MCC from the Capitol

MCC Executive Director and General Counsel Jamie Morris discusses legislative victories and challenges from the legislative session with Curtis Wichmer, Legislative Counsel, and Dr. Guillermo Villa-Trueba, Hispanic Outreach Manager. 

Bishop James V. Johnston of Kansas City-St. Joseph gave the homily for the Midwest March for Life 2026 Mass.

In the latest MCC from the Capitol podcast, Jamie Morris, MCC Executive Director and General Counsel, discusses updates on legislation that the MCC is following with Curtis Wichmer, Legislative Counsel, and Dr. Guillermo Villa-Trueba, Hispanic Outreach Manager. They discuss the hearing on a bill to repeal the death penalty, a bill that would establish the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act, a bil...

Jamie Morris, MCC Executive Director and General Counsel, spoke with Fr. Peter Fonseca regarding the Catholic Church’s teaching on the dignity of human life and rejecting physician-assisted suicide. Fr. Peter Fonseca serves as the Director of Continuing Formation for Priests in the Archdiocese of St. Louis while pursuing a PhD in health care ethics at St. Louis University. He has a strong backgrou...

Executive Director and General Counsel, Jamie Morris, discusses legislation that the MCC is following with Curtis Wichmer, Legislative Counsel and Dr. Guillermo Villa-Trueba, hispanic Outreach Manager

Missouri is now one of just 10 states in the country with a correctional nursery program.  Before the program’s launch, incarcerated mothers were typically separated from their newborns within 24 to 48 hours after delivery. Infants were usually placed with relatives or sometimes were placed into the foster care system.  This program offers a different path—one grounded in dignity, healing, and the...

The Missouri Catholic Conference’s Legislative Counsel, Curt Wichmer, recently met with Emmjolee Mendoza-Waters, Director of the Catholic Mobilizing Network’s (CMN) Death Penalty Abolition Program, on the MCC from the Capitol Podcast. Topics of discussion included an outline of CMN’s mission and various efforts to curb the prevalence of capital punishment in the United States, as well as how Misso...

Recently, Dr. Guillermo Villa-Trueba, Hispanic Outreach Manager at the MCC, spoke with Dr. Javier Orozco, Executive Director of Human Dignity and Intercultural Affairs for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, and Sister Tracey Horan, Associate Director of Education and Advocacy at the Kino Border Initiative, about the different ways in which Catholics can serve our immigrant brothers and sisters. They sh...

Judy Henderson is a prominent advocate for criminal justice reform and women’s rights. She was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1983 and spent over thirty years in the Missouri prison system before her release in 2017. While incarcerated, Judy became a dedicated activist and outspoken critic of abuses within the prison system. She led campaigns for legislation to recognize battered woman syndrome...

The Missouri Catholic Conference reviews the 2025 Missouri legislative session. Discussion includes the passage of HJR 73, the demise of the immigration bounty hunter bill, and the passage of safe baby boxes.

With the Missouri General Assembly’s 2025 legislative session ending last week, the MCC is pleased to announce that SB 72 (better known as the Bounty Hunter Bill), SB 58, and other measures that posed a threat to the dignity of immigrants in the state, did not pass and thus will not become laws. The only bill related to immigration that will become a law makes translation and interpretation servic...

The MCC discusses the latest bills and upcoming 2025 legislative session focusing on immigration, criminal justice, child tax credits and abortion.

Curt Wichmer, Legislative Analyst at the MCC, recently spoke with Mary Varni, Director of the Respect Life Apostolate for the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Deb Sheppard, Director of the Life and Justice Office for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, and Sister Janine Tran, Respect Life Director for the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, about the dangerous and misleading language in Amendment 3...

Gabriel's Retreat Ministries helps women find love and support when expecting the unexpected. By meeting women where they are, Gabriel's Retreat provides love and support for them and their families to bring hope and peace in a time of unexpectedness. Participation in their retreats and programs will help women to nurture their faith as beloved daughters of God, grow in community with ot...

Msgr. Robert Kurwicki, Vicar General of the Diocese of Jefferson City, talks about his experiences as the Chaplain to the Missouri House of Representatives.

The Judicial Vicar of the Diocese of Jefferson City, Fr. Brad Berhorst, JCL, JV, discusses annulments on the MCC from the Capitol podcast. Many Catholics confuse civil divorce with the Catholic Church’s declaration of annulment. Fr. Berhorst discusses the differences, what constitutes a valid marriage, reasons that create an impediment to a valid marriage, and the annulment process.  If you have q...

Chuck and Linda Raymond discuss the lingering pain and guilt felt by women and men after an abortion. This podcast covers how to find healing and hope as individuals and couples and what resources are available through the Catholic church to help those who are wounded by abortion. You can view a list of resources available by diocese on the Missouri Catholic Conference website at https://mocatholi...

Bishop Edward M. Rice, of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, gave an impassioned homily during Mass at the Proto-Cathedral of St. Peter. The Mass was celebrated at the end of the Midwest March for Life on May 1, 2024, in Jefferson City, Missouri.

Jamie Morris, the MCC’s Executive Director and General Counsel, recently spoke to Jimmy Akin about the lack of civility in politics for our MCC from the Capitol podcast. Mr. Akin is a senior apologist at Catholic Answers and the host of Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. He is the author of several books including The Bible is A Catholic Book and Teaching with Authority: How to Cut Through Doctrinal C...

Missouri Catholic Conference Executive Director and General Counsel, Jamie Morris, talks with Rev. Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph. D. about the ethical concerns and Church teaching on In Vitro Fertilization. Fr. Pacholczyk earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did post-doctoral work at Harvard. He is a priest of the diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, and serves as Senior Ethicist at...

Jamie Morris, Executive Director and General Counsel of the Missouri Catholic Conference, talks with Sam Lee of Campaign Life about the status of the Abortion Initiative Petition. Jamie and Sam discuss in depth how the petition would enshrine abortion in the Missouri Constitution, allow abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, allow any healthcare provider, such as a dentist or doula, to per...

Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa talks with MCC, Executive Director, Jamie Morris, about New Wave Feminists and their advocacy for the vulnerable. New Wave Feminists is a pro-(all) Life feminist organization, that believe every human being should live a life free from violence, from the womb to the tomb.

Bishop Johnston of the Diocese of Kansas City/St. Joseph discusses the importance of the real presence of Jesus Christ being truly present in the Holy Eucharisst.

Bishop Edward Rice, Bishop of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, and MCC lobbyist Curt Wichmer discuss the history of the Catholic teaching on the death penalty and how the principle of double effect interacts with capital punishmentʼs validity, in this episode of MCC from the Capitol.