Dennis Coday's blog

The Internet and blogsphere is buzzing this morning about the The Manhattan Declaration, which calls itself "a 4,732-word statement signed by a movement of Orthodox, Catholic and evangelical Christian leaders who are collaborating around moral issues of great concern."

The Assocaiated Press says about it:

I blogged earlier today on the bishops passing their pastoral letter on marriage. Now Catholic News Services provides a bit more detail:

Bishops OK marriage pastoral with many changes, some opposition

By Nancy Frazier O'Brien Catholic News Service

BALTIMORE -- Despite the concern voiced by some bishops about the document's pastoral tone and content, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a pastoral letter on marriage Nov. 17.

Nearly 100 changes in two rounds of amendments preceded the 180-45 vote in favor of "Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan" during the bishops' fall general assembly in Baltimore.

Two-thirds of the USCCB membership, or 175 votes, was required for passage. There were three abstentions.

An effort by retired Archbishop Francis T. Hurley of Anchorage, Alaska, to remand the document to the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth for rewriting failed 56-169, with three abstentions.

If you didn't follow the USCCB meeting by Twitter, you missed some drama.

About 2:15 eastern time, according the USCCB Twitter page, the bishops took up discussion of the bishops pastoral letter on marriage. (NCR readers may recall the of the document, the NCR editorialized: On marriage, the bishops should start over.)

While the U.S. bishops are congratulating themselves for being a potent force in the health care reform debate (see: Health care victory give bishops confidence), tThe On Faith blog at the Washington Post posed this question to its bloggers:

Q: U.S. Catholic bishops are defending their direct involvement in congressional deliberations over health-care reform, saying that church leaders have a duty to raise moral concerns on any issue, including abortion rights and health care for the poor. Do you agree? What role should religious leaders have -- or not have -- in government policymaking?

Here are the answers:

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite: Bad Samaritans

Of Chicago Cardinal Francis George's address to the bishops yesterday, David Gibson says, "George made it clear that after years of repeated questions about the bishops' credibility, it was time for the bishops to clarify just who can and cannot speak for the church."

He adds:

The U.S. bishops communications team is tweeting live from the bishops' meeting. Follow it here: http://twitter.com/usccbmedia

Over on www.politicsdaily.com, Patricia Murphy reports on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking Friday night at Harvard's Institute of Politics.

The best quote:

"This is what is clear: It would be very hard to get many Democratic votes to support a big increase in troops in Afghanistan.

"Of all the things I have done this year as speaker with a Democratic president -- the recovery package . . . the budget . . . health care . . . the hardest of them all was passing the supplemental funding for Afghanistan and Iraq, the hardest sell I had with the members."

Today, the 13th anniversary of the death of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago issued a statement saying that the Catholic Common Ground Initiative, founded by Bernardin just months before his death, will be coming home to Chicago.

As Jerry Filteau explains, in his story posted to the NCR web site today, The reason the Initiative is moving to CTU is that the National Pastoral Life Center in New York, a major force in Catholic sociological analysis and pastoral development of U.S. parish leadership and lay ministry over the past 25 years, is closing its doors at the end of November.

Feeling their oats from influencing the House vote on health care reform, the U.S. bishops are trying to use its influence to shape the Senate bill.

Thus reports Susan Ferrechio, the Chief Congressional Correspondent for WashingtonExaminer.com in an article titled: Bishops flex muscle in Congress and with Catholic lawmakers at home.

A report from Francis X. Rocca of Religion News Service:

VATICAN CITY -- More than 250 distinguished artists from around the world will join Pope Benedict XVI in the Sistine Chapel on Saturday (Nov. 21), as part of the pope's effort to restore a historic “alliance” between the church and the arts.

The prominent painters, sculptors, architects, writers, musicians, actors and dancers will hear a short program of sacred choral music by the 16th-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, as well as a lecture by the pope.

Daniel Libeskind, architect of the World Trade Center site reconstruction, and Oscar-winning composer Ennio Morricone are among the confirmed guests.

Italians dominate the guest list, acknowledged the event's organizer, Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, who noted the Vatican had not offered to pay travel expenses.

Schedule conflicts explain some notable absences, the Vatican said, including that of musician-humanitarian Bono of the group U2.

Writing at the On Faith blog at the Washington Post, Tim Craig and Michelle Boorstein report:

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.

Under the bill, headed for a D.C. Council vote next month, religious organizations would not be required to perform or make space available for same-sex weddings. But they would have to obey city laws prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians.

Fearful that they could be forced, among other things, to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples, church officials said they would have no choice but to abandon their contracts with the city.

British Lefebvrite Bishop Richard Williamson who was fined $16,822 in Germany for denying the Holocaust is appealing the fine, The Associated Press has reported.

The AP quotes Williamsno's lawyer, Matthias Lossmann, as saying that Williamson "objected to the fine, which means there will be a trial."

Williamson is one of four traditionalist Society of St. Pius X bishops rehabitliated by Pope Benedict XVI in January.

The Vatican is in the midst of twice-a-month meetings with the Society of St. Pius X folks. Vatican officials have called the talks "cordial, respectful and constructive."

A worshipper takes holy water from an automatic dispenser at a church near Milan, Italy, Nov. 10. (Click "read more" to see the photo.)

Last month, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization released a study that said the number of hungry people in the world had reached 1.02 billion. Yesterday, UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, released a report that said nearly 200 million children in poor countries have stunted growth because of insufficient nutrition.

