WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In an move that appears unlikely to end the controversy over a federal mandate that all health insurance plans include contraception and sterilization free of charge, President Barack Obama outlined a plan that would allow religious employers not to offer such services to their employees but would compel insurance companies to do so.The president announced the policy in a brief statement Feb. 10 but took no questions."No women's health should depend on who she is, who she works for or how much money she makes," Obama said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Chinese Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun warned that the Chinese Catholic Church is "on the verge of a schism" between communities cooperating with government structures and those who refuse to register with government authorities, and he called on the Vatican and other Catholics to shun "organisms that are not only foreign but clearly hostile to the church" in China.Cardinal Zen, retired bishop of Hong Kong, made his comments in an article published Feb.

BELLEVILLE, Ill. (CNS) -- Bishop Edward K. Braxton of Belleville has accepted the resignation of a longtime pastor with whom he has had discussions about how the priest celebrates Mass.Father William Rowe, who for the past 17 years has been pastor of St.

ROME (CNS) -- The Vatican's top sex abuse investigator called for greater accountability under church law of bishops who shield or fail to discipline pedophile priests.Msgr. Charles Scicluna, promoter of justice for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, made his remarks to reporters in Rome Feb. 8, after addressing an international symposium on clerical sex abuse."It is a crime in canon law to show malicious or fraudulent negligence in the exercise of one's duty," Msgr.