The First Freedom Center in Richmond is hosting a debate over the Affordable Care Act, including the requirement that religiously affiliated organizations and businesses must provide contraception insurance coverage for their employees. The panelists include Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and Kevin Walsh, associate professor at the University of Richmond School of Law.

About 270 advocates turned out at the Virginia Catholic Conference headquarters Thursday in support of Catholic Advocacy Day, an annual event that rallies legislative support from Catholics across the commonwealth on issues relating to human life, dignity and the common good.

Even for an immigrant community, the Richmond Mixtecs face many significant cultural obstacles. In the mostly Hispanic Sacred Heart congregation, Mixtecs are still a minority of sorts, considering many are fluent in neither English nor Spanish. Like many immigrant communities, religion plays a major role in the lives and culture of the Mixtecs.

Is the indigenous Mexican culture of La Mixteca marketable? A group of Mixtec women in the city’s Manchester district, seeking to assert themselves and make money for their families, is banking on it.

A Catholic lobbyist, a state legislator and other experts this week debated whether the federal law requiring employers to provide health insurance coverage for birth control violates the religious freedoms of faith-based institutions.

The Virginia Catholic Conference experienced both triumphs and failures during the General Assembly’s recently concluded regular session. As victories, VCC Executive Director Jeff Caruso cited the passage of a bill to require an ultrasound before a woman has an abortion – and the defeat of a bill to expand the death penalty in Virginia.

The General Assembly has passed a bill expanding the number of ABC stores that can open on Sundays.
Currently, state-owned liquor stores can operate on Sundays only in urban areas, such as cities with more than 100,000 residents. House Bill 896, sponsored by Delegate David Albo, R-Springfield, would allow the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board to open any of its stores after 1 p.m. on Sundays.

Lawmakers responded to overwhelming protest by residents of James City County today by gutting large portions of a bill that would have exempted buildings on cemetery grounds from building codes. “When I introduced the bill, I had no idea there was a problem or issues in James City County,” said the legislation’s sponsor, Delegate Riley Ingram, R-Hopewell. “I am, of course, now keenly aware of that fact.”

About 250 members of the Richmond and Arlington dioceses participated Thursday in the Virginia Catholic Conference’s 2012 Catholic Advocacy Day. That was a record turnout for the annual event, said Jeffrey Caruso, the executive director of the VCC.

Catholic Advocacy Day, a one-day event where members of the Virginia Catholic Conference voice their concerns on 2012 legislation, takes place Thursday in downtown Richmond. Advocates will speak to Virginia legislators about such issues as the death penalty, religious freedom, health care and education, with a focus on “unborn life and ethical research standards.”

Leaders of the African-American religious communities have joined forces with the Occupy Wall Street movement in order to bring new focus and organization to the national movement protesting economic inequality.

About 350 people rallied at Virginia Commonwealth University to show their support for diversity and to take a stand against discrimination and hate. The rally was a response to protests conducted around Richmond by Westboro Baptist Church members, who are notorious for making inflammatory remarks about gay people, Jews and other groups.

Delegate Brenda Pogge of Yorktown has stepped forward to “disavow” controversial remarks made by Delegate Bob Marshall of Manassas suggesting that disabled children are a punishment for having an abortion. Read the story here or in the Williamsburg-Yorktown Daily.