The reports come ahead of a U.N. sponsored world summit on food security in Rome Nov. 16-18. The Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI would attend the opening session.

HT to Jim Romenesko with this story from the Naples Daily News:

Ave Maria University says Marielena Montesino de Stuart "has demonstrated an ongoing and open hostility toward Ave Maria University," so she's not allowed on parts of campus.

The school barred Stuart, who is a resident of Ave Maria Town, from a news conference on campus.

The blogger responds: "This is another way in which the university's administration silences public opinion, which is a violation of our constitutional rights."

In a guest commentary in the Daily News on Feb, 17, 2009, Stuart wrote that as an orthodox Catholic she felt persecuted in Ave Maria. She and her husband moved their family to Ave Maria because they thought it represented a return to traditional Catholic higher education. But “we found that the Catholic orthodoxy that had been advertised was suddenly under attack by the same administration that had promoted it.”

This is John Allen's blog and he'll be doing the color commentary here (to stretch even further the baseball analogy he began earlier this morning), but I thought I should alert readers of this blog that the review of John's book is the NCR Book Club selection this week.

Reviewing it is Jesuit Fr. John W. O’Malley, a church historian and professor of theology at Georgetown University in Washington. Here's the review: A new Catholic horizon.

There is also an excerpt of the book available here: The horizontal dimension

A must read article by Seymour M. Hersh at The New Yorker: Defending the Arsenal
In an unstable Pakistan, can nuclear warheads be kept safe?. Some highlights:

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has a very well done article about the U.S. ambassador at the Vatican: Abortion debate dogs envoy to Vatican

Since the Vatican announced an apostolic visitation of U.S. women religious late last year, NCR has been following the story. To date we've published about three dozen stories about the visitations, including, news, analysis, commentary and a couple editorials.

Nearly every day, we receive a request for one or other of these stories. To make those searches a little easier, we have created an index page with links to the stories that we have done.

And to make it easy to find that page, we gave it a unique URL: NCRonline.org/apostolicvisitation. Share that link with friends, family and interested parties.

The Hartford Courant has a profile of Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Conn.: Bridgeport Bishop Is An Energetic, Outspoken Defender Of Church

Stupak Amendment Breaks Heart

Hearing Set on Releasing Conn. Church Sex Abuse Documents

Open petition to all Bishops to clarify the Church's pro-Life teaching

Mass. diocese amends church closure plan

NH hospital says marriage or civil union needed for benefits

Pope: Married Bishops in all but Name

Long Island bishop 'nuanced' on visitation of women religious

Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., (that's Long Island) is the latest U.S. bishop to make a statement about the Vatican's apostolic visitation of U.S. women religious.

Murphy makes a number of interesting points in his column in his diocesan newspaper, which is dated Nov. 4.

• "The first I knew of such a visitation was when the announcement was made last spring …"
• "… while we bishops will be asked our opinion at some point in the process, the whole project was outside the hands of the U.S. bishops."
• "… 'visitations' are a normal part of the life of the Church."
• "… the key to understanding this visitation is respect. These sisters deserve and must always have our respect, the respect of the Holy See and the Visitation Committee, the respect of the entire Church. Their dignity must never be compromised and their commitment to a vowed life of consecration to God always honored. None of them should have to be afraid of a visitation."

Pa. county rules closed churches can be taxed

FBI refuses to talk about arrest in NM nun slaying

John Hopkins and CRS to shield world against malaria

Paraguayan president (former bishop) fires military chiefs amid coup rumors

Catholic League gets new hearing on suit against SF board of supervisors

Ohio priests seek ideas to help newlyweds

War lesson for teachers sobering

"public act of atonement"

The Associated Press is reporting that El Salvador's president announced Tuesday that the country will award its highest honor to six Jesuit priests murdered by the army in 1989.

President Mauricio Funes says the National Order of Jose Matias Delgado awards are a "public act of atonement" for mistakes by past governments.

They will be presented on Nov. 16 to mark the date 20 years ago when soldiers killed Spanish-born university rector Ignacio Ellacuria, five other Jesuits, a housekeeper and her daughter.

The killings sparked international outrage and tarnished the image of U.S. anti-communism efforts after it was found that some of the soldiers involved received training at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Voters in many locales and states are going to the polls today. In my little corner of democracy we vote on a city measure to ban smoking in all public areas and whether or not to renew a 1/8 cent sales tax to support county law enforcement. I don't expect too much media attention in my hometown.

The election in Maine won't be as quiet. Voters there are being asked to vote yes or no on Question 1, which reads: "Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?"

A quite interesting essay on Eureka Street (the Australian version of America magazine) by Ellena Savage, called Boobs, booze and Muslim feminists. The teaser reads:

The Conneticut Post is reporting that "The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected another appeal by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport to stop the release of hundreds of court documents detailing allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests.

The nation's highest court refused the appeal without comment.

Read more here: Supreme Court rejects another diocese appeal

Kate Childs Graham, an NCR Young Voices columnist and supporter of women religious, reports that she has begun to post letters of support of U.S. women religious on the Web site www.thankyousister.com.

A about a dozen have been posted so far and Kate will add a few each day over the next month or so.

Miami joins Baltimore and St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese in barring or restricting the work of the Legionaries of Christ, the religious under founded by Mexican Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. bishops will vote on five United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) chairs-elect of five committees at their November 16-19 General Assembly in Baltimore.

The following bishops were nominated for these positions.

1. The Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations

2. The Committee on Divine Worship

3. The Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development

4. The Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth

5. The Committee on Migration