Internet rumors to the contrary, no Catholic hospital in the United States is in danger of closing because of the Freedom of Choice Act. As a matter of fact, the Freedom of Choice Act died with the 110th Congress and, a week after the inauguration of President Barack Obama, has not been reintroduced. But that hasn't kept misleading e-mails from flying around the Internet, warning of the dire consequences if Obama signs FOCA into law and promoting a "FOCA novena" in the days leading up to Inauguration Day. Sister Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who is CHA president and CEO, was equally sure that FOCA poses no threat to Catholic hospitals or to the conscience rights of those who work there.

Sister Sharon Dillon has been attending the annual March for Life for 20 years. A pro-life activist since high school, the 50-year-old former director of the Franciscan Federation doesn't agree with Roe v. Wade- the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. But as strong as her convictions are, she's also frustrated with the kind of single-minded activism she sees around her: young girls chanting, "hey hey, ho ho, Roe v. Wade has got to go!" "So much time has elapsed since Roe," says Dillon. "I think among veterans, like me, few if any, think the Supreme Court is going to overturn it." That realization is why she has come to Washington with a different message this year. Dillon is marching with a group called Catholics United who carry a banner that says: "Congress: support pregnant women and reduce abortions now!"

Religious leaders from the U.S. Catholic bishops to evangelical human rights advocates have applauded President Obama's executive order that essentially ends torture of detainees held by the U.S. government. On This second full day in office, the president signed an executive order on "ensuring lawful interrogations" to "promote the safe, lawful and humane treatment of individuals in United States custody." From his Oval Office desk, Obama said: "We can abide by a rule that says we don't torture." The National Religious Campaign Against Torture, which had requested that Obama act on banning torture in the first day of his administration, praised the new policy.

The pro-life movement should work with President Barack Obama and the Democratic congress in an effort to reduce abortion said Stephen Schneck, former chair of the department of politics and current director of the Life Cycle Institute in an interview on the Kojo Nnamdi public radio program earlier today. "It seems to me that [working to reduce abortions] is at the moment, probably the moral position for the pro-life community, given the reality of American politics, the possibility of overturning Roe v. Wade or making abortion illegal in the United States seems extremely remote," said Schneck. "Under those circumstances, it seems we're required, if we're serious about a pro-life commitment, to do what we can... to reduce the number of abortions in the United States."

The Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Death Penalty, launched Jan. 25 in Harrisburg, is not just another initiative of the bishops but instead represents lay Catholics at the grass-roots level "taking up the challenge" put forth in bishops' documents, statements and actions over the past three decades. The network, which will operate independently from the USCCB, will be designed particularly to reach out to young people and Hispanic Catholics on the issue of capital punishment. It was begun with seed money from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille, whose best-known member is death penalty abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean. Catholic teaching opposes the use of the death penalty in nearly every circumstance, since society has other adequate means to protect its citizens.

Cardinal Justin Rigali called President Barack Obama's decision on day three of his presidency to reverse the Mexico City Policy to be "very disappointing." Obama issued an executive order Friday to lift an 8-year ban on U.S. funding of organizations that perform and promote abortion in developing nations. The chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities said in a statement that "an administration that wants to reduce abortions should not divert U.S. funds to groups that promote abortions." Obama repeatedly insisted during the presidential campaign that he wasn't for abortion, but rather for reducing the number of abortions without making the procedure illegal.

After decades of ceding God to the GOP, at least in the public square, Democrats - with President Obama in the lead - are speaking with a fuller religious voice. The watchword? Inclusiveness. It's a voice that signals openness at a time when diversity in American religious life is rising. For Obama, the broad outreach into the faith community isn't confined to ceremonies but is emerging as a key element in his approach to coalition-building, say religious leaders who worked on the transition. "Barack Obama is himself a person of faith, but he also believes that the faith community has a real role to play in creating the kind of social change we need now," says the Rev. Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, a network of Christian social activists. Indeed, religious groups have been broadly advising the Obama transition team on issues ranging from poverty to criminal justice to foreign policy.

Southern African leaders must stop supporting Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe or accept complicity in a "passive genocide," Catholic bishops from the region said Monday as the European Union increased sanctions on Mugabe and his supporters. Protesters calling for Mugabe to step down converged near the presidential guest house where the African leaders were holding an emergency summit on Zimbabwe's political crisis. They said police fired rubber bullets at them as they tried to gather in front of South Africa's capital building. The bishops said in a message to the heads of state that Mugabe must step down immediately and southern African officials "must stop supporting and giving credibility to the illegitimate Mugabe regime with immediate effect."

Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, a national church based social justice organization, is calling on federal, provincial and territorial governments to adopt moral and ethical values in their responses to the global economic crisis. The call comes in a letter to Prime Minister Harper and Canada's First Ministers that examines how under-regulated global markets, focused solely on profit, led to a worldwide financial crisis while ignoring poverty and environmental destruction. "Economic stimulus packages that do not take into account moral imperatives will lead to the same pattern of unsustainable consumption that brought us into crisis in the first place," says KAIROS Executive director Mary Corkery.

Pope Benedict XVI, congratulating Barack Obama on his inauguration as U.S. president, prayed that he would remain steadfast in his dedication to promote understanding, cooperation and peace in the world. The pope, in a Jan. 20 telegram, told Obama that he prayed God would "grant you unfailing wisdom and strength in the exercise of your high responsibilities." In his message to Obama, Pope Benedict said he prayed, under the new president's leadership, "may the American people continue to find in their impressive religious and political heritage the spiritual values and ethical principles needed to cooperate in the building of a truly just and free society." The pope said he hoped the future of the United States would be "marked by respect for the dignity, equality and rights of each of its members, especially the poor, the outcast and those who have no voice."

The nation's most broadly ecumenical Christian group is urging the new administration of President-elect Obama to include help for the poor in any economic-stimulus package. Leaders of Christian Churches Together in the USA met with journalists, members of Congress and the Obama transition team Jan. 15 in Washington to implore them not to let the new economic concerns of the middle and upper classes crowd out the ongoing travails of the nation's poorest citizens. "It is typical of political leaders to focus on the middle class, and we too care about the middle class," Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, said at a press conference announcing the push. "However, it is our religious responsibility to make sure the poor -- who are so close to the heart of God -- are not left out and left behind in this severe economic crisis.

An evangelical-progressive coalition has developed an agenda aimed at moving beyond past divisions on hot-button social issues to seek policy changes on abortion, torture and other issues. After two years of discussion, they have concluded that their Come Let Us Reason Together" agenda will include reducing abortion, protecting employment rights of gays and lesbians, renouncing torture and immigration reform. Evangelical leaders who do not condone gay marriage said they could nonetheless support greater workplace protections for gays and lesbians, provided there is an exemption for faith-based employers.

Faith leaders met with members of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team on Wednesday to express their strong desire for Obama to issue an executive order to end torture on the first day he takes office. The delegation representing the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) reported that transition officials gave strong indication that an executive order on torture would be issued at some point, but did not commit to a specific timeline. "We were pleased to hear it reiterated that President Obama rejects torture and believes it has no place in U.S. policy and practice," said NRCAT president Linda Gustitus, in a statement. "But we also remain passionate about the need to issue the executive order on Day One. It is a message that must be delivered to the world as soon as President Obama takes office and we will be disappointed if it is not." Gustitus, however, said NRCAT will stand with Obama whenever he decides to ban torture.

Senior Catholic leaders participating in the Sixth World Meeting of Families expressed optimism that the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama would usher in more favorable immigration policies that include putting an end to the workplace raids that often separate parents from their children. "There are many aspects that have to be considered, but I hope that the new president will have the cooperation of the Senate and other bodies to think deeply about this question and the higher position of the United States," Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, told Catholic News Service Jan. 15.

Uninsured patients are filing claims for discounts on their bills from eight Chicago and suburban Catholic hospitals following the settlement of a class-action lawsuit. An agreement approved Monday resolves claims covering more than 200,000 patients of Resurrection Health Care, one of the area's largest hospital systems. The lawsuit, filed in 2004, alleged Resurrection hospitals overcharged uninsured patients by millions of dollars. A truck driver, a homemaker married to a plumber and a woman who works at a trophy company were among the low-income, uninsured patients named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. They claimed no one told them about the hospitals' charity care programs and collection agencies hounded them when they didn't pay their bills.

Solidarity isn't just another virtue, but rather the key to discovering the truth of family relationships and the foundation for building a civilization of love, says the supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus. Carl Anderson said this in his address today to the 6th World Meeting of Families, being held through Sunday in Mexico City. His afternoon conference was titled "Family and Solidarity." Anderson, who is a consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Family, noted that the concept of solidarity was first expressed by socialist Pierre Leroux as an alternative to "the Christian idea of love -- as the new, rational and effective response to social problems."

