Bill Reports
We read each bill and determine if the proposed legislation is one that we should support or oppose based on the Bishops’ legislative agenda. We will continue to add new bills to the report as well as edit reports as we have more information available. Below you can find a list of legislation that we have added to our site this week. You can view our entire bill report list here:
There are no new bills this week. Back to top News *|MC:TOC|* Immigration reform must find balance Archbishop Thomas Wenski, Archdiocese of Miami (via Politico)
As Washington fiddles on immigration, the rest of the nation burns. State and local law enforcement are now being charged with immigration enforcement responsibilities, leading in some jurisdictions to roundups and racial profiling. Legal immigrants and U.S. citizens have been caught in the dragnet. States are also attempting to pass immigration laws that are inherently unconstitutional — creating conflict with the federal government and sapping political energy better used on a federal bill.
Read Full Story >> Holy See Defends Universal Access to Medical Care On May 18, Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care spoke at the 64th World Health Assembly underway in Geneva, Switzerland from 16 to 24 May. His address was dedicated to the theme "Guaranteeing Universal Access to Medical Care".
"The World Health Report 2010", he said, "emphasizes health system financing as the conduit to the much desired universal coverage in health service provision. It also notes with concern that despite the progress made in some countries, on the whole, we are still a long way from universal coverage. This sad fact highlights the need for a true global solidarity, in which high income countries do not only promise, but effectively meet their commitments on development assistance".
Read Full Story >> Holy See Presents Document on Family, Work, and Celebration On May 24, the document "Family: Work and Celebration", the preparatory catecheses for the VII World Meeting of Families, was presented. The gathering will take place in Milan, Italy from May 30 to June 3 in 2012...Bishop Franco Giulio Brambilla noted that the catecheses "form a trio that begins from the family to open it to the world. Work and celebration are the forms within which the family inhabits social space and lives human time. ... The first group of catecheses confronts the way of living relationships at home". A home that "necessarily becomes a space of acceptance and a place where a profound intimacy between the couple and between parents and children is safeguarded. ... The second group introduces the theme of work in daily life, ... which cannot be just a means of economic support but the place of personal identity and social relationship. ... The third group concentrates on the manner in which the family celebrates. It is difficult in today's situations to live Sunday as a time of celebration ... modern humanity has invented free time but seems to have forgotten the celebration ... This is why the family needs to engrave on its lifestyle the sense of celebration ... as a community of encounter".
Read Full Story >> The Journey Ahead By Bishop Kevin Farrell, Diocese of Dallas
It is graduation time. To the many college and high school graduates we offer our congratulations as they begin their transition from one world to another. For some graduation might seem the end of a journey. In reality it is only a new beginning. Our lives are filled with new beginnings. They are the cycles of death and resurrection that permeate our lives beginning with being thrust into the world at our birth and ending with our final departure at death. Our journey from womb to tomb is marked by many death/resurrection events; graduation, marriage, parenthood, and retirement, all of life’s passages. The pattern is always the same. We leave the familiar and comfortable behind and step into opportunity and uncertainty.
Read Full Story >> Pope Assures Joplin Tornado Victims of Prayers Benedict XVI is assuring his prayers for the victims of the deadly tornado that ravaged Joplin, Missouri, on Sunday, leaving some 122 dead and 750 wounded, making it the deadliest twister in the United States since 1950.
The telegram was addressed to Bishop James Johnston of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, and sent on behalf of the Holy Father by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Pope's secretary of state. "The Holy Father has followed with deep concern the aftermath of the catastrophic tornado which struck Joplin on Sunday and he asks you to convey to the entire community the assurance of his closeness in prayer," the message stated. "Conscious of the tragic loss of life and the immensity of the work of rebuilding that lies ahead, he asks God the father of mercies to grant eternal rest to the departed, consolation to the grieving, and strength and hope to the homeless and the injured. Read Full Story >> University of St. Thomas Summer Institute: Living Justice in the 21st Century Thursday-Friday, June 9-10, 2011, Scanlan Room, Jerabeck Center, 4000 Mt. Vernon
Each June, the Young Social Justice Summer Conference focuses on a specific social justice issue within the Catholic social tradition featuring both internationally known keynote speakers and practitioners of Catholic Social teaching. This year’s conference will commemorate 120 years of Catholic Social Teaching by focusing on the ongoing relevance of this tradition with regard to various contemporary social issues. Read more online
here.
Keynote Speakers Bishop Ricardo Ramirez, CSB, Bishop of Las Cruces, NM, “Eucharist Without Borders: The Church and the Challenges of Globalization”
Fr. Fred Kammer, SJ, Jesuit Social Research Institute, Loyola University, “Challenges Before Catholic Social Teaching in the 21st Century”
Breakout Sessions
• Life Issues – death penalty and abortion
• The Push and Pull Factors of Immigration
• Families and Social Justice
• Educational Challenges in the 21st Century
Read more online
here.
Legislative Links
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