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Overview: With 678,000 jobs added in February and the jobless rate falling to 3.8%, the labor market showed some positive signs. The administration and Congress are focused on the war in Ukraine, but negotiations on the omnibus bill continue. CCUSA wholeheartedly supports the administration's decision to offer Temporary Protected Status to Ukrainians currently living in the United States. We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Ukraine and all people of goodwill in praying for a swift end to this war.

POTUS: In his State of the Union address this week, President Biden asked Congress for a number of items that CCUSA and the Catholic Charities network support: More affordable housing, cutting the cost of child care, and extending the Child Tax Credit.

Economy: In the week ending February 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial [unemployment insurance weekly] claims was 215,000, a decrease of 18,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 232,000 to 233,000. The U.S. added 678,000 jobs in February and the jobless rate fell to 3.8%. 

Funding the government: Lawmakers continue negotiations on the omnibus appropriations bill to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year. The war in Ukraine has complicated matters. Now the administration is asking for additional funds for Covid-19 aid and assistance to Ukraine. The latest continuing resolution to fund the government ends a week from today, March 11, 2022.

Public charge: At the time of writing this newsletter, the Homeland Security Department had yet to publish a proposed rule to amend the federal "public charge" provisions. Once it does, CCUSA intends to participate in the public comment period. 

Webinar on tax credits: A number of groups are holding an interfaith webinar about the Child Tax Credit and EITC expansions on Wednesday, March 16 at 1pm. This webinar is for faith leaders, service providers and others assisting individuals to claim the expanded CTC and EITC benefits this tax season. Register here.

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As the fighting in Ukraine continues, we pray that the war will end soon. One of the targets of Russian aggression is the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Washington Weekly shares a brief history of this particular Church, taken from the website of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia:

"The Ukrainian Catholic Church, largest of the Eastern Catholic (also known as Eastern rite or Greek Catholic) churches, in communion with Rome since the Union of Brest-Lуtovsk (1596). Byzantine Christianity was established among the Ukrainians in 988 by St. Volodуmуr and followed Constantinople in the Great Schism of 1054. Temporary reunion with Rome was effected in the mid-15th century, and a definitive union was achieved at Brest-Lуtovsk in 1596, when Metropolitan Michael Ragoza of Kуіv and the bishops of Vоlоdуmуr, Lutsk, Polotsk, Pinsk, and Kholm agreed to join the Roman communion, on condition that their traditional rites be preserved intact. The Orthodox did not accept the union peaceably; and the bishops of Lviv and Przemyśl, as well as the Orthodox Zaporozhian Cossacks, opposed the re-union. In 1633, the Metropolia of Kyiv returned to Orthodoxy, while Lviv joined the union in 1702, and by Przemyśl in 1692.

"The partition of Poland at the end of the 18th century brought all Ukrainians, except those in the province of Galicia, under Russian control; and by 1839 the tsarist government had forcibly returned the Ukrainian Catholics to Orthodoxy. Galicia meanwhile came under the domination of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and in 1807 it was organized into the Metropolia of Lviv. With the occupation of Galicia by (the) Soviet army in 1939, all church activity was suppressed, and the hierarchy was interned. In 1944 the Soviet authorities began to put pressure on the Ukrainian bishops to dissolve the Union of Brest-Lytovsk. On their refusal, they were arrested and imprisoned or deported. A spurious synod in 1946 broke the union with Rome and "united" the Ukrainian Catholics with the Russian Orthodox. Not until December 1989, during the general liberalization of Soviet life, was the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church again made legal.

"A great number of Ukrainian Catholics immigrated to the Americas and western Europe between 1880 and 1914 and again after World War II. They are organized into the Metropolia of Canada, with the sees of Winnipeg (metropolitan see), Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Toronto, and the Metropolia of the United States, with the metropolitan see in Philadelphia and the eparchies of Stamford, Connecticut, and St. Nicholas of Chicago."

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Q. On March 4, 1979, which pope released his first encyclical, and what is the encyclical's title?

Please send your answers to [email protected]. 

Last week's question and answer:

Q. What event comes before Easter but is not part of Lent, and what are the three parts that make up the one event?

A. Thanks to Mary Iapalucci, parish social ministry developer at Catholic Charities of Long Island, for being first to provide the right answer: The Triduum, which consists of the Mass of the Lord's Supper (Holy Thursday), Good Friday of the Lord's Passion, and Mass of the Resurrection of the Lord (post sunset on Holy Saturday).

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