August 23, 2012 Catholic News Service DENVER — Inside the old Spanish-style building in the middle of a posh downtown neighborhood, clusters of two to four young men and women unpacked their suitcases and exchanged spirited greetings.  

The red glow on Santa’s cheeks is still sunburn, but it’s not too soon to think about the Advent and Christmas season.

August 30, 2012 Catholic News Service ATLANTA — Because of a generous bequest from Joseph Mitchell, the late nephew of celebrated author Margaret Mitchell, the Atlanta Archdiocese now owns 50 percent of the literary rights to her Pulitzer prize-winning, best-selling novel, “Gone With the Wind.”  

August 17, 2012 Pope Benedict XVI has declared A Year of Faith as part of the New Evangelization to renew Catholics’ commitment to live as Jesus Christ calls.  

August 16, 2012 Catholic News Service DES MOINES, Iowa — For weeks farmers in southwest Iowa, such as Larry Rayhons of Lenox, have been checking the forecasts and clear skies for the hint at some relief in the form of rain during the worst drought since 1936.  

August 14, 2012 By Natalie Corzine Moore The Archdiocese of Cincinnati unveiled a new strategic plan today that promises to help local Catholic schools with their current economic and demographic challenges.

August 10, 2012 By Dr. Jozef Zalot PhD. (Last of Two Parts) [Part I] Author’s note: In the first essay “How Did We Get Here?”, we explored the legal issues surrounding the HHS contraception coverage mandate. In this second essay we examine reasons why the mandate is problematic in terms …

Gender Discrimination A second area where the 2011 HHS mandate is problematic in terms of public policy concerns claims of gender discrimination. As we saw in the previous section, mandate supporters have argued that excluding contraceptives from prescription drug plans constitutes a violation of both Title VII and the Pregnancy …

Preventive Care The third public policy difficulty with the HHS mandate is the assertion that contraception constitutes preventive care.  Mandate supporters have repeatedly stated this claim, one that is succinctly expressed by Sylvia Law: Much of what standard medical practice does, and much of what health insurance pays for, is …

Concluding Points Before concluding this section on the public policy difficulties with contraceptive mandates, two final points must be made. The first concerns the possible misleading means by with the HHS mandate came about. The mandate arose from Recommendation 5.5 of the Women’s Preventive Services Committee of the Institute of …