New York — “Just because we can agree on a goal, doesn’t mean we’ll agree on how to get there.” Such was the experience of the women who made up the living mosaic of languages and nationalities congregating at the United Nations last week.

The United Nation’s 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women hosted the “Beijing+15 Conference” from March 1-12 in New York. It gathered women from every region of the world — diplomats, representatives of non-government organizations (NGOs) and concerned citizens.

Beijing+15 was a follow-up to the 1995 UN International Conference on Women, held in the Chinese capital. The 1995 conference’s conclusive document, the...READ MORE

Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, an umbrella advocacy group of women’s religious orders, will be speaking during a conference call with journalists today at 2:30. She will be joined by Morna Murray, president of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, and Francis X. Doyle, former associate general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and others. They will argue that the Senate health-care bill, which the House of Representatives is set to vote on this weekend, “does not provide federal funding for abortion.”

SAN FRANCISCO — The United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has issued a surprising judgment upholding the reference to God in the Pledge of Allegiance and reversing an earlier decision.

Congress inserted the reference at the instigation of the Knights of Columbus some 56 years ago as an answer to communistic doctrine that laws and freedom derive from the will of the people, rather than God. The Catholic fraternal organization was one of the defendants-intervenors in this case.

Also arguing for the God clause was the U.S. Department of Justice and the Rio Linda, Calif., Union... READ MORE

• 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Constitutionality of 'under God’ in Pledge Knights of Columbus
• Court Rules ‘Under God’ as Constitutional in Pledge of Allegiance Catholic News Agency
• California: Pledge of Allegiance is Ruled Constitutional The New York Times

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — The people of Northern Ireland face another assault on their pro-life province, mounted by the British Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety.

The department has reissued guidelines relating to the law on abortion that were deemed unacceptable by pro-life groups in the province.

Michael McGimpsey, a member of the Ulster Unionist Party, is minister of health, social services and public safety. He was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly and subsequently appointed by his party to the health post.

Bernadette Smyth of the pro-life organization Precious Life described it as an attempt to “legalize abortion through the back...READ MORE

• Must United Ireland Have Legalized Abortion? Morning Star
• Polish women encouraged to come to UK for 'free abortions' on NHS The Telegraph (London)