The Dialog

By Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, has asked members of the House to approve the Health Care Conscience Rights Act.

Introduced March 5 by three House Republicans, the bill had 66 co-sponsors as of March 11.

The bill will “help preserve the vitally important traditions of religious freedom and the right of conscience,” Cardinal O’Malley said in a March 11 letter to House members.

He also asked representatives to “help incorporate its policy into upcoming ‘must-pass’ legislation.” The principal sponsors of the bill had voiced at a March 5 press conference introducing the bill their hopes that the bill would be folded into a continuing resolution needed to fund federal government operations beyond March 27.

The cardinal was in Rome to participate in the conclave to select a new pope.

“Protection for conscience rights in health care is of especially great importance to the Catholic Church, which daily contributes to the welfare of American society through a network of schools, social services, hospitals and assisted living facilities,” Cardinal O’Malley said in his letter.

“The legal protections which allow us to fulfill our obligation to serve others, without compromising our religious or moral convictions, are essential to the continued vitality of these ministries. While those protections have long enjoyed bipartisan consensus, they are under greatly increased pressure today,” he added.

“An example is the mandate for coverage of contraception, sterilization and abortifacient drugs and devices being implemented under the Affordable Care Act’s ‘preventive services’ provision. The lawsuits filed against this mandate by dozens of Catholic organizations, and dozens of for-profit and nonprofit organizations led by other people of faith, highlight the need to reassert Americans’ right to live and serve in accord with their deepest convictions about the sanctity of human life,” Cardinal O’Malley said.

“Doctors, nurses and other health professionals, as well, have reason today to fear that their ability to serve others in accord with their values will not be well defended in our nation’s laws or in our judicial system”

In a letter to House members dated Feb. 15, before the bill was introduced, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty, said: “A restoration of full respect for one of our nation’s founding values is urgently needed.”

Archbishop Lori asked the House to “restore a tradition on rights of conscience in health care that has long enjoyed bipartisan consensus, but is now under greatly increased pressure.”

By Catholic News Service

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Six days after passing a ban on abortions after 20 weeks’ gestation, the Arkansas Legislature approved an even stricter ban.

The House of Representatives and Senate voted March 5 and 6 to override Gov. Mike Beebe’s veto to approve the Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act, just as they did Feb. 27-28 to override his veto of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

While the fetal pain bill went into effect immediately, the heartbeat bill banning most abortions at 12 weeks will take effect this summer. Opponents have vowed to file lawsuits to stop the 12-week law from taking effect.

The Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act bans most abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected and the pregnancy is 12 weeks or greater. According to National Right to Life, a fetus’ heartbeat begins at the 22nd day.

Exceptions are made for rape, incest, to save the life of the mother or if a “highly lethal fetal disorder” is discovered. It has been called the strictest abortion law in the country.

After the vote, sponsor Sen. Jason Rapert said, “If there’s a heartbeat, there’s life and we’re going to stand up for this law, regardless of who opposes it.”

The Diocese of Little Rock’s position on laws that restrict abortion is grounded in the Catholic Church’s teaching that all life is sacred from the moment of conception to natural death.

“The passage of these two bills provides greater protection for unborn children,” said Marianne Linane, diocesan respect life director. “Legal challenges are to be expected and if they are filed, we hope the eventual rulings will recognize that an unborn child is a human life and extend the protection of the law to unborn children at an even earlier age than previously provided.”

Rose Mimms, director of Arkansas Right to Life and a member of St. Theresa Church in Little Rock, said the heartbeat bill is groundbreaking and will be challenged in court since Arkansas is the first state to pass such a restrictive law.

Mimms’ organization was lobbying for the fetal pain bill since there was precedence in other states and was not actively lobbying for the heartbeat bill. Mimms was familiar with the heartbeat bill because a similar version was introduced in the Legislature in 2011 but didn’t make it out of committee.

“We support any kind of pro-life legislation, but we didn’t feel the timing was right,” she said. “Our concern is because it does go so far that if it did go all the way to the Supreme Court, it might just be another decision that affirms Roe (v. Wade). That is not what we want. We want more decisions that give us more restrictions under the Roe framework.

