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News, of the hour, on the hour, from Catholic Information Radio.
I’m Bryan Douglas in Philadelphia, and at this hour….
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Lead:
New curriculum guidelines drafted by North Carolina’s Department of Public Instruction strongly encourage students to consider pro-life legislation as an example of “oppressive government” akin to laws that permitted segregated public schools.

According to the department’s web site, all North Carolina public school students are required to take a course in civics and economics in order to graduate from high school. The draft of the revised civic and economics curriculum includes the following formative assessment prototype:

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Using Supreme Court Cases such as Brown v Board of Education and Roe v Wade, explain how the US Supreme Court has upheld individual rights against oppressive government intrusion into personal matters.
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Brown v Board of Education was the 1954 Supreme Court decision that struck down laws permitting segregated schools; Roe v Wade was the 1973 decision that struck down pro-life legislation across the nation.

North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue, Lieutenant Governor Walter Dalton, and Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson are all advocates of legalized abortion who have been enthusiastically endorsed by NARAL and Planned Parenthood of North Carolina.
I’ll be back with more after this.

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Story 2:
A retired auxiliary bishop of Dublin severely criticizes the city’s current Catholic leader, Archbishop Deermid Martin, in letters that have been obtained by the weekly Irish Catholic newspaper. Bishop Dermot O’Mahony complains that Archbishop Martin failed to defend the bishops and priests of Ireland against charges that they engaged in a “cover-up” of sexual abuse. The retired bishop charges that Archbishop Martin—who was working at the Vatican during the years covered by the Murphy Commission report—was “unfair” in his criticisms.

Bishop O’Mahony took special exception to the new archbishop’s complaint that he himself had never apologized to the victims of sexual abuse, when in fact he had written a letter of apology that was never made public. The Archdiocese has not responded to the criticism.

Story 3:
The Venezuelan bishops have released a statement lamenting the growing secularism, corruption, and undermining of democracy in the South American nation saying quote “Our country is experiencing a social, political, and economic situation that suggests a moving away from God,” unquote. The Church in Venezuela has suffered persecution under the regime of Hugo Chávez, who has served as president since 1999. 88% of the nation’s 28 million people are Catholic.

Story 4:
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is urging members of Congress to recommit themselves to enact health care reform that will protect the life, dignity, consciences, and health of all. They note in their latest letter that quote “The health care debate, with all its political and ideological conflict, seems to have lost its central moral focus and policy priority, which is to ensure that affordable, quality, life-giving care is available” unquote.

This is Catholic Information News.

Story 5:
Douglas Alexander, the British Secretary of State for International Development met with Pope Benedict today to thank him for the Church's role in international aid, especially for the earthquake victims in Haiti.

Today's edition of L'Osservatore Romano featured an article by Alexander, in which he noted that a quarter of all health care in sub-Saharan Africa is provided by the Catholic Church, and that Catholic schools serve nearly 12 million students, "offering opportunities to many people there."

Story 6:
John Mortensen, a Wyoming Catholic College professor and lay theologian, was selected to receive a prize given by the Coordination Council of the Pontifical Academies. This announcement was made today by Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture. Archbishop Ravasi added that Mortensen will receive the award Thursday at an audience the Pope will have with representatives of the academies.

The archbishop explained that the prize recognizes "young investigators, artists or institutions that have distinguished themselves in the promotion of Christian humanism."

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And that’s top news of the hour.
I’m Bryan Douglas, CIR NEWS, for Catholic Information Radio.