WSJ Op-Ed on Religious Freedom

Click here to read the January 25 Wall Street Journal Op-Ed on Religious Freedom by Cardinal-designate and USCCB President, Timothy Dolan. Here's an excerpt: "Last August, when the administration first proposed this nationwide mandate for contraception and sterilization coverage, it also proposed a "religious employer" exemption. But this was so narrow that it would apply only to religious organizations engaged primarily in serving people of the same religion. As Catholic Charities USA's president, the Rev. Larry Snyder, notes, even Jesus and His disciples would not qualify for the exemption in that case, because they were committed to serve those of other faiths."

Urgent Action Alert: Conscience Protection

Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, president of the USCCB, sharply criticized the decision by the Obama administration in which it "ordered almost every employer and insurer in the country to provide sterilization and contraceptives, including some abortion-inducing drugs, in their health plans....Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience. This shouldn't happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights."
He urged Catholics and the public at large to speak out in protest.

Click here to go to the USCCB website, which will give you the link to write to Congress.

Celebration Without Exploitation

The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) has published "Celebration Without Exploitation," a toolkit for planning trafficking-free sporting (and other) events. Click here to access the toolkit.

Nuns Denounce Human Trafficking Ahead of Super Bowl XLVI

Click here to read the Huffington Post's article about eleven Congregations of Catholic Sisters who have partnered with Indianapolis area hotels to educate workers about prostitution and sex trafficking prior to the Super Bowl on February 5. The article link includes news coverage of a prayer service held by the Sisters of Providence at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana.

Eucharist Without Borders

Celebration Publications will be hosting a conference from April 11-13, 2012 in Rio Rico, Arizona to discuss the church's role in bringing about just immigration reform. The conference will include opportunities to visit the border areas near Tucson to pray and to witness firsthand the many ministries that now serve migrants. Education for Justice staff will be conducting a workshop titled "Transforming Hearts: Education on Immigration" at the event. Click here for more information.

February 8 Webinar: Fostering Mission-Based Sustainability

The Catholic Coalition on Climate Change and Loyola University New Orleans are offering a free, public, one-hour webinar, "Catholics and the Climate: Fostering Mission-Based Sustainability" on February 8 beginning at 9 pm EST/8 pm CST. Click here for more information and/or to register for the webinar.

The Better Angels of Our Nature

Steven Pinker's new book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined, has been called "astonishingly good" and has been selected by The New York Times as a notable book of 2011. Its central theme is that human beings have been behaving more decently over the last several centuries. Here's a description from Amazon.com:

"Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true: violence has been diminishing for millennia and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species's existence. For most of history, war, slavery, infanticide, child abuse, assassinations, pogroms, gruesome punishments, deadly quarrels, and genocide were ordinary features of life. But today, Pinker shows (with the help of more than a hundred graphs and maps) all these forms of violence have dwindled and are widely condemned. How has this happened?

"This groundbreaking book continues Pinker's exploration of the essence of human nature, mixing psychology and history to provide a remarkable picture of an increasingly nonviolent world. The key, he explains, is to understand our intrinsic motives- the inner demons that incline us toward violence and the better angels that steer us away-and how changing circumstances have allowed our better angels to prevail. Exploding fatalist myths about humankind's inherent violence and the curse of modernity, this ambitious and provocative book is sure to be hotly debated in living rooms and the Pentagon alike, and will challenge and change the way we think about our society."