“That is what we got with partial-birth abortion decision a few years ago, and we are looking for more decisions like that,” she continued. “That is why we feel the pain capable (law) has more of a chance to get a good ruling so we can keep whittling away at Roe until we can get rid of it completely.”

According to Arkansas Department of Health statistics from 2011, 20 percent of abortions in the state occurred at 12 weeks or later. Of the 4,033 induced abortions, 815 were after 12 weeks. Sixty-seven percent of abortions occurred when the fetus was at seven weeks’ gestation and earlier.

Based on anecdotal evidence and other state reports, Mimms said she believes the number of induced abortions in hospitals and the state’s only surgical abortion clinic in Little Rock are underreported.

“We have pretty good reporting in Arkansas, but I think they are underreported especially on late-term abortions,” she said.

Other pro-life supporters didn’t express legal concern over the bill.

Millie Lace, founder of Concepts of Truth, a pregnancy center in Wynne, and member of St. Peter Church in Wynne, had an abortion when she was 25 years old.

“The legislation will not only protect the unborn but will protect women from the mental anguish and trauma of an elective abortion,” she said.

Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, said the Legislature did the right thing.

“Governors aren’t governing their people if they aren’t protecting them,” he said. “One of the most striking and effective statements over the years by the pro-life movement has been ‘Abortion stops a beating heart.’ It’s still true, and it’s about time the law starts catching up with that fact.”

Hargett is editor of the Arkansas Catholic, newspaper of the Diocese of Little Rock.

By Catholic News Service

Five bishops who lead committees of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a joint statement they could not support the rewritten reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law March 7.

The stumbling blocks for the bishops were the references to “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”

“These two classifications are unnecessary to establish the just protections due to all persons. They undermine the meaning and importance of sexual difference,” the five bishops said in their March 6 statement, calling the language “problematic.” “They are unjustly exploited for purposes of marriage redefinition, and marriage is the only institution that unites a man and a woman with each other and with any children born from their union.”

The bishops said the USCCB had supported past versions of the Violence Against Women Act, noting that in its pastoral statement “When I Call for Help,” the U.S. bishops had written, “Violence in any form —physical, sexual, psychological or verbal  — is sinful.”

The five bishops who issued the statement and the committees they chair are: Archbishops Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage; Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, Committee on Migration; and William E. Lori of Baltimore, Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty; and Bishops Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, Calif., Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development; and Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth.

The bishops also expressed their displeasure with the exclusion of conscience protections for faith-based groups helping trafficking victims, as reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act was folded into the bill.

“We strongly supported efforts to include such provisions. Conscience protections are needed in this legislation to ensure that these service providers are not required to violate their bona fide religious beliefs as a condition for serving the needy. Failure to have conscience protection for such service providers undermines a long-held value in our democracy: religious liberty,” the bishops said.

Without these protections, the bill “fails to prevent discrimination against faith-based providers of care, such as the USCCB, which for years has provided exceptional service and care to such victims,” they said. “In the end, the victims of human trafficking are harmed because organizations such as the USCCB are unable to render services that reach them and serve their human needs.”

By Catholic News Service

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput announced March 7 that the archdiocese will consolidate some facilities and close some buildings on the campus of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood.

The archbishop announced the changes in his weekly column posted on CatholicPhilly.com, the news website of the archdiocese.

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput announced March 7 that the huge building that houses the college division at the seminary will be closed and that school consolidated into what is theology division. (CNS photo/Sarah Webb, CatholicPhilly.com)

“St. Charles Borromeo Seminary is the heart of our church in Philadelphia, and we remain dedicated to not only maintaining its presence in our community, but strengthening it for many generations to come,” Archbishop Chaput said in a statement.

The huge building that houses the college division, known as the lower side, will be closed and the seminary consolidated into what is now the theology division, or upper side.

The seminary will seek to lease or sell underutilized buildings and property, but at the same time implement new spiritual and academic programs for seminarians and lay adult theology students.

