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ASUNCION, Paraguay – Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, a former Catholic bishop facing accusations that he fathered children with three women, asked the country’s forgiveness but said he would not resign.

Archbishop O’Brien wrote (CR, April 23) of the “powerful witness of the Church’s consistent pro-life voice” because the legislature passed a law restricting the application of the death penalty. I do not see the law coming from a powerful pro-life witness, but rather see the legislature extending some professional courtesy to murderers on death row. I have not observed the church hierarchy in America effectively address justice for the victims of murder and manslaughter. Nowhere in the archbishop’s “sanctity of life” list were adult victims of murder mentioned or implied. The church in America is ill serving its flock, because every citizen may participate in the criminal justice system as a voter, juror or witness at trial. The anti-death penalty criteria of Paragraph 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “If non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor” cannot be met if citizens will not carry out those non-lethal means. Self-congratulatory opposition to killing a condemned murderer does not prepare American Catholic citizens to carry out their harsh duty in the voting booth, jury box or witness stand. If the powerful, consistent witness existed, the archbishop would not have written his long lament of anti-life actions and inactions of our elected legislature.

George Weigel (CR, April 23) correctly takes issue with President Barack Obama’s assertion, “that America is not a Christian nation.” However, Mr. Weigel incorrectly falls into the trap of President Obama’s doublespeak by accepting his use of the word nation and concludes that Obama’s statement is “true in one sense: the U.S. government does not endorse Christianity.”

A message flashed across the screen of Julieanne Malley’s cell phone late last week. All she saw was that the sender was “Stephanie”

Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden told Baltimore City Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III that the Archdiocese of Baltimore will continue to take a stand against violence in the streets.

The Maryland, Delaware, D.C. Press Association’s annual awards convention April 23-24 at Westin BWI Hotel in Linthicum highlighted The Catholic Review’s excellence.

From Canton to Parkville, pastors say they are seeing parishioners struggle daily with economic issues.

As he looked out over the crowd for the 55th annual Archdiocese of Baltimore Division of Youth and Young Adult Ministry Recognition Celebration, retired auxiliary Bishop William C. Newman thought about baseball.

KENNER, La. – President Barack Obama is a “very gracious and obviously a very smart man” but he is on the “wrong side of history” when it comes to his fervent support of abortion rights, Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George told the 2009 Louisiana Priests Convention April 21.

WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration’s decision not to appeal a court decision that the morning-after pill marketed as Plan B should be available over the counter to minors “flies in the face of common sense,” said the U.S. bishops’ pro-life spokeswoman.