News
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Critically needed comprehensive immigration reform in the U.S. and throughout the Western Hemisphere should be tied to new laws that promote a sustainable economic development in the region, according to bishops of nine nations who met June 3-6 in Los Angeles.
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President Barack Obama June 14 nominated Ken Hackett, retired president of Catholic Relief Services, to be U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. Obama's announcement about Hackett came late in the day, along with his nominees for ambassador posts in Brazil, Spain, Germany, Denmark and Ethiopia.
"It gives me great confidence that such dedicated and capable individuals have agreed to join this administration to serve the American people. I look forward to working with them in the months and...
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Warning the real figure is likely to be much higher, the United Nations human rights chief announced on June 13 that the death toll in Syria is nearly 93,000, with more than 5,000 people killed a month as the situation in the country has “deteriorated drastically” over the past year.
“The constant flow of killings continues at shockingly high levels – with more than 5,000 killings documented every month since last July, including a total of just under 27,000 new killings since 1...
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The Catholic Campaign for Human Development almost from its inception has attracted its share of critics uncomfortable with its mission to empower low-income and politically disconnected communities. Its ambition to counter poverty by building up poor people themselves into active agents of change has been dismissed as naive, even denigrated as Marxist.
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Three bishops weighed in on the ongoing congressional debate on immigration reform legislation June 10, warning against amending a Senate bill in ways that would block the path to legalization for undocumented immigrants.
At a news conference in San Diego, held as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops opened its annual spring meeting, the chairmen of three committees reiterated the bishops' support for comprehensive immigration reform that protects families and workers.
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June 17, 2013
Finding a solution to the “ongoing scandal” of worldwide hunger should be a top priority, said the Vatican’s representative to the United Nations. Addressing a U.N. General Assembly meeting on sustainable development goals on May 23, Archbishop Francis A.
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June 17, 2013
The U.S. State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report noted problems with religious freedom in many of the nations it tracked in previous reports: North Korea, China, Pakistan, Sudan, Nigeria and Vietnam, among others. The list of countries troubled by religious intolerance includes some nations allied with or supported by the United States. The report cited growing religious persecution in Arab Spring countries—Egypt, Tunisia and Libya—...
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June 17, 2013
The Rev. Andrew M. Greeley, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago and well-known novelist, journalist and sociologist, died on May 29 at his home in Chicago’s John Hancock Center. He was 85 years old. Born in Oak Park, Ill., Father Greeley was ordained a priest for the archdiocese in 1954 and served as assistant pastor of Christ the King Parish from 1954 to 1963 while pursuing postgraduate studies in sociology at the University of Chicago. In later years,...
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June 17, 2013
Even as the Obama administration presses for comprehensive immigration reform, more than a million immigrants have been deported from the United States over the past five years. That wave of deportees has overwhelmed Mexican border cities and strained migrant shelters used to serving people headed north, not south.
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June 17, 2013
Immigrants for years have paid far more into Medicare’s coffers than they have drawn out, effectively subsidizing rising health care payments to the aging U.S. population, according to an analysis from Harvard Medical School released on May 29. From 2002 through 2009, immigrants posted a Medicare surplus of $115 billion, while the American-born population logged a deficit of $28 billion in contributions. The Harvard researchers said their analysis offers a...