The plan, which is expected to take three to five years to implement completely, will see the campus reduced from its current 75 acres to 30 acres.

The seminary, which was founded in 1832, has been at its current location since 1871. The gigantic lower side E-shaped building, with a frontage of 834 feet including St. Martin Chapel, opened in 1928 as the preparatory division.

At the time, its capacity was estimated at 400 seminarians, mostly on a college level, with a small number in the upper grades of high school. It included sleeping quarters, classrooms, dining facilities, study halls, an auditorium and recreational areas as well an entire wing devoted to faculty quarters.

The advanced seminarians in the theology division remained in the upper side complex, which has been expanded over the years.

A total of 19 buildings comprise the two complexes, which face each other across the campus.

Peak enrollment at St. Charles was 534 seminarians in 1960, according to a seminary history written in the 1960s, and the peak ordination year was 1937 with 55 ordained, according to the history.

“The board of trustees has been studying this for years now and we have looked at a variety of scenarios,” said the seminary’s rector, Philadelphia Auxiliary Bishop Timothy C. Senior.

One of the scenarios considered was consolidation on the college side, which wasn’t practical. Another scenario envisioned closing the entire campus and building a new smaller seminary at another location, but that wasn’t practical either when considering that merely building a new high school can cost $65 million to $70 million, Bishop Senior said in an interview with CatholicPhilly.com.

Also the seminary’s location is easily accessible for those who use the other programs that utilize the facilities.

But consolidation is not being done because enrollment is dropping at this time, Bishop Senior emphasized. At 130 seminarians, it isn’t much different than when he attended 28 years ago. At this time St. Charles is actually growing, with incoming enrollment projected at a 20 percent increase next year.

The fact is the building has been underutilized since at least the mid-1970s and now even more so because many young men are college graduates when they enter St. Charles. Today most of the seminarians are in the theology division, already utilizing the buildings that will be retained.

“The 1928 building is enormous, I don’t think people realize how big it is,” Bishop Senior said. “Pragmatically, it was built to house a large number of men.”

Currently, 45 young men in the college division, Bishop Senior said, adding that 18 were studying for Philadelphia and the rest were studying for other dioceses.

St. Martin Chapel, which is attached to the lower side building, is itself huge. It was designed to hold 800 seminarians if necessary.

“It is our primary chapel, and I never walk up the aisle without getting a lump in my throat,’ Bishop Senior said, “but we have to look out for what is best for the men.”

“We love the Brook,” Bishop Senior said. St. Charles is nicknamed “Overbrook.”

“But the seminary has to be more. It is not a museum. It has a wonderful history and tradition, but for the 130 students who are here, what is important is today and tomorrow and the years to come,’ he said.

St. Charles is now one of the few seminaries that continue to offer a fully self-contained college program in addition to the theology program, and some of the bishops who send students to Philadelphia do so for that reason, Bishop Senior noted.

Archbishop Chaput has appointed a task force, headed by Rosalie M. Mirenda, president of Neumann University, a Catholic university near Philadelphia. The panel will consider what direction the St. Charles college program should take in the future, if it is to continue.

Recommendations are expected by the end of June with implementation in the academic year 2014-15.

St. Charles will continue to serve the seminarians. The program will be expanded in 2014-15 to reinstate a “spirituality year” as part of the formation.

The year will be mandatory for the Philadelphia archdiocese’s candidates and optional for others, Bishop Senior explained. Seminarians will allow a full year for spiritual formation in discerning their priestly vocation, he said.

The upper side complex can accommodate the permanent diaconate program and the Graduate School of Theology, which offers graduate degrees and catechetical certificate programs for clergy and laity.

“This is not a historical site where people come to look at things and remember what the church was,” Bishop Senior said. “This is a place where people come to learn what the church is and what it will become and that is not about buildings necessarily.’

Baldwin is a freelancer who writes for CatholicPhilly.com, the news website of the Philadelphia archdiocese, and Phaith magazine, the archdiocesan magazine.

