WASHINGTON (CNS) — The emerging debate on the federal budget — and the distinct options being presented that will chart the country’s future — has brought renewed attention to the Catholic Church’s social teaching.
Prominent in the debate are the principles of subsidiarity, solidarity and the common good. Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, a Catholic, has repeatedly cited the principles in recent weeks as justification for the fiscal year 2013 budget plan he drafted, which was approved by the House of Representatives March 29 in a largely party-line vote.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CNS) — The relaxation of some travel restrictions to Cuba last year has already had positive effects, but the U.S. needs to go all the way and lift its economic embargo, according to the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace.
That would be a valuable step, agreed Florida Catholics who follow the situation in that country, though some said Cuba itself has to make more major changes, too.
Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, chairman of the committee, said in an April 17 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the modified policies “have given but a taste of what truly should happen for the sake of the people of both countries. It is imperative that more must be done to support deepened dialogue and communication between our respective countries.”

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WASHINGTON (CNS) — American Catholics must resist unjust laws “as a duty of citizenship and an obligation of faith,” a committee of the U.S. bishops said in a new statement on religious liberty.
Titled “Our First, Most Cherished Liberty,” the 12-page statement by the Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty also calls for “a fortnight for freedom” from June 21, the vigil of the feasts of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, to July 4, U.S. Independence Day.
“This special period of prayer, study, catechesis and public action would emphasize both our Christian and American heritage of liberty,” the committee said. “Dioceses and parishes around the country could choose a date in that period for special events that would constitute a great national campaign of teaching and witness for religious liberty.”

HARTFORD, Conn. (CNS) — The Connecticut Senate voted to repeal the death penalty, positioning the state to become the fifth in five years to ban the practice.
The bill, which replaces the death penalty with life in prison without parole, now heads to the House of Representatives, where observers expected it to pass. Gov. Dannel Malloy has said he would sign the legislation when it reaches his desk.
No date for the House vote had been set as of April 5.

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Just in time for Mother’s Day, U.S. Catholics parishes will be able to celebrate the new Rite for the Blessing of a Child in the Womb.
The Vatican has given its approval to publication in English and Spanish of the new rite, which was approved by the U.S. bishops in November 2008, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced March 26.

WASHINGTON (CNS) — During a noon rally March 23 in front of the Washington headquarters of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, speakers reminded hundreds of participants that the event was merely a starting point in an ongoing protest against the federal health plan mandating contraceptive coverage by most religious employers.
“You are part of history,” a speaker told the crowd, noting that 140 other protest rallies were taking place at the same time across the country, organized by the Pro-Life Action League, based in Chicago, and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, based in Michigan.

WASHINGTON (CNS) — With meetings at the White House and testimony before Congress, Archbishop William E. Lori, appointed March 20 to be the next archbishop of Baltimore, has been one of the most visible faces of the U.S. Catholic Church in recent weeks.
As chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty, he has been leading their efforts to fight what the bishops see as encroachments on the religious freedom enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, especially from the Obama administration’s requirement that most religious employers provide free contraceptives to their employees through their health insurance plans.

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Washington (CNA/EWTN News) – The U.S. bishops are emphasizing that their opposition to the Obama administration’s contraception mandate is not about birth control or health care, but about the government’s attempt to impose its narrow definition of religion on the country.
“Indeed, this is not about the Church wanting to force anybody to do anything,” said the administrative committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in a March 14 statement.
Instead, they explained, it is “about the federal government forcing the Church – consisting of its faithful and all but a few of its institutions – to act against Church teachings.”

CLEVELAND (CNS) — A Vatican congregation has overturned the closing of 13 parishes in the Diocese of Cleveland and said the churches must be restored for worship, a person involved with the cases said. The ruling reverses some of the closings ordered by Bishop Richard G. Lennon since 2009 under a diocesan-wide reconfiguration plan.

WASHINGTON – The Senate’s 51-48 vote March 1 to table the bipartisan Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (S. 1467), sponsored by Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) and 37 other senators, impels the Church to strengthen its resolve to support religious freedom.