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has pledged that he and his fellow prelates will work with the incoming administration of Barack Obama and the 111th Congress to "advance the common good and defend the life and dignity of all, especially the vulnerable and poor." In a Jan. 13 letter to the president-elect, Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George offered a broad outline of policy priorities that concern the U.S. bishops, ranging from economic recovery that covers all segments of society to protecting the lives of the "most vulnerable and voiceless members of the human family," especially unborn children.

Just 14 months ago, at his confirmation hearing, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey frustrated and angered some senators by refusing to state that waterboarding, the near-drowning technique used on three prisoners by the Central Intelligence Agency, is in fact torture. This week, at his confirmation hearing, Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general-designate, did not hesitate to express a clear view. He noted that waterboarding had been used to torment prisoners during the Inquisition, by the Japanese in World War II and in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. "We prosecuted our own soldiers for using it in Vietnam," Mr. Holder said. "Waterboarding is torture."

For many people abroad, the photos of bleeding and dead children, of wounded Palestinians lying in crowded hospital wards and people sifting through the rubble of their homes said all that needed to be said about the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. The key word in discussions was "proportionality." Was Israel using disproportionate force to eliminate Hamas gunmen who had been lobbing missiles into southern Israel for eight years? Since 2001, some 1,000 Israelis have been injured in the attacks and almost 30 -- including several children -- have been killed. Father Jamal Khader, dean of the faculty of arts and chairman of the religious studies department at Bethlehem University, said while he was angry at what Hamas was doing it did not justify Israeli military actions in Gaza or the high number of civilian casualties.

President Barack Obama has vowed to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and is expected to issue an order as soon as today. Obama always planned to act quickly to set a new policy for war-on-terror prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, but the pace of ongoing legal proceedings there essentially forced the new administration's hand just hours after he took the oath of office. Obama has vowed to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and is expected to issue an order as soon as today setting up a process he says will shut down the detention facility, which has been pilloried abroad as an American-run gulag. Obama has called the military commissions a "betrayal of American values."

Congress is poised to give President-elect Barack Obama a quick victory by passing a bill to provide health insurance to millions of low-income children. The House Democratic leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, said the bill, scheduled for a vote in the House this week, was "very much like" legislation twice vetoed by President Bush in 2007. Legal authority for the program expires on March 31. Congressional Democrats said they had decided to add a major provision allowing states to restore health insurance benefits to legal immigrants under 21, a goal of Hispanic groups since those benefits were terminated in 1996.

Saying the future of the world was at stake, Pope Benedict XVI called for major new efforts to reduce global poverty, end regional conflicts and restore ethics to global financial systems. In an annual address to the diplomatic corps at the Vatican Jan. 8, the pope also appealed on behalf of Christian minorities in places like Iraq and India, urging governments to respond firmly to a recent increase in anti-Christian violence and discrimination. The pope's speech, sometimes called his "state of the world" address, reviewed developments on several continents, from the refugee crisis in central Africa to the recent military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The pope decried terrorist attacks that have "sown death and destruction" in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Algeria, but also found hopeful signs in places like the Philippines, where the government and rebels have opened new negotiations.

Fr. Raymond Helmick is a copious correspondent. For the past three years, the Jesuit priest has written nearly 20 letters to Khalid Mishal, founder and political leader of the Palestinian movement Hamas, urging him to abandon militancy, unify with Fatah, Hamas' political rival, and organize the Palestinians in a disciplined campaign of nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation. "Your military weapons are too puny to stand against Israeli weapons, but that mobilized power of a people denying, without violence, any cooperation with its occupiers is something Israel could not withstand," wrote Helmick in a Feb 2006 letter sent weeks after Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections.

To hear Jean Patterson Cushman tell it, President Bush's faith-based initiative has been critical for her Baltimore organization that helps ex-prisoners find new jobs. Infused with $2.3 million in grant money from a Department of Labor initiative, Cushman's group, Episcopal Community Services of Maryland, has moved from helping 50 men and women a year to 200. Love it or hate it - and many feel that strongly about the initiative - the program started by Bush days after he entered the Oval Office has been a major contributor to the debate over the proper intersection of God and government.

A multifaith group of religious leaders from Boston, including Jews, Muslims, and Christians, issued a joint statement yesterday calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. "We call upon Hamas immediately to end all rocket attacks on Israel, and upon Israel immediately to end its military campaign in Gaza," the statement said. The Jewish signatories included several rabbis as well as the former presidents of Hebrew College, the Jewish Community Relations Council, and the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis, but were predominantly drawn from the liberal wing of the Jewish community and do not include the heads of the major umbrella Jewish community organizations, who have generally not been critical of Israel.