By Patricia Zapor

Catholic News Service

TUCSON, Ariz. — Around their hometown of Kabba in the state of Kogi, Nigeria, Michael Onaiyekan is known these days not by his own name but as “aburo cardinal,” or brother of the cardinal.

He chuckles to consider, but doesn’t dismiss, the notion that his name in Kabba might, just might, become “aburo pope,” brother of the pope.

Nigerian Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja speaks before the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom during a briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington in 2009 before he was named a cardinal.. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Onaiyekan’s elder brother, Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abjua, Nigeria, is one of the newest members of the group of cardinals who will convene in a conclave shortly to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI.

In an interview near his home in Tucson with Catholic News Service, Michael Onaiyekan talked about his brother and what it means to have a cardinal in the family.

The word last fall that then-Archbishop Onaiyekan would be elevated to cardinal was not particularly a surprise, said his brother.

“There had been speculation many years back,” Onaiyekan said, in part because his predecessor as bishop in what became the Archdiocese of Abuja was also made a cardinal, the late Cardinal Dominic Ignatius Ekandem.

Beyond that, says the younger sibling, “my brother is a brilliant guy.”

The eldest boy in a family of seven children, the future cardinal was such an outstanding student that his 1962 graduation testing scores at Mount St. Michael’s Secondary School in Aliade continue to stand as a national record, Onaiyekan said. Though he might have pursued any career field, his goal, however lay in the priesthood.

“He could have done anything he wanted to do,” his brother said.

Michael Onaiyekan said that because of the eight-year age difference between them, by the time he got to know him, his brother was already in high school, far from home. Their father, a farmer whose children all helped with the crops when they weren’t in school, insisted that all of his boys and girls get an education.

Several went on to become educators, one’s a doctor and Michael had a business manufacturing equipment for people with disabilities before he moved to the United States a couple of years ago.

But in the 1960s when government leaders came around Kabba trying to persuade the brilliant young student to become a doctor or an engineer instead of a priest, the head of the family would hear none of it, said Onaiyekan.

Affinity for the church was strong in the Onaiyekan family. His father was considered the local head of the Catholic Church, having been the only man among the Catholic converts of the era who would agree to the church’s requirement that the leader be a man who was married in the church.

In a culture where multiple wives and the children they could bear was a standard of success, no other men in the village would agree to a Catholic marriage because it would limit them to one wife, said Onaiyekan.

The seminary decision was not his to make, however, their father believed.

“I remember it very well because of the type of visitors my father was receiving,” he said. “The government said they would send him anywhere in the world he wanted to study and they wanted my father to get him to change his mind about going to the seminary.”

John Onaiyekan instead did his seminary studies at Ss. Peter and Paul Major Seminary in Bodija and completed his theology studies in Rome before his ordination Aug. 3, 1969. He later went on to get a licentiate and doctorate in sacred Scripture.

His assignments have included terms as rector of St. Clement Junior Seminary in Lokoja and as vice rector of Ss. Peter and Paul Seminary before being ordained bishop of Ilorin in 1983. He was made coadjutor of the Diocese of Abuja in 1990 and took over as head of the diocese in 1992. Abuja was elevated to an archdiocese in 1994.

Cardinal Onaiyekan has served on the International Theological Commission, the International Catholic/Methodist Dialogue Commission and was named International Peace Laureate by Pax Christi International in 2012. He was made a cardinal Nov. 24, 2012, in the last group so designated by Pope Benedict. The pope named him to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Council for the Family at that time.

Through all his brother’s success, Onaiyekan said, the family has maintained their distance, respectfully trying “not to bother him,’ he said. In Nigeria, Onaiyekan said, it’s common for relatives of anyone who’s successful in any field to try to benefit financially from that success.

“We have surrendered him to the service of God,” he said. “He always says he’s very grateful to us.”

Besides, said Onaiyekan, proudly showing off a photo of himself greeting Pope Benedict at his brothers’ elevation as cardinal last fall, “what more wealth is there than shaking the hand of the pope?”

By Dennis Sadowski

Catholic News Service

A Cleveland priest who leads a faith community formed after its parish was closed in 2010 has been excommunicated for schism.

