Nation IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : Bishops Dismayed at Calls for Welfare Cuts

U.S. Catholic bishops expressed surprise and dismay at likely Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s call for cuts in welfare payments and for private charities and orphanages to pick up the slack. Auxiliary Bishop John H. Ricard of Baltimore and others said private charities do not have the resources to step in if the federal government approved the sorts of cutbacks that Gingrich and other Republicans are proposing. Such policies, they add, would attack poor families rather than the sources of poverty. The reaction came at the semiannual meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is also addressing such issues as the role of women in the clergy and sexual abuse by priests.