U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2018 budget sent shivers through social service, education and environmental communities, prompting church leaders and advocates to question the administration’s commitment to people in need.

Congress must “seize this moment” to address access, affordability, life and conscience, said three U.S. bishops’ committee chairmen.

President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for a review of the Clean Power Plan jeopardizes environmental protections and moves the country away from a national carbon standard to help meet domestic and international goals to ease greenhouse gas emissions, said the chairman of a U.S. bishops’ committee.

The U.S. bishops released a pastoral reflection titled “Living as a People of God in Unsettled Times,” to call all Catholics to do what they can “to accompany migrants and refugees who seek a better life in the United States.”

The chairman of the Committee on Migration at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said he was disappointed with President Barack Obama’s new policy ending a long-standing agreement that allowed Cubans who arrive in the U.S. without visas to remain in the country and gain legal residency.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is establishing a working group charged with developing spiritual, pastoral and policy advocacy support for immigrants and refugees.

Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops, told the U.S. bishops that their ministry is to be “witnesses to the Risen One.”

During the U.S. bishops’ fall general assembly Nov. 14-16 in Baltimore, they approved by voice vote the sainthood causes of four men and women as part of the episcopal consultation in the Catholic Church’s process for possible canonization.