Bishop Richard G. Lennon of Cleveland said in a March 4 decree that Father Robert Marrone, who is identified as pastor and administrator of the Community of St. Peter, incurred the excommunication “latae sententiae” (automatically) for failing to reconcile with the Catholic Church.

Canon 751 of the Code of Canon Law defines schism as “the refusal of submission to the supreme pontiff or of communion with the members of the church subject to him.”

Father Marrone has celebrated weekly Mass and the sacraments for the 300-member community since August 2010.

The priest could not be reached for comment.

Frank Titas, a Community of St. Peter board member, said March 6 that members were saddened and disappointed by Bishop Lennon’s action.

“He characterizes it as an attempt to bring about unity,” Titas said. “It seems it’s a step in really the opposite direction.”

The Community of St. Peter includes former parishioners of Cleveland’s St. Peter Parish, which closed in April 2010 under a diocesan-wide downsizing plan. Father Marrone was the pastor of the parish.

Parishioners upset with the parish’s closing formed a nonprofit corporation and rented space in a former factory to stay together as a Catholic worship community and continue various ministries in Cleveland’s inner city. Father Marrone decided to join the community after seeking a leave of absence from the Cleveland diocese soon after the parish closed.

St. Peter Parish reopened in September with another pastor under a Vatican decree that said Bishop Lennon violated canon law in closing it and 10 other parishes. For the most part, community members declined to rejoin the parish.

Diocesan spokesman Robert Tayek told CNS March 6 that Bishop Lennon is willing to meet with community members “over this serous matter.”

“It’s kind of in their court,” he said. “We’re leaving it up to them.”

Bishop Lennon had said in a letter to community members soon after the parish closed that they risked excommunication if they formed a group outside of the auspices of the Catholic Church.

Titas said a decision whether to meet with the bishop will be made by the community’s board.

“The community has been doing great,” Titas said. “We’re growing. It’s been a wonderful experience in terms of the vibrancy of the group. Things are going well. We hope that we can continue to move in a positive direction and be a meaningful force in our community and carry out the word.”

Bishop Lennon explained in his statement that he took the extraordinary step of pursuing Father Marrone’s excommunication after several attempts to reconcile him with the church.

“Father Marrone’s actions have been in direct defiance of the church’s teachings and authority,” the statement said.

After St. Peter Parish closed, Father Marrone asked for a leave of absence from active ministry, under which he agreed to only celebrate the sacraments privately, Bishop Lennon said.

Except for two meetings, the bishop said, the priest declined to respond to multiple requests to meet “in order to persuade him to disassociate himself from and cease leadership in a group which has separated itself from the governance of the Diocese of Cleveland.”

Bishop Lennon said he began steps under canon law to declare the excommunication in October, after a fourth unsuccessful attempt to meet with Father Marrone.

“It is my prayer that the declaration of excommunication may impress upon Father Marrone the serious nature of the offense he has committed,” Bishop Lennon said, expressing hope that the priest will seek to reconcile with the church.

Under canon law, Father Marrone has 10 days to appeal his excommunication from the time he learns of the action.

By Mark Pattison

Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — Three Republican members of the House of Representatives March 5 introduced a bill to protect conscience rights for both workers in the health care industry and for employers in light of the federal mandate requiring employers to cover contraceptives, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs.

One of the sponsors, Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., said it is possible that the bill, the Health Care Conscience Rights Act, could be folded into a continuing resolution being considered by the House to keep the federal government operating beyond March 27.

Two Catholic women who run businesses and who appeared at a March 5 news conference on Capitol Hill said they do not want to be forced to choose between their conscience or their business.

“Nobody should be asked to make that decision,” said Christine Ketterhagen, a co-owner of Hercules Industries, a heating and air conditioning company her father founded in Denver 50 years ago that now has operations in five states with 320 employees.

“We went to Catholic schools. Our children went to Catholic schools. Our grandchildren go to Catholic schools,” Ketterhagen told Catholic News Service after the news conference. “We’re willing to pay for education,” she added, but not for contraceptives or other mandated health care coverage that goes against their Catholic faith.

