them. he ll lay out the rest of his 2014 agenda january 28th in his state of the union address. fred? thank you so much, athena jones in han lulu. today is the first day new aelt insurance plans go into effect for americans who signed up for obama care. the u.s. supreme court has temporarily said two catholic church affiliated charities do not have to provide contraceptive coverage to its employees, as the administration touts new numbers saying what athena underscored, more than 2 million people signed you the for new health coverage which below the white house s goal of 3.3 million enroll yes by the end of december. joining us is conserbive radio talk show host ben ferguson and rea, democratic strategist good to see you as well. happy new year. happy new year to both of you. is the supreme court rule a
future will be better simply because it is the future, rather it is a hope that has its foundations precisely in god s blessings. cnn s erin mclaughlin is in rome. paced on what we ve seen the last nine months of his dynamic leadership is it safe to assume we ll be seeing more change this year? reporter: i think it is, fredricka. this morning we saw tens of thousands of people stream in to st. peter s square for this pope s very first new year s message. he talked about the importance of global fraternity and acceptance of diversity and then he went off script talking about a letter a man wrote to him, the man writing of his own personal tragedy, really just one more xarm of how this pope is in contact with normal people. today is world peace day, the catholic church making that. he talked about how peace really begins within our own household so a real continuation of some of the themes we saw throughout
obamacare reforms are kicking in. just last night, u.s. supreme court justice sonia sotomayor exempted to catholic based charities from the contraception mandate. let s look at this latest development from a couple of different angles. john allen and jim acosta, john, you first. what are these catholic groups specifically taking issue with and what does this reprieve really mean for them? good morning. well, what it means, basically, is that the white house has got 48 hours to respond. the stay is in effect only until friday then we ll see where it goes. there are about 45 faithbased groups. not just catholics, that have
supreme court and they want a decision fast, the state has filed an emergency appeal calling for the court to immediately block a federal ruling that awe loss same-sex couples to be legally married in the state. hundreds have already done so since the judge struck down the ban less than two weeks ago, supporters of gay marriage have until friday to respond to the state s appeal and it has been a year of reflection and refocus for the world s catholics as a new pope delivers a message of simplicity and fittingly it was a theme that echoed through his new year s day mass at the vatican. listen to his message of the faithful as he steers the church into a new year. translator: there is no more meaningful time than the beginning of the new year to hear these words of blessing, they will accompany our journey through the year opening up before us, they are words of strength, courage and hope, not based on frail human promises or a naive hope which presumes the
2013, but he has a lot on his agenda for the new year. nine months into his papacy, pope francis has transformed the roman catholic church. there were symbolic gestures and some reforms inside the vatican. 2014 promises more change. it s largely been a matter of style and words and gestures which electrified people and excited everybody and drawn a lot of attention and now we ll start to see concrete changes. reporter: many hope the first pope from latin america will bring greater diversity to the body responsible for selecting the next pope. february francis is expected to appoint at least 14 new cardinal electors, and then new saints. two popes are to be canonized on the same day in april, john the 23rd and john paul the ii, seen as more conservative.