Discussing a new Texas law that bans abortions after six weeks, Biden recently said he did not agree that life begins at conception.

"I respect those who believe life begins in the moment of conception — I respect that... (I) don't agree, but I respect that," Biden said.

Biden's new comments on September 3 represent a departure from his previous statements on the matter and follow those made by Jen Psaki, Biden's White House press secretary on September 2.

The New York Post reports Psaki snapped at a EWTN male reporter who asked: "Why does the president support abortion when his own Catholic faith teaches abortion is morally wrong?"

The press secretary then said Biden believes "it's a woman's right, it's a woman's body and it's her choice".

Reporter Owen Jensen followed up: "Who does he believe, then, should look out for the unborn child?"

"He believes that it's up to a woman to make those decisions, and up to a woman to make those decisions with her doctor," Psaki shot back.

"I know you've never faced those choices nor have you ever been pregnant, but for women out there who have faced those choices, this is an incredibly difficult thing. The president believes that right should be respected."

As a presidential candidate, Biden said he was "prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception," but added that to impose that belief upon others through the application of the law would be "inappropriate in a pluralistic society."

"The Catholic Church teaches and has taught that life, human life, begins at conception," Gregory said, according to the Washington Times.

"So the president is not demonstrating Catholic teaching."

"Our Church has not changed its position on the morality of abortion. And I don't see how we could, because we believe that every human life is sacred," he later added.

While stating that the church teaches human life begins at conception, Gregory noted that he served as an auxiliary bishop with the late Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who emphasised the "consistent ethic of life, which says that life issues are linked."

Gregory then also criticized the death penalty, saying: "We've discovered over time, it's not always equally applied.

"The poor, people of colour, immigrants are more susceptible to having death penalty sentences handed down than the wealthy affluent who can afford the best legal defence available."

In June, US Catholic bishops voted 168-55 for the drafting of a "teaching document" that many of them hope will rebuke Catholic politicians, including Biden, for receiving Communion despite their support for abortion rights.

Gregory did not hint at any ecclesiastical consequences for Biden on Wednesday.

Previously Gregory said he planned to approach the President on areas of agreement and disagreement in a respectful way.

"He's not going to be on speed dial, and I hope I'm not on his speed dial," Gregory told Al Roker of the Today Show in February.

"But there will be moments when I will be able to speak to him about faith, about the works that he is trying to accomplish that we can be supportive of, but also areas where we're not going to agree. But I'm going to always try to do it in a respectful way."

In Biden's 36 years in the Senate and eight years as Vice President to President Barack Obama, Biden has reversed himself a number of times on the issue of abortion.

Sources

• New York Post
• NCR
• Crux
• CathNews NZ
• CathNews NZ

The only drawback is his age. Gregory, 71, will have to submit his resignation when he reaches 75, the age when every bishop must submit his resignation.

Whoever the pope is in December of 2022 will then decide whether to accept it.

If Gregory wants to accomplish anything, then, he will have to hit the ground running.

Normally, new bishops, if they are smart, spend the first year or two listening to their priests and people before beginning to act. At his age, there is no possibility of having a 10-year plan for the archdiocese.

Is he up to the challenge?

Yes.

Gregory has been a bishop for almost half his life, beginning as an auxiliary bishop at 36 years of age, only one year over the minimum age required by church law.

Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, Gregory's patron and mentor, saw his potential and fostered his career.

Nor did Bernardin use him the way most diocesan bishops use their black auxiliaries — that is, put him in charge of an inner-city parish.

Rather, Bernardin made sure Gregory was prepared to shepherd a diverse flock. This served him well when, in 1994, he was appointed bishop of Belleville, Ill., where he was the sole African-American clergyman.

He was also thrown into the clergy abuse mess in Belleville, where he suspended five priests as bishop.

But over time his response gained mostly positive reviews.

Enemies

This experience served him and the church well when he became president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2001, just before the Boston sex abuse catastrophe broke.

As president of the conference, he was a real leader pushing the bishops kicking and screaming to adopt the Dallas Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in 2002.

