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VATICAN CITY – An Italian legislative proposal that would grant some legal rights to unwed couples – including same-sex partners – has set the stage for a major church-state showdown. On one side is a wide spectrum of Italian social and political forces, including many lay Catholics, who say the bill would end discrimination against unwed couples in areas of health care, pensions, housing and employment. On the other side is the Italian bishops’ conference, which has argued that the law would undermine marriage and the traditional family. Some bishops have warned Catholic legislators that they are duty-bound to vote against the proposal.

HONG KONG – Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong has reiterated the need for negotiations to resolve the issue of Catholic bishops’ ordinations in mainland China and to find a bilaterally acceptable way of normalizing relations. Cardinal Zen said illegitimate episcopal ordinations have created new obstacles for the dialogue between China and the Vatican and the normalization of their relations, and he called for an approach acceptable to both sides.

WASHINGTON – Freedom of religion, and all freedom, can be placed at risk by an “aggressive secularism” that asserts its dominance in society, Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago warned in a Feb. 13 talk at the Library of Congress. In his talk – titled “What Kind of Democracy Leads to Secularization?” – Cardinal George weighed in against both legal and cultural expressions of secularism that marginalize the importance of religion in society. It is, the cardinal said, “an issue of great importance for our life together in a democratic republic.” Religion “can remain a necessary and legitimate actor in our affairs,” he added.

PHILADELPHIA – Men and women across the country who are members of a little-known community that is open to people with disabilities – as well as those without – are imitating the crucified Christ by drawing on their own suffering to minister to others. “Handicapped people are not worthless,” said Maria Burke, 53, a parishioner at St. Catherine of Siena in Horsham who has multiple sclerosis. “We have something to give to the world. We can still contribute.” Ms. Burke is one of 24 women and six men who have become Franciscan Missionaries of Jesus Crucified, a secular institute for laypeople, many of whom have disabilities.

The Mid-Atlantic Catholic Schools Consortium (MACSC) appointed its first executive director, Dr. Mary Ellen Hrutka, former vice provost and dean of the School of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Maryland University College. The Archdiocese of Baltimore is one of six mid-atlantic dioceses in the newly formed MACSC, whose mission is to make Catholic schools the schools of choice for all Catholic families and to find solutions to common challenges shared by Catholic schools within the six archdioceses in the areas of funding, leadership and governance.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Death penalty opponents in Tennessee are applauding Gov. Phil Bredesen’s decision to temporarily halt state executions to study the state’s protocol for carrying out death sentences, but they say it “doesn’t go nearly far enough.” Alex Wiesendanger, associate director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing, called the move “a great first step,” but said “a full study of the entire system is needed” beyond the 90-day study of the state’s death penalty procedures.

When Speaker Nancy Pelosi proclaimed last month that this would be a Congress that remembers the children, I couldn’t help but think that this smart, savvy grandmother of 6, who now wields the most powerful gavel in the world, was forgetting someone – millions of unborn children.

There are few topics that will ignite tempers like religious beliefs, but a panel of spiritual leaders representing Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Hindus and Muslims challenged about 75 people at St. Ignatius, Baltimore, to read the holy books of faiths other than their own. Ignorance of religious beliefs has not only created friction among neighbors throughout the history of the world, it’s resulted in the war-related carnage and bloody holocaust, members of the panel agreed, during a Feb. 12 discussion called “Building Community Across Religious Lines.”

Tony DeLuca knows what it’s like to be broke. Twelve years ago, he was laid off from a vending company and didn’t know how he would make his mortgage payment. That’s when a friend suggested he call his home parish of St. Dominic in Hamilton where his sons served as altar boys. Through St. Dominic’s St. Vincent de Paul Society, Mr. DeLuca got the help he needed. “I called and they responded so nicely,” said Mr. DeLuca, 59. “It was a great thing for them to do. I’ll never forget it.” Even though Mr. DeLuca now works three jobs, he has devoted much of his spare time reaching out to others in the community who are in the same kind of difficulty he endured more than a decade ago.