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Slowed economy forces USCCB to freeze wages, budgets in 2009 WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The slowed economy has forced officials at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to freeze wages and department budgets for 2009. Msgr. David Malloy, USCCB general secretary, made the announcement to staff Dec. 11. Mercy Sister Mary Ann Walsh, USCCB director of media relations, said the step became necessary when investment income fell as the economic situation worsened throughout 2008. She said conference officials decided to roll back individual department budgets to 2008 levels even though the bishops approved a 2.25 percent increase in allocations to conference programs at their annual fall meeting in November. The wage freeze became necessary in large part to meet pension obligations, Sister Mary Ann told Catholic News Service Dec. 17. At CNS, which is part of the USCCB communications department, Anthony Spence, director and editor in chief, said the news agency is working to minimize the impact of the budget freeze. Staff members belong to the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild and are under contract to receive a 3.25 percent wage increase Jan. 1. Spence said he has scheduled a meeting with guild representatives to seek "some accommodation that will acknowledge CNS' financial condition."

Researcher says days of Catholics who 'pay, pray and obey' are gone MIAMI (CNS) -- The days of Catholics who "pay, pray and obey" are gone and likely never coming back, according to a sociologist who has studied the beliefs and practices of American Catholics for more than two decades. As a result, the church must find ways to reach new generations of Catholics who "don't think church leaders are any wiser or any holier than they are," said Purdue University's James Davidson, who spoke at the opening session of the annual gathering of the Catholic Theological Society of America. Davidson has conducted research on four generations of American Catholics, divided in relation to the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council: pre-Vatican II, those born in 1940 or earlier; Vatican II, born 1941-1960; post-Vatican II, born 1961-1982; and millennial, born since 1983. His findings set the tone for the June 5-8 conference, the theme of which was "Generations." Today's Catholics are generally better off financially, better educated and more integrated into mainstream American culture than their pre-Vatican II counterparts, Davidson said. They are no longer outsiders or victims of discrimination for whom the church was a refuge. They also grew up in a church where the emphasis shifted from the hierarchy to the people of God, from the ordained to the baptized. "These formative experiences have lasting effects on the way Catholics think and act," more so than age or any other factor, Davidson said.