archives

By Tim Murphy, Religion News Service

Iowa bishops from three denominations are demanding an overhaul of U.S. immigration policy in the wake of an immigration raid on a large kosher slaughterhouse and allegations of worker mistreatment during relief efforts after last month's floods.

"We are concerned that we would substitute any level of fearmongering ... for the hard work of getting a humane and just immigrant immigration policy," United Methodist Bishop Gregory Palmer said July 10.

Last week brought a Vatican appointment that didn't exactly cut in the direction of what I call "affirmative orthodoxy," meaning Pope Benedict XVI's strong defense of the faith coupled with a gentle, positive style. Archbishop Raymond Burke, named as prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, instead has a profile as something of a cultural warrior.

This week Benedict XVI returned to form, with a nomination to a post arguably more consequential than Burke's. On Wednesday, the pope named Jesuit Fr. Luis Ladaria, a Spaniard, as secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

NOTE: The issue of women’s ordination is again generating headlines, in part due to a recent decision of the Anglican synod in England to open the door to female bishops, in part due to a disciplinary action in St. Louis against a religious sister who attended a women’s ordination ceremony. The July 11 issue of L’Avvenire, the official newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference, featured an interview on the issue with Monsignor Antonio Miralles, a consultor to the Vatican’s doctrinal office. The interview was conducted by Italian journalist Gianni Cardinale. The full text appears below in an NCR translation.