The bishops now argue that an exemption should include any employer who finds the mandated coverage morally objectionable.

“The economy is still leaving too many people without work,” wrote Bishop Stephen E. Blaire in a letter to Congress.

After the new cardinals are created, all the “princes of the church” are scheduled to vote on the canonization of several new saints.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France rejected calls for secular values to be enshrined in his country’s constitution.

Anne Nolte, M.D., said that Catholic hospitals might have to decide whether to "practice civil disobedience.”

Hundreds are dead after weeks of ethnic violence between the Murle and Luo Nuer communities in South Sudan’s Jonglei State.