Freedom>

Virginia Bill Passes
Protects Rights of  Child-Care Agencies
To Decline Homosexual Adoptions
RICHMOND, VA, March 7, 2012 -- A bill that ensures that faith-based adoption agencies in the state of Virginia won’t be forced to place children in households led by same-sex couples has passed both houses of the General Assembly and is heading to the desk of Gov. Robert McDonnell, a supporter of the legislation, who is expected to sign it soon.

Cardinal Dolan: Religious Liberty Concerns
"Off the Table" for White House
NEW YORK, NY, March 6, 2012 -- Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York is urging his fellow bishops to “prepare for tough times” after the Obama administration told the bishops’ conference that it is not willing to address religious liberty concerns raised by its contraception mandate.

Cardinal Dolan's Secret Letter
Freedom of Conscience is in Danger
ROME, March 5, 2012 – Even in the homeland of law and democracy, freedom of conscience is in danger. This is the unprecedented accusation that the bishops are hurling against the president of the United States. Here is the confidential letter in which they explain why.

Asia Bibi's Story from Prison
In a New Book Tells
LAHORE, PAKISTAN, February 27, 2012 -- A new book on Asia Bibi's imprisonment and death sentence in Pakistan includes an unpublished letter she wrote to her husband and children urging them to have faith in God.

Cardinal Timothy Cardinal Dolan
Signs Letter with More Than 500 Leaders
Rejecting HHS Mandate
WASHINGTON, DC, February 27, 2012 -- Today, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Archbishop of New York, His Eminence, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, joined more than 500 leading scholars, university presidents and other academic administrators, activists, and religious leaders from a multitude of faiths, in a statement rejecting the governmental Health and Human Services mandate requiring employers to provide, directly or indirectly, insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations, and contraceptives, and also rejecting President Obama’s so-called “accommodation” of religious liberty as a mere “accounting trick” that changes nothing of moral substance.

Victory for Conscience in Washington State
Pharmacists Can’t Be Forced to Sell Abortion Drugs
TACOMA, WA, February 22, 2012— A federal court in Washington state ruled Wednesday that the state board of pharmacy cannot force pharmacists to stock drugs that risk taking human life if the pharmacists have a religious, moral, or ethical objection. The court determined that the pharmacists should be allowed to do what they have sought from the beginning, which is to refer patients seeking such drugs to other pharmacies.

What Did CHA's Carol Keehan Know
And When Did She Know It?
WASHINGTON, DC, February 14, 2012— National Catholic Register news analysis: As threats to religious liberty escalate, critics say it’s time to establish who truly speaks for the Church in the United States.

Archbishop Jose Gomez: Obama Ignores
Moral Concerns; Religious Liberty
LOS ANGELES, February 13, 2012 -- President Barack Obama’s announcement on Friday concerning health care mandates is troubling and frustrating because unfortunately, he did not really respond to the deep moral concerns raised by America’s Catholic community.

US Bishops Release New Statement
Calling for HHS Mandate Removal
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 10, 2012  (CNA/EWTN News) -- The U.S. bishops released a new statement rejecting President Barack Obama's attempted compromise over the Health and Human services contraception mandate, calling for its complete removal.

Catholic Hospital Association
May Have Had Inside Role
In Obama 'Accommodation'
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 10, 2012 -- In coming up with its new “accommodation” on a controversial birth control mandate for religious employers, the Obama administration apparently turned to the Catholic Health Assocation (CHA), an organization that has previously sided with the administration and is in conflict with the views of the U.S. bishops on health care policy.

Army Silences Military Archbishop
Chaplains Told Don't Read Letter at Mass
WASHINGTON, DC, February 7, 2012 -- The archbishop who oversees American Catholic military chaplains worldwide claims the U.S. Army violated his rights by stifling a pastoral letter condemning the Obama administration's contraception mandate.

Being Catholic Means 'Paying a Price,'
Says Detroit Archbishop
VATICAN CITY, February 3, 2012 -- Being Catholic in 2012 involves “paying a price” for loving Jesus Christ and his Church, says Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit.

White House’s Defense of Mandate
Called Inaccurate, Misleading
WASHINGTON, DC, February 3, 2012 -- An expert in religious freedom says that the White House's defense of the contraception mandate contains inaccurate information and does not address the main complaints raised by its critics.

LA Archbishop Calls on Catholics
Oppose HHS Mandate
LOS ANGELES, CA, January 25, 2012 -- Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles urged lay Catholics to defend the faith after the Department of Health and Human Services refused to reverse a contraception mandate set to take effect in Aug. 2013.