Gregory made a lot of enemies by pushing strongly for the charter.

His mentor, Bernardin, also began to lose favor as the papacy of John Paul II turned the church in a more conservative direction.

When Gregory was appointed to Atlanta, many church insiders concluded that he was being sent into exile. Bernardin, who died of cancer in 1996, had hoped Gregory would get Washington or another cardinalatial see.

You can bet that Bernardin is doing a victory dance in heaven.

Impeccable credentials

As I said at the beginning, Gregory will be good for the church, the city and the country.

He has impeccable credentials for dealing with the sex abuse crisis, which is essential for healing the church. He also is very pastoral, able to connect with people of all backgrounds.

He is smart and a good preacher.

He will also be good for the city, where the black population often feels marginalized.

He will be good for the country because he knows how to present the church's message of justice, reconciliation and peace without appearing partisan.

He is fully supportive of his mentor's consistent ethic of life, which is concerned about abortion but does not abandon the child once it is born.

His experience as president of the USCCB, where he often had to speak on issues of public policy, will serve him well under the spotlight of the Washington media.

Washington should rejoice to have such a good bishop; too bad we may not have him very long.

• Thomas Reese SJ is is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, and a former columnist at National Catholic Reporter, and a former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America.

Though not the largest or wealthiest diocese, its archbishop is often the most politically well-connected cleric in the United States.

All that changed when its former archbishop, Theodore McCarrick, was revealed to be a serial sex abuser.

Then, accusations of complicity began to pile up against his successor, Cardinal Donald Wuerl.

On September 12, his spokesman said he would travel to Rome and ask Pope Francis to accept his resignation.

There is much speculation about who will succeed him, but the consensus is that Archbishop of Washington isn't the cushy job it once seemed.

Indeed, being a bishop suddenly seems less desirable.

The fallout from the McCarrick is threatening to bring whole dioceses crashing down.

This scandal first erupted on June 20, when the Archdiocese of New York announced that "credible and substantiated" claims had been levelled against McCarrick dating back to 1961 while he was a priest of the archdiocese.

The archdiocese issued a press release, calling it "the first such report of a violation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People ever made against [McCarrick] of which the archdiocese was aware".

The wording of this statement raised eyebrows: the archdiocese did not say whether allegations had been made by men old enough to legally consent.

New York's powerful archbishop, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, made matters worse by saying Wuerl shouldn't resign.

Dolan called him a "good friend" and "tremendous leader", and suggested he was being judged too harshly by the laity.

The laity, in turn, were outraged.

Some of Dolan's conservative critics accused him of being beholden to the so-called "lavender mafia", also citing his decision to allow gay pride groups to march in New York's 2015 St Patrick's Day Parade.

The Archdiocese of Chicago, too, is becoming ungovernable.

In his "testimony", Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò claims its leader, Cardinal Blase Cupich, was appointed at McCarrick's and Wuerl's behest.

Viganò also accused Cupich of being too close to the LGBT rights movement. Evidently, some of the faithful in Chicago have similar concerns about the city's Catholic establishment: last week, parishioners at Resurrection parish burned a rainbow banner that the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin hung behind the altar before the parish's 1991 inaugural Mass.

As the Vatican and its allies struggle to regain control of these major dioceses, the question of who succeeds Wuerl is not the most pressing concern.

We should ask instead which bishops will replace Wuerl as a figurehead in US Catholicism.

Two candidates are Archbishops José Gómez of Los Angeles and Charles Chaput of Philadelphia.

Both were appointed by Pope Benedict in 2011.

They preside over two of the largest dioceses in the country: the first and sixth, respectively.

Gómez is also the vice president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and is expected to assume the helm when its current president, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, steps down next year.

Had Benedict's papacy run its natural course, both men would almost certainly have been appointed to the College of Cardinals by the end of 2014.

Instead, Pope Francis has pointedly refused to elevate either of them.

Many believe Gómez and Chaput are too conservative for the pontiff's tastes.

Indeed, Viganò claims Francis told him the American bishops "must not be ideologised, they must not be right-wing like the Archbishop of Philadelphia" during their first meeting after Francis's election.

