Clerical kidnappings, elections, and COVID dominate Catholic news in Americas
- Apr 13, 2021
The American Rescue Plan is “an extraordinarily practical way to help the American people, New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan said in a statement March 11, the same day President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package into law.
Hours after the Biden administration’s COVID-19 relief plan passed Wednesday, several U.S. Bishops Conference chairmen called it “unconscionable” that the bill didn’t include protections against taxpayer funding of abortion.
“You’ve got American Catholics telling Catholics all over the world that receiving the vaccine is a ‘lesser evil,’ so you’re putting millions of my fellow Filipinos in an ethical dilemma,” said Dominican Father Nicanor Austriaco.
In a new video, the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Doctrine reiterated that use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine “can be used in good moral conscience.”
Pope Francis’s upcoming apostolic visit to Iraq offers Americans a time for prayer and solidarity with the pope and the Iraqi people, said two leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Several Catholic ethicists are urging people to steer clear of the Janssen/Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine if possible, but at the same time affirm it is morally acceptable to receive it if the alternatives are not an option.
A special working group of the U.S. bishops formed last November to deal with conflicts that could arise between the policies of President Joe Biden, a Catholic, and church teaching has completed its work, Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez said in a March 1 memo to all the U.S. bishops.
When it comes time for Leadership Roundtable to make a decision there’s no longer one person in an office weighing the pros and cons. Instead, the organization’s adopted a partner-based managerial set up that makes sure different perspectives are heard.