US Catholic bishops focused on marriage, religious liberty
US Catholic bishops focused on marriage, religious liberty
BALTIMORE (AP) — U.S. Roman Catholic bishops, at their first assembly since gay marriage became legal nationwide, vowed Monday to uphold marriage as only the union of a man and a woman and to seek legal protections for those who share that view.
Some bishops said they were committed to reversing the U.S. Supreme Court same-sex marriage ruling last June. Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, said a concerted effort was needed to “build a consensus” to do so. As a model, he pointed to new state laws that have made it harder to obtain an abortion, even as the procedure remains legal nationwide.
“I don’t think because five Supreme Court justices changed the public policy on such a fundamental issue that we should just accept it. I think we have to be as strong as we have on the pro-life issue,” Naumann said at the gathering of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore.
Bishop Robert Baker of Birmingham, Alabama, said the bishops should join other religious groups in working to protect government workers who refuse to participate in same-sex weddings. The bishops have not said specifically what kind of conscience protections they support for civil authorities.
“I hope we will not back away from that advocacy,” Baker said.
Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, president of the bishops’ conference, highlighted the bishops push for religious exemptions for charities, schools and individual for-profit business owners who oppose gay marriage and other laws and regulations.
Sheriff: 6 dead in campsite attack; man charged with murder
PALESTINE, Texas (AP) — Six people were killed at a Texas campsite and a suspect has been arrested and charged in the weekend homicides, authorities said Monday.
Anderson County Sheriff Greg Taylor said the bodies were found in rural Anderson County, southeast of Dallas.
William Hudson, 33, is charged with one murder count and is being held on $2.5 million bond. It was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney who could comment on the allegations.
Authorities have not yet revealed a motive for the slayings or said how the people were killed. They also haven’t released the victims’ names and ages.
The bodies of a man and a woman were found Sunday in a travel trailer at a campsite next to the suspect’s residence, according to the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office. Four males initially thought missing were found dead Monday afternoon in a pond on the suspect’s property.
One woman survived.
Western US hit with blast of winter-like weather
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A wintry blast of air brought blizzard-like conditions Monday to parts of the West after whipping up a damaging tornado in Central California and buffeting the Los Angeles area with gusts topping 70 mph, forecasters said.
Drivers in Southern California mountain areas were urged to use caution as light snow and hail fell at elevations as low as 4,000 feet. Powerful winds knocked down branches and caused scattered power outages.
Blowing snow and ice also slowed traffic on mountain highways in northern Arizona and New Mexico as the weather system moved east.
As much as 18 inches of snow was possible when Colorado gets hit later Monday, the National Weather Service said. The worst conditions were expected early Tuesday in areas south and east of Denver and on the Eastern Plains.
The storm that originated in the Gulf of Alaska could be a harbinger of El Nino, the ocean-warming phenomenon that’s predicted to bring heavy rain to the West in the coming months, said Kathy Hoxsie of the National Weather Service.
Marriott becomes world’s largest hotelier, buying Starwood
NEW YORK (AP) — Hotel behemoth Marriott International is becoming even larger, taking over rival chain Starwood in a $12.2 billion deal that will catapult it to become the world’s largest hotelier by a wide margin.
The stock-and-cash deal, if completed, will add 50 percent more rooms to Marriott’s portfolio and give it more unique, design-focused hotels that appeal to younger travelers.
The acquisition is likely to start another round of hotel mergers.
“This causes everybody in the business to look around and say: we don’t want to be the smallest,” said Bjorn Hanson, a professor at the Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University.
The latest deal would leave Marriott with 5,500 properties and more than 1.1 million rooms around the world, uniting Starwood’s brands, which include Sheraton, Westin, W and St. Regis, with Marriott’s two dozen brands including Marriott’s Courtyard, Ritz-Carlton and Fairfield Inn.