Instead, the Holy Father promoted theologically progressive bishops like Cupich and Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, first to major dioceses and then to the College of Cardinals - effectively creating a "Francis Party" within the USCCB.

Today, membership of the Francis Party is less a badge of honour than a bullseye.

Having been snubbed by Francis has, in fact, boosted Gómez's and Chaput's reputations in some circles. Continue reading

• Image: CNS

The church has long been criticized as "too dogmatic." Demands are constantly made that it change its 2,000-year-old teachings on marriage, family, sexuality, morality and other matters related to the truth about human beings. But even if others do not agree, the church understands that what it proclaims is revealed truth — the Word of God. The church's teachings are timeless. They cannot be changed, even though adherence may be upsetting to some. That the church is built on a rock with fixed beliefs is a positive feature, both because it can withstand the shifting winds of public opinion and because of the cherished content of our faith itself, which fosters love among Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

Although these precepts may be misunderstood by many today, the fundamental vocation of the Catholic Church is to provide the witness of love and truth to the world, including offering the voice of an informed conscience. Catholics are taught to respect the fundamental, inherent dignity of every person, each made in the image of God, and to work to establish a just society. The church teaches that it is our obligation to manifest love of neighbor, to provide charitable service to others, and to promote truth, genuine freedom and authentic humanism. We work for the poor, the oppressed and the suffering, because that is what our faith teaches we must do. There is thus a positive side to being dogmatic: The teachings and works of the church advance the common good throughout civil society. Just as our dogma is constant, so is the work it commands.

The Archdiocese of Washington is the largest nongovernmental provider of social services in our area: Seventy-five programs in 48 locations offer assistance to whoever needs it, regardless of religion, race, gender, nationality or sexual orientation. Each year, more than 100,000 people in the Washington area rely on Catholic charitable organizations for housing, food, job training, immigration assistance, legal aid, dental care, mental health care, lifespan services for those with disabilities and their families and prenatal care and assistance for vulnerable pregnant women and unwed mothers. Continue reading

Sources

• Cardinal Donald Wuerl in The Washington Post
• Image: Catholic Faith in Action

Cardinal Donald Wuerl is archbishop of Washington.

Aretha Franklin, poet Nikki Giovanni and President Barack Obama were among those who attended the more than four-hour ceremony. King's children and other leaders spoke before the president, invoking his "I Have a Dream" speech and calling upon a new generation to help fully realize that dream.

The crowd, some of whom came out as early as 5am (10am Sunday, NZ time), included people of all ages and races. Some women wore large Sunday hats for the occasion.

The president arrived late morning with his wife and two daughters, which drew loud cheers from those watching his entrance on large screens.

Cherry Hawkins travelled from Houston with her cousins and arrived at 6am to be part of the dedication. They postponed earlier plans to attend the August dedication, which was postponed because of Hurricane Irene.

"I wanted to do this for my kids and grandkids," Hawkins said. She expects the memorial will be in their history books someday. "They can say, 'Oh, my granny did that.'"

Hawkins, her cousin DeAndrea Cooper and Cooper's daughter Brittani Jones, 23, visited the King Memorial on Saturday after joining a march with the Rev. Al Sharpton to urge Congress to pass a jobs bill.

"You see his face in the memorial, and it's kind of an emotional moment," Cooper said. "It's beautiful. They did a wonderful job."

Actress Cicely Tyson said her contemporaries are passing the torch to a new generation and passed the microphone to 12-year-old Amandla Stenberg. The girl recalled learning about the civil rights movement in school and named four young girls killed in a 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Ala.

"As Dr King said at their funeral, 'They didn't live long lives, but they lived meaningful lives,'" Amandla said. "I plan to live a meaningful life, too."

About 1.5 million people are estimated to have visited the 10-metre-tall statue of King and the granite walls where 14 of his quotations are carved in stone. The memorial is the first on the National Mall honouring a black leader.

• Read more: www.stuff.co.nz
• Image: Bakersfield Now