MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- A Scottish court ruled that two senior Catholic midwives have no right to conscientiously object to overseeing staff involved in late-term abortions in a state-run hospital.The Court of Session, Scotland's supreme civil court, ruled that Mary Doogan, 57, and Concepta Wood, 51, could not invoke the conscience clause of the 1967 Abortion Act to opt out of their duties at Glasgow's Southern General Hospital because they were not directly involved in performing the abortions.The pair, who worked as labor ward coordinators, had been obliged to delegate, supervise

CRANSTON, R.I. (CNS) -- A local school committee voted it won't appeal a federal court ruling that called for the permanent removal of a Cranston public high school's prayer banner in place for almost 50 years.After hearing three hours of passionate testimony Feb.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Seven states have filed suit against the Department of Health and Human Services' mandate that nearly all health insurance plans cover contraceptives free of charge, saying that it violates religious freedom and leaves "countless additional religious freedoms vulnerable to government intrusion."Joining the attorneys general of Nebraska, South Carolina, Michigan, Texas, Florida, Ohio and Oklahoma in the lawsuit were a Catholic nun, a lay missionary working with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, Pius X Catholic High School in Lincoln, Neb., and the Omaha

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Family and friends of four American churchwomen murdered in 1980 welcomed a Florida immigration judge's decision that paves the way for the deportation of a former Salvadoran defense minister found to have a role in their killings.James Kazel, brother of Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel of Cleveland, said the expected deportation to El Salvador of Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova was "past due as far as I'm concerned.""He got away with murder and got away with living in the United States," Kazel told Catholic News Service from his home in Avon, Ohio.