News Briefs

The U.S. bishops’ Committee on Doctrine will meet with the nation’s theological societies on March 16 at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. • Three Republican House members on March 5 introduced a bill to protect the conscience rights of health care workers and employers in response to a new federal mandate for contraceptive care. • On March 3 Catholic Charities USA presented Gordon Wadge, executive director of the YMCA of Greater New Orleans, with a lifetime achievement award. • Bishop Richard G. Lennon of Cleveland said in a decree dated March 4 that the Rev. Robert Marrone, leader of a faith community formed after its parish was closed in 2010, incurred excommunicationlatae sententiae for failing to reconcile with the church.• The next pope must be vigilant in preventing sexual abuse by members of the clergy and accept a policy of “zero tolerance” as the universal law, said Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago on March 4. • Bishop Matthew Clark and Bishop Howard Hubbard, retiring from the sees of Rochester and Albany respectively, were honored by Fordham University on March 6 with the President’s Medal.