Sister Jane Marie Klein, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration who is chairperson of the board of Franciscan Alliance, a Midwestern hospital group with 13 hospitals and 3,500 beds that provides an estimated $171.5 million in charity care and community outreach, said, “All I can say is that we will not violate our conscience.”

“I don’t want to deal with” the possibility that the chain could be shut or sold, she added, saying she was counting on “good and faithful” people to “uphold our God-given rights.”

Sister Jane Marie said, “God is good. He’s still in charge. I think he’s going to see us through this. We have sisters who are praying 24 hours a day, seven days a week for this — along with the election of a new people right now.”

The Health Care Conscience Rights Act would offer a full exemption from the U.S. Department Health and Human Services’ mandate for individuals and health care entities that refuse to provide, pay for, or refer patients to abortion providers because of their religious beliefs. The bill had attracted 50 co-sponsors by the time of its introduction.

The bill would have given recourse to one Catholic nurse forced to participate in a 2009 abortion. Cathy Cenzon-DeCarlo was an operating room nurse in a New York hospital. “They threatened my job and my nursing license” if she did not participate in the abortion, she said.

“I still remember the 22-week-old baby,” Cenzon-DeCarlo said. “I had to account for its twisted arms and legs and feet,” she added. “I’ve had nightmares.”

She filed suit in both state and federal courts, but was told that, even if her being forced to participate in the abortion was illegal, she had no standing to sue.

Other nurses have been victimized for their beliefs. “Because of my Christian beliefs, I have been laughed at, marginalized and had loss of employment,” said Susan Elliott, director of the nursing department at Biola University in California, at the press conference.

Rep. John Fleming, R-La., a co-sponsor of the bill, told the story at the news conference of nine nurses at an unnamed hospital who had lost their jobs for their refusal to participate in abortions. “The nine nurses got their jobs back,” Fleming said, “but only after help from their unions.”

“I welcome the Health Care Conscience Rights Act and call for its swift passage into law,” said a March 5 statement by Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty.

“While federal laws are on the books protecting conscience rights in health care, this act would make such protection truly effective,” Archbishop Lori said. “This overdue measure is especially needed in light of new challenges to conscience rights arising from the federal health care reform act.”

On Feb. 1, HHS issued proposed new rules on the mandate aimed at accommodating objections raised by Catholic institutions that, among others, the exemption for religious employers was too narrow and that most would be forced to stop providing employee health insurance because they object on moral grounds to the requirement they cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs.

HHS removed three conditions that defined religious employers — as groups whose purpose is the inculcation of religious values, who primarily employ persons of the same faith and who serve those of the same faith. The fourth criterion remains: what is a nonprofit organization under specific sections of the Internal Revenue Code.

No exemption, however, will be given to “for-profit, secular employers” whose owners have moral objections to providing the coverage.

Catholic leaders are studying the new proposed rules, but many have said they do not go far enough. HHS is accepting comment on the new proposed rules until April. Final rules are expected by summer.

At the Capitol Hill news conference, the speakers all decried a threat to conscience rights. Sister Jane Marie said her order had come from Germany to the United States 130 years ago in part because of an invitation by a bishop, but also in part because of restrictions to religious freedom being applied then in Germany.

“In the Philippines, I grew up under the (Ferdinand) Marcos regime, where people were afraid to voice their opinions,” said Cenzon-DeCarlo, adding she did not know until she woke up each day whether her father, a Marcos opponent, had been kidnapped.

Cenzon-DeCarlo became a U.S. citizen in 2011 because of the nation’s constitutional guarantees of religious freedom and freedom of conscience. But with the HHS mandate, she said, it is “not the America of my dreams.”

By Catholic News Service

DENVER — Catholic Charities of the Denver archdiocese criticized a Colorado bill to legalize same-sex civil unions because it contains no religious liberty protections for agencies morally opposed to placing children for adoption with same-sex couples.

