Tag: Congress

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Bishop Robert Barron

The pope, the Congress, and a Trappist monk

I had the extraordinary privilege of following the pope’s pilgrimage at very close quarters. I had this access both as a bishop and as a commentator for NBC News.

It was thrilling indeed to witness just how rapturously the American people received the pope and how affected the Holy Father was by this reception. Many images stay vividly in my mind: the pope kissing the forehead of the 10-year-old boy with cerebral palsy, the rabbi and imam praying together at the September 11th memorial, a little boy from a New York Catholic school showing the pope how to maneuver his way around a Smart Board.

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Bishop Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison

Holy Father proclaims the joy of the Gospel

Dear friends,

What a blessing it has been this amazing and eventful week as we’ve enjoyed the visit of our Holy Father, Pope Francis.

I had the privilege to be in Washington, D.C., for the activities of last Wednesday, including of course, the meeting of the Holy Father with the Bishops of the United States.

The loving support of the Holy Father for his bishops and of us for him, is altogether more than refreshing.

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Tony Magliano

Pope Francis speaks truth to power

As the first pope in history to address a joint session of Congress, Pope Francis defended the human right of masses of oppressed and poor people to immigrate.

He said “We must not be taken aback by their number, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation.”

Living by the Golden Rule

The pope said, “We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'” (Mt 7:12).

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Tony Magliano

Millions of refugees have no place to call home

The heartbreaking photo of the little Syrian refugee boy washed up dead on the shore of Bodrum, Turkey (see the picture at bit.ly/1PZHvDV) strikingly illustrates the tragic plight of desperate refugees — mostly Syrian — fleeing for their lives from the Islamic State and other violent groups in the Middle East and Africa.

The three-year-old boy, named Aylan, along with his five-year-old brother, Galip, and their mother, Rehan, drowned after the raft carrying them capsized near the Turkish coast.

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Tony Magliano

Thirsting for clean water

We turn on our faucets and out comes water — clean, refreshing, plentiful, life-sustaining water. But we rarely give it a thought.

We just tend to take for granted that it will always be there. We even forget to thank God — the well-spring of life.

Lack of access to clean water

But for 768 million fellow human beings, clean plentiful water is a distant dream, according to the United Nations. For them, the water they drink, cook with, and bath in, is polluted and often disease-ridden, and must be carried long distances in many cases.

According to figures released by the United Nations Children‘s Fund in 2013, lack of access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene is a leading cause of death from diarrhea in children under five, amounting to approximately 1,400 children dying each day.

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Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

A shrinking pie: Put poor and hungry people first in the new farm bill

In his message for World Food Day, which was observed on October 16, Pope Francis said that “it is a scandal that there is still hunger and malnutrition in the world.”

The Holy Father emphasized, “It is not just a question of responding to immediate emergencies, but of addressing together, in all areas, a problem that challenges our personal and social conscience, to achieve a just and lasting solution.”

Cuts in food assistance benefits

In the United States, there are increasing numbers of hungry people. Many of them rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. As of November 1, the benefits to individuals and families were cut for the first time since 1964. That’s because an increase in food aid approved in 2009 expired, and  Congress hasn’t been able to pass a new farm bill for over a year (the farm bill includes provisions to fund food assistance programs in our country).

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Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

Conscience rights: Urge Congress to protect religious liberty in health care

Over 56,000 people joined me in contacting their members of Congress about the importance of protecting conscience rights in health care. We were responding to an appeal from the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment (NCHLA).

The NCHLA is urging us to continue to fight for conscience protection under the Affordable Care Act, signed into law in 2010 and upheld by the Supreme Court in 2012.

Challenging provisions of Affordable Care Act

Catholic dioceses, as well as Catholic and other religious nonprofit organizations and businesses, have filed lawsuits challenging the mandate that is part of the Affordable Care Act.

Archbishop William E. Lori, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, said in a statement reported by Catholic News Service (CNS) that the goal of these litigants is “nothing less than securing the freedom of the Church to continue to obey the Lord’s command — and, in turn, to serve the common good — by providing charitable ministries in health care, education, and service to the poor, all without compromising Catholic beliefs.”

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Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff

Let’s work together: We must put people ahead of politics

Editor's View by Mary C. Uhler

In Governor Mitt Romney’s concession speech given early on November 7, he implored Republicans and Democrats alike to “put the people before the politics.” In a time of “great challenges for America,” Governor Romney urged our leaders “to reach across the aisles” to help meet those challenges.

In an address at a victory rally in Chicago also in the early morning hours of November 7, President Barack Obama professed his own willingness to work with people of the opposing party. “I believe we can seize this future together — because we are not as divided as our politics suggest; we’re not as cynical as the pundits believe; we are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions; and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and forever will be, the United States of America,” said the president.

I hope Governor Romney and President Obama meant these words. I also hope that leaders of both parties in Congress heard their words and will work hard to put people above politics. The partisan gridlock has to be broken.

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Tony Magliano

Protecting our daily bread

Making a Difference column logo

Every person who has enough nutritious food to eat and cares about the one billion people who do not, should be paying attention to the 2012 Farm Bill.

At stake are deep, heartless congressional monetary cuts to national and international food assistance programs, environmentally protective farm and ranch conservation projects, and safety net programs designed to help struggling small and mid-sized family farmers and rural communities.

Proposed cuts to Farm Bill

Bob Gronski, policy coordinator, for the National Catholic Rural Life Conference (www.ncrlc.com) explained to me that Congress is poised to cut between $23 billion and $34 billion from current funding levels of the Farm Bill.

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Fr. Donald Lange

One nation under God

On Independence Day we celebrate the anniversary of the day that the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. We also express our admiration and gratitude for the brave men who risked their lives and fortunes to sign this great document.

Bishop Paul Swain once wrote that in his judgment the most famous words related to the Declaration of Independence are, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.”

One nation under God

The Pledge of Allegiance reinforces the Declaration’s statement that God is the source of our nation’s independence. In 1952, the Knights of Columbus urged Congress to introduce a resolution to add “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. The resolution was introduced by Congressman Louis C. Rabaut of Michigan and adopted by both Houses of Congress. It was signed by President Eisenhower on Flag Day, June 14, 1954.

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