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Of course, all of those things could also qualify under the alternate phrase WUNC suggested, "reproductive health." And while Ipas's website does have items on these other issues, it's overwhelmingly concerned with promoting abortion.

No word on the controversy from the campus group Carolina Students for Life. If it ever sponsored some NPR programming, one wonders what the announcement might say.

Catholic bishops' meeting:

• U.S. Catholic bishops agree to join new ecumenical group | The top hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States decided to join the broadest alliance of Christian churches in the country so far (The New York Times)
• Bishops okay commitment to abuse reforms | Some victims and lay people said they saw evidence that the bishops were committed to their reforms, although lay advocates cautioned more changes were needed (Associated Press)
• U.S. bishops join Christian forum | Marriage issues surface at summit (Chicago Tribune)
• Cardinal defends his own | "Partisan forces" and the media are trying to pit U.S. bishops against one another, clerics are told (The Denver Post)
• New U.S. leader: Catholic bishops have had it rough | Skylstad sidesteps issues of whether Catholic politicians who publicly dissent from church teachings on abortion should be offered Communion and the cost of the child sexual-abuse crisis (USA Today)
• Dioceses to self-audit on child protection | America's Roman Catholic bishops decided yesterday to scale back their method of sex-abuse compliance audits, replacing the independent field investigators who have visited dioceses for the last two years with a self-reporting system in which dioceses fill out questionnaires. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Catholic bishops' marriage initiative:

• Catholic bishops launch marriage initiative | U.S. Catholic bishops on Wednesday launched an ambitious plan to promote marriage, an institution they see as being under extreme pressure, not specifically from those who favor homosexual unions but from the general difficulty of getting and staying married (Associated Press)
• Bishops approve marriage initiative | The nation's Catholic bishops voted overwhelmingly yesterday to begin a pastoral initiative on marriage, saying deficiencies in the church's public witness on the subject plus the national debate on same-sex "marriage" compels them to act (The Washington Times)
• Bishops okay plan to bolster marriage | Catholics to battle 'threats' of divorce, same-sex weddings (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Bishop Rodi joins push for Christian unity, marriage | Biloxi's Bishop Thomas J. Rodi joined a majority of American Catholic bishops Wednesday to approve joining Christian Churches Today, a new broad-based ecumenical group (The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.)
• Catholic bishops initiate bid to bolster marriage | The nation's Catholic bishops embarked yesterday on an ambitious effort to promote marriage, using high-profile consultations with theologians, social scientists and Catholic couples to draft a pastoral letter (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Catholicism:

• Pope health seen stable, eyes N. Ireland trip | Pope John Paul's health has stabilized recently, so much so that the Pontiff has expressed a desire to make at least two major trips abroad next year, including one to Northern Ireland (Reuters)

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November (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48