The measure, which the state Senate already passed, was approved by the state House Judiciary Committee Feb. 28. It was to move next to the House Finance Committee, then to the full House floor for a final vote during the week of March 11. Gov. John Hickenlooper has said he will sign the bill, and it is expected to be law by May.

The bill “unduly restricts the freedom of child placement agencies like Catholic Charities,” the agency said in a March 1 statement.

The bill says that “a priest, minister, rabbi, or other official of a religious institution or denomination or an Indian nation or tribe is not required to certify a civil union in violation of his or her right to free exercise of religion.” But there is no such religious freedom provision for adoption agencies.

“It unnecessarily restricts our ability to partner with foster and adoptive families who share common purpose, and live common values,” Catholic Charities said.

The agency’s statement echoed testimony delivered a day earlier by Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, who told the Judiciary Committee he was not there as an officeholder or “to talk about legal aspects” of the bill.

He was testifying, he said, as a lifelong Colorado resident, a Catholic and “most importantly” as someone who was adopted as an infant and was “the beneficiary’ of a placement arranged through Catholic Charities.

If the bill becomes law, “Catholic Charities and some other religiously affiliated social service agencies will no longer be in the adoption business in Colorado,’ Suthers said.

Catholic Charities of Denver praised Suthers for his “personal witness to the good work we do both for families and for children in need.”

“Religious liberty is a civil rights issue,” it said, urging lawmakers to understand the “necessity for an exemption for faith-based institutions like ours to ensure that the interpretation of this bill, if passed into law, does not threaten the vital work of many child placement agencies in Colorado.”

The head of Catholic Charities of Central Colorado, based in the Diocese of Colorado Springs, made the same points in his testimony at the committee hearing.

“Religious liberty is a foundational principle recognized in both the U.S. and Colorado constitutions,” said Mark Rohlena, the agency’s president and CEO.

“A broad conscience protection, for all individuals and entities, should be included in this bill if it must be passed,” he said. “Sadly, in places like Illinois, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., we have seen Catholic Charities organizations forced out of their vital adoption and foster care programs, where they were trusted partners with the state, when conscience was not protected.”

Government actions in Boston, San Francisco, the District of Columbia and the state of Illinois that have “driven local Catholic Charities out of the business of providing adoption or foster care services” because the agencies would not violate church teaching and place children with same-sex or unmarried heterosexual couples.

By Catholic News Service

CHICAGO — The Chicago Archdiocese has laid off 60 pastoral center employees and must consolidate some of its agencies because of a deficit in the budget of its administrative operations, according to Cardinal Francis E. George.

He announced reduction in staff and other changes in his column in the March 3-16 issue of the Catholic New World, the archdiocesan newspaper.

“Like so many other families and institutions, the Archdiocese of Chicago has suffered during the economic downturn of these past few years,” he said. “The archdiocese remains a financially secure institution with a strong asset base.’

However, he said, the archdiocese’s ‘administrative operations have run operating deficits of more than $30 million in each of the past four years.”

“Since this trend is unsustainable, I want to set out the measures we are taking to ensure prudent stewardship of our resources for years to come,” he explained.

The ongoing deficit has required the archdiocese to reduce the costs of its pastoral center operations, he said, which means eliminating 75 positions. Besides the 60 employees who have been laid off, the archdiocese will not fill 15 vacant positions. Of the 75 positions, 55 were full time, Cardinal George said.

Those now out of a jobs will receive severance pay and continued health insurance coverage and can access services of an outplacement firm contracted by the archdiocese to help them find new jobs, he said.

“Our employees are faith-filled men and women who have worked tirelessly for the good of the church. Please keep them in your prayers,” the cardinal said.

The financial crunch means the archdiocese also will reduce its agencies and ministry offices from 16 to nine, he said.

Ministries “that implement Catholic social teaching,” he said, such as the Respect Life, Immigration, Peace and Justice offices, and Kolbe House Jail Ministry will be consolidated into a new Office of Human Solidarity and Dignity.

A new division called Ministry Formation Initiatives will combine other services. There will be a focus on providing training and formation resources, he said, “in collaboration with our field vicariates.”

