Captain… (read more)
This very helpful summary of things to know is lifted directly from the USCCB, and was written by their Secretariat for Pro Life Activities. On February 15, 2012 the Obama Administration published a final rule mandating contraception and sterilization coverage in almost all private health plans nationwide, with an extremely narrow “exemption” for some religious… (read more)
[Here’s a note that can introduce this well. A friend wrote to me: “I’ve seen that and it’s not even worth validating it by giving it attention. It’s just ridiculous.” I said: You’re right, but I think people should know just what kind of organization this is since it is right here. They do all… (read more)
On Saturday Bishop Morlino was on EWTN’s The World Over, responding to questions about the parish in Platteville, Congressman Paul Ryan, what he as a former Jesuit thinks of Jesuit Georgetown U inviting HHS Secretary and dissenting Catholic Kathleen Sebelius as a graduation speaker, and whether the bishops’ statements on other issues water down the… (read more)
