Several sources are reporting that both the House and Senate versions of the health-care reform legislation contain a religious exemption.

CQ Politics, the Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times and others are reporting that Amish people are exempt from the requirement — expected to be part of the final bill — that people purchase health insurance or pay a fine.

“The emerging bills in both the House and Senate include language patterned on an existing ‘religious conscience’ exemption to laws requiring workers to pay taxes for Social Security and Medicare,” CQ Politics said. “What’s not clear is whether the exemption, originally designed to apply only to the Old Order Amish, might be...READ MORE

Father Emil Kapaun

According to The Associated Press, outgoing Army Secretary Pete Geren has endorsed awarding a posthumous Medal of Honor to Korean War chaplain Father Emil Kapaun.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has also endorsed awarding the nation’s highest military honor to Father Kapaun, who died in a Chinese prisoner of war camp after being captured seven months earlier while serving as an Army captain and chaplain.

Go here to read The Associated Press article. And go here to access the website that has been set up to promote the cause for Father Kapaun’s canonization.

A full restoration of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X to union with Rome does not appear imminent, if a recent interview given by the society’s superior general is any guide.

The Reuters FaithWorld blog has posted excerpts from the interview Bishop Bernard Fellay conducted with the Tradition magazine published by the SSPX in South Africa. His comments are significant, as the Vatican and the society will soon begin direct discussions about the doctrinal differences that separate the society from the Church.

Bishop Fellay gives no hint that the SSPX is prepared to give ground in these talks with respect to any of its objections to the documents of the Second Vatican Council, and...READ MORE

Father Andrew Trapp (CNS)

Father Andrew Trapp, parochial vicar at St. Michael Church in Garden City, S.C., has won $100,000 on Fox TV’s new “Pokerstars Million Dollar Challenge.”

The poker-playing priest plans to go “all in” with his winnings, by donating them to towards construction of a new parish church, Catholic News Service reports here. And courtesy of his victory, Father Trapp is now in the running to compete against three other poker players in a championship round in December for a $1 million additional prize.

Father Michael Sinnott (CNS/Reuters)

One of the ongoing difficulties of dialogue with Islam is that there is a very fundamental disconnect between the behavior of people who are highly animated by their Christian faith, and the actions undertaken by a substantial number of committed Muslims.

This has been reaffirmed once again last weekend by the kidnapping in the southern Philippines of a 79-year-old Irish missionary priest, Father Michael Sinnott. The identity of the kidnappers has yet to be firmly established, but virtually no one doubts Father Sinnott is being held hostage by Muslim militants.

Where is the united outcry of Muslims around the world, against the constant commission of this kind of violence by their...READ MORE

Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and their daughter Suri. (Reuters)

In response to pressure from his wife, Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise reportedly has allowed the couple’s 3-year-old daughter, Suri, to attend a Catholic preschool in Massachusetts.

Cruise is a high-profile member of the controversial Scientology sect.

According to a report published Oct. 13 by the Daily Mail, Suri has been enrolled at the Catholic Charities Yawkey Center for Early Education and Learning in Boston.

Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, holds a picture of President Obama Oct. 9. (Reuters)

The selection of President Barack Obama as this year’s recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize is a most peculiar choice, given how briefly he has been president and how little he has done in concrete terms to advance the cause of peace since assuming office.

Given this paucity of tangible accomplishments in the cause of peace, it’s impossible not to conclude that the Nobel selectors were motivated farm more by their enthusiasm for Obama’s political agendas than by his actual record of working for peace. This is especially true given that the nominations for the prize closed Feb. 1, less than two weeks after Obama assumed office.

By that date, Obama had done virtually nothing substantive...READ MORE

Here is the text of a letter sent Oct. 8 to all members of Congress by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops:

Dear Member of Congress:

On behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), we are writing to express our disappointment that progress has not been made on the three priority criteria for health care reform that we have conveyed previously to Congress. In fact, the Senate Finance Committee rejected a conscience rights amendment accepted earlier by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. If final legislation does not meet our principles, we will have no choice but to oppose the bill. We remain committed to working with the Administration, Congressional...READ MORE