USCCB

WASHINGTON  -- Since 2006, the U.S. Catholic bishops' Migration and Refugee Services has helped more than 2,700 victims of human trafficking obtain food, clothing and access to medical care.

That service came to an abrupt halt when the agency recently learned that it would no longer receive a federal grant for this work from the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement.

MRS officials had no immediate comment on the contract's discontinuation.

WASHINGTON -- The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is urging priests across the country to preach about "the terrible toll the current economic turmoil is taking on families and communities."

In a letter to his fellow bishops, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York said he was writing at the recommendation of the Administrative Committee, which directs the work of the USCCB between general assemblies.

The committee "wanted something more than a public statement," he said in the letter, dated Sept. 15 and made public Sept. 19.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. bishops are working to mobilize Catholics across the country to tell the Obama administration that contraception and sterilization do not constitute preventive care for women and must not be mandated as part of health reform.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Health and Human Services' proposed "religious exemption" to the requirement that all health insurance plans cover contraceptives and sterilization for women is "so narrow as to exclude most Catholic social service agencies and health care providers," according to the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Bishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of Oakland, Calif., urged his fellow bishops June 15 to fight back in the war of words over efforts to redefine traditional marriage.

The chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage said organizations advocating the legal redefinition of marriage have been using words like "human rights" and "hate" in discussions of same-sex marriage.

BELLEVUE, Wash. — The U.S. bishops overwhelmingly approved extensive revisions to their 2002 "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" June 16, but the bishop who heads up their efforts to confront the clergy sex-abuse crisis said it must remain "a front-burner issue."

Bishop Blase J. Cupich of Spokane spoke at a news conference after the bishops closed the public sessions of their June 15-17 spring general assembly near Seattle with a 187-5 vote in favor of the charter revisions, with four abstentions.