Ethnic communities will mainly be served through parish-based efforts and special councils, with less staffing at the Pastoral Center.

The archdiocese also closed Katolik, the only Polish-language monthly archdiocesan newspaper in the country. Catolico, the Spanish-language paper, will stay open at this time.

Cardinal George also said a strategic plan has been put in place to secure the finances of the archdiocesan school system. “Difficult choices” will have to be made to close or consolidate a few schools that are no longer sustainable, he said.

He outlined three other key components of that plan: using better practices in enrollment and fiscal management to improve operating results of parishes and schools that draw upon archdiocesan subsidies; creating a very large scholarship fund to make Catholic education more affordable to lower- and middle-income families; and establishing an even stronger partnership with the nonprofit foundation the Big Shoulders Fund, “which has been very helpful to us in keeping inner-city schools open and vibrant.”

Cardinal George in his column also said the archdiocese in the short term is scaling back on loans and grants to parishes and implementing stricter criteria to qualify for such aid.

The reductions will save $11 million to $13 million annually by fiscal year 2015, Cardinal George said.

He emphasized that the archdiocesan operating budget for its administrative services does not include “any payments related to misconduct nor any of the professional help given to victims of sexual abuse by priests or others in the church.”

By TheDialog

WASHINGTON — New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan in a letter to President Barack Obama accepted a White House offer to continue discussing the Catholic Church’s concerns about abortion, traditional marriage and federal rules governing implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

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New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan has accepted a White House offer to continue discussing Catholic Church concerns over federal rules governing implementation of the Affordable Care Act, abortion and traditional marriage in a letter to President Barack Obama. The president and Cardinal Dolan are pictured at the 2012 Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York. (CNS photo/Jim Young, Reuters)

We accept your invitation to address these areas together, always with the civility we have both encouraged in public discourse,” the president U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in the letter Feb. 22.

“We welcome specifically an opportunity to resolve the perplexing issue of the redefining of our religious ministries,” Cardinal Dolan wrote. “Surely we should be able to find some ground where neither of us is asked to compromise conscience.”

In response, a White House official said Feb. 28 that Cardinal Dolan’s warm wishes were welcome and that the president “looks forward to continuing our respectful collaboration.”

The cardinal also renewed good wishes and offered prayers for Obama as he prepared to tackle a long list of goals for his second term that were outlined in his inaugural and State of the Union addresses.

Recalling a meeting with Obama at the White House, Cardinal Dolan pointed to the president’s stated desire “to cooperate with us for the good of our beloved country,” particularly in the church’s educational, charitable and health care services.

“The bishops of the United States cannot rest so long as the vital ministry the Catholic Church carries out, for people of all or no creeds, remains threatened due to an erosion or loss of the constitutional guarantee of the freedom to serve without violation of our faith,” he said.

Cardinal Dolan said Obama’s second term “provides a special opportunity” to strengthen and promote marriage, family, churches and faith-based ministries of service in order to “keep the American dream alive and well for generations to come.”

The letter also listed a series of issues in which the U.S. bishops are ready to work with Obama “for the good of all people who live in and love our nation.”

Cardinal Dolan specifically mentioned the bishops’ support for:

• Reasonable regulation of firearms.

• Increased attention to the needs of mentally ill people.

• Immigration reform.

• Access to comprehensive, affordable and “life-affirming” health care, “which we believe includes the pre-born child, the undocumented and the dying.”

• International assistance to the world’s poorest people.

• Protecting the environment.

• Education reform, including parental choice.

• Developing a financially responsible federal budget that protects the poor, sick and elderly.– Peace in the Middle East and an end to the war in Afghanistan.

• Efforts to strengthen family life and uphold the importance of responsible fatherhood.

“These issues of mutual importance are hardly new … . All of them flow from God’s own holy word in the Bible and the truth about the human person revealed in Jesus as faithfully passed on my the church,” Cardinal Dolan wrote.

“They also resonate, as you have observed, from the most noble values of America, which the founders of our country identified in the Declaration of Independence as ‘self-evident truths,’” he added.