RNS Opening Budget — Wednesday, August 18, 2021

The pope’s endorsement of the COVID-19 vaccines, prompted by a pro-vaccine campaign that involves six other cardinals and archbishops, comes as more U.S. Catholic dioceses issue instructions to their priests not to offer religious exemptions for those […]

NEWS STORY
RNS-Vaccines-Exemptions: As US bishops reject exemptions, Pope Francis dubs COVID-19 vaccine ‘act of love’
(RNS) — The pope’s endorsement of the COVID-19 vaccines, prompted by a pro-vaccine campaign that involves six other cardinals and archbishops, comes as more U.S. Catholic dioceses issue instructions to their priests not to offer religious exemptions for those whose employers are requiring vaccines. By Jack Jenkins and Claire Giangravé. 800 words. (category: a, i)

COMMENTARY
RNS-Joshi-Oped: The battle over CRT is a manufactured crisis. Here’s why we still have to fight it.
(RNS) — Four years after the white supremacist rally  in Charlottesville, Virginia, people are still gathering in public to present the same spectrum of thought, built on the same selective facts that support white Christian nationalism: they are the adults flocking to school board meetings to protect children from the manufactured crisis of “critical race theory.” By Khyati Joshi. 1,300 words. (category: k)