06:10 pm  |  VATICAN CITY, Nov 4, 2011 (CNA/EWTN News).- The coordinator of the first delegation of American bishops visiting the Vatican on their “ad limina” visits is impressed with how closely Vatican officials follow events in the U.S.

Starting with today’s group of bishops, 15 delegations will make their way to Rome over the coming months to speak with Pope Benedict and Vatican officials about the health and future of the Catholic Church in the United States.

“I think it is important for the bishops to know that the various Vatican dicasteries and offices understand what is happening in the Church and public society in the U.S. And from our meetings already this morning it is clear that they keep abreast of both,” Bishop Robert C. Evans, Auxiliary Bishop of Providence, told CNA Nov. 4.

12:01 pm  |  DUBLIN, IRELAND, Nov 4, 2011 (CNA/EWTN News).- The Irish government’s decision to close its embassy to the Holy See is being criticized by the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

“I wish to express my profound disappointment at this decision which means that Ireland will be without a resident ambassador to the Holy See for the first time since diplomatic relations were established and envoys were exchanged between the two States in 1929,” said Cardinal Sean Brady, Primate of All Ireland, in a Nov. 3 statement.

“This decision seems to show little regard for the important role played by the Holy See in international relations and of the historic ties between the Irish people and the Holy See over many centuries.”

06:00 am  |  ROME, ITALY, Nov 4, 2011 (CNA/EWTN News).- The Jewish New Yorker who has made it his life’s work to clear the name of Pope Pius XII of being anti-Semitic believes the wartime pontiff actually went undercover to save the lives of Jews in Rome.

Gary Krupp came across the evidence in a letter from a Jewish woman whose family was rescued thanks to direct Vatican intervention.

“It is an unusual letter, written by a woman who is alive today in northern Italy, who said she was with her mother, her uncle, and a few other relatives in an audience with Pius XII in 1947.” Next to Pope Pius during the meeting was his Assistant Secretary of State, Monsignor Giovanni Montini, the future Pope Paul VI.

02:34 am  |  WASHINGTON D.C., Nov 4, 2011 (CNA).- The federal government’s new contraceptive and sterilization insurance coverage mandate includes a religious exemption whose language was designed specifically to counter Catholic institutions’ conscience protections, one Catholic health care leader told a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee Nov. 2.

The exemption’s “highly flawed” definition originated in a California debate about a state-level contraception mandate, William J. Cox, president and CEO of the California-based Alliance of Catholic Health Care, told a Nov. 2 hearing of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health.

The definition was “painstakingly crafted by the American Civil Liberties Union to specifically exclude religious institutional missions like health care providers, universities and social service agencies,” Cox stated.