TeDeum: USCCB Fall General Assembly is underway

It's been a favorite past-time of many Catholic bloggers: The USCCB Fall General Assembly.

The bishops of the US are meeting in Baltimore right now. Many are watching with interest.

I'm stuck on a netbook while my main computer is in for repair and I can't deal with how slow the clicks are taking online. Therefore, while i have a day off, I will not be tweeting and taking notes throughout.

If you are interested, I would encourage you to turn on EWTN right now if you have it. It is also being streamed online, and the USCCB is live-tweeting and on Facebook. Go here to see the many ways you can follow what the bishops are discussing. You can also see what is being voted on and how those turn out.

details at Te Deum laudamus

You might have also heard that the infamous Nat Cat'terd has been campaigning against Abp. Nienstedt appointment to anything at the USCCB.  I guess being Pro-liturgy, Pro-life and Pro-marriage makes you an enemy to some members of the Body of Christ.  That's like the left arm punching the head, heart, and the .... well, a lower extremity of Christ's Mystical Body. 

+ Nienstedt releases 28-page Pastoral Letter focused on Sacred Liturgy of the Mass

The Most Reverend Catholic Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, John C. Nienstedt, has written a 28-page Pastoral Letter titled “Do This in Memory of Me”, that focuses on the “Sacred Liturgy” of the Mass, and the Catholic sacrament of Holy Communion. The pastoral letter will be distributed to all clergy and Catholic worshippers in the Archdiocese’s 12 county area.

Archbishop Nienstedt intentionally timed the publication of his initial pastoral letter to precede the implementation of the Vatican’s new form of the Roman Catholic Mass, scheduled to begin on the weekend of November 27, the start of the Advent season.

A pastoral letter, often simply called a pastoral, is a teaching document dealing with key beliefs and practices of the Catholic faith, explaining how these tenets of the faith, based on Christ’s teachings relate to societal problems or fundamental moral issues. The letter is a reflection based upon the bishop’s pastoral, teaching and Christian guidance responsibility.

details at Arch St. Paul & Minn.

Abp. Nienstedt calls proposed HHS Contraception Mandate "A Serious Threat To Religious Freedom"

I fully intended to publish “Part Two” of my commentary on the marvelous experience of World Youth Day in today’s column. I now hope to do so in the next issue.

But, in the meantime, there has arisen a very serious threat to the religious freedom of all religious institutions, especially our Catholic health care programs and Catholic social services, a threat posed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Under HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (a Catholic), the department is imposing a “preventative services” mandate requiring all private health plans — including ones administered by the church and its agents — to provide coverage for surgical sterilizations, prescription contraceptives approved by the FDA, and “education and counseling” for “all women of reproductive capacity.”

Unfortunately, this is the logical result of a seismic change in this administration’s approach to religious groups involved in providing social services to, among others, the poor, the homeless, the sick, the immigrant.

It began when President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton started using the term “freedom of worship” as distinct from what we have always known as “freedom of religion.”

Under the concept of “freedom of worship,” church agencies are restricted to hiring employees only from their own denomination and providing services for clients only from their own denomination.

continue at The Catholic Spirit 

HT Bliss