The recent United States elections resulted in the highest-ever number of Catholics in Congress, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

The 161 Catholics make up 30.4 per cent of all seats in the Senate and House of Representatives — well above the Catholic share of 22 per cent of the adult population. Catholic Democrats outnumber Catholic Republicans — by 18 to 9 in the Senate and by 73 to 61 in the House.

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As Republicans were promoting themselves as a multiracial party from the platform in Tampa two weeks ago, an ugly incident on the convention floor suggested not everyone had got the memo. From the podium a range of speakers of Haitian, Mexican, Cuban and Indian descent spoke of how their parents had overcome huge barriers so they could succeed in the US. In the audience, a successful black woman who works for CNN was being pelted with peanuts by a convention-goer, who said: "This is how we feed the animals." Read more

Sources

• Gary Younge in The Guardian
• Image: Breaking News

Gary Younge is a feature writer and columnist for The Guardian based in the US.

Take a look around key committees of the House and you'll find a governing body stocked with crackpots whose views on major issues are as removed from reality as Missouri's Representative Todd Akin's take on the sperm-killing powers of a woman who's been raped.

On matters of basic science and peer-reviewed knowledge, from evolution to climate change to elementary fiscal math, many Republicans in power cling to a level of ignorance that would get their ears boxed even in a medieval classroom. Congress incubates and insulates these knuckle-draggers. Read more

Sources

• Timothy Egan in The New York Times
• Image: Daily Political

Timothy Egan is a journalist and author whose latest book is "The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America."

With Mitt Romney's recent choice of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as running mate, this campaign is the first in which Catholics are on both major party tickets. Vice President Joe Biden and Ryan are lifelong Catholics who attend Mass regularly and credit the church with shaping their views.

At the same time, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan plans a prime-time appearance next week by giving the benediction at the Republican National Convention after Romney becomes the first Mormon presidential nominee from a major political party. Read more

Sources

• Rachel Zoll in The Philadelphia Inquirer
• Image: NY Daily News

Rachel Zoll writes about religion for Associated Press.

One of the contested policy issues is Obama's 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA). Many of the US Catholic Bishops have been critical of this law on the ground that it might contribute to even more abortions in the US.

The Catholic religious orders which conduct health facilities are broadly supportive of the law because it would extend basic healthcare to millions of Americans otherwise deprived a basic right. The US Supreme Court is yet to determine the constitutionality of the law.

On 15 February 2012, the US Administration published draft regulations as a follow-up to the ACA. The legislative regime mandates three actions: each person must take out insurance; each employer must provide health cover; and every health plan must include preventive health measures including access to contraception, sterilisation and abortifacients.

Preventive health measures are mandated so as to reduce long term the overall costs of health care. Religious employers who have religious objections to such preventive health measures would be exempt.

On 14 March, the Administrative Committee of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops declared the exemption for religious employers was too restrictive in part because it would apply only to employers who hired and served those primarily of their own faith. But what about Church institutions responding to the gospel imperative to provide health, education or welfare to persons of all faiths and none, employing persons of all faiths and none?

The bishops said, 'We will continue to accept any invitation to dialogue with the Executive Branch to protect the religious freedom that is rightly ours.'

Feeling the heat from the bishops, the Obama Administration a week later issued 'a request for comments in advance of proposed rulemaking on the potential means of accommodating such organisations while ensuring contraceptive coverage for plan participants and beneficiaries covered under their plans (or, in the case of student health insurance plans, student enrollees and their dependents) without cost sharing'. Continue reading

Sources

• Fr Frank Brennan in Eureka Street
• Image: Homepage Daily