Morning Catholic must-reads: 29/06/12

Pope Benedict conferred the pallium on 43 metropolitan archbishops in a revised rite in St Peter’s Basilica this morning (full text of homily, video).

Archbishop Joseph Coutts of Karachi was unable to attend the ceremony after he was hospitalised with pneumonia in Pakistan.

The American bishops urged Congress to pass legislation correcting “flaws” in President Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms following yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling upholding the new law (full text).

Benedict XVI praised Archbishop-elect Samuel Aquila of Denver for insisting that children are confirmed before making their First Holy Communion, David Kerr reports.

Dutch prosecutors said yesterday that a member of a religious order may have been involved in the suspicious deaths of 37 patients at a Catholic institute for the disabled in the 1950s.

Billboards are appearing in cities across the United States urging Catholics to “Quit the Church“.

Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City says that yesterday’s US Supreme Court ruling makes the court battle over the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate “even more important“.

Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster Abbey, says he hopes that the abbey choir’s historic appearance at the Sistine Chapel today will “move us forward on the long and winding road towards full visible unity“.

Phil Lawler is baffled by the latest twist in the dispute between Fr Frank Pavone, founder of the US Priests for Life, and his bishop.

And on the feast of SS Peter and Paul, Donald Prudlo raises a glass to “the less-than-stellar occupants of the Chair of Peter“.

For updates throughout the day follow me on Twitter @lukecoppen