National News
Document offers church’s hope for farmers as ‘agricultural leaders’
While today's family farmers worldwide are tested as never before, the church believes they can contribute to a more just ordering of life, said a new document issued Dec. 7.
Alabama man executed after Supreme Court denied stay
The Supreme Court did not offer an explanation for any of the orders it issued in his case. In November, it granted a last-minute hold to stop another Alabama man's death sentence but gave no reason there either.
Thousands gather for Walk With Mary in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe
People on the sidewalks of Washington momentarily stopped their holiday shopping and paused in the cold Dec. 10 to take in the sight of hundreds of pilgrims processing through the streets alongside images of Mary.
Ohio lawmakers send governor two bills restricting abortion
UPDATED - On Dec. 8, lawmakers passed a measure to ban abortions in the state after 20 weeks. On Dec. 6, they approved legislation that would ban abortions when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is usually at about the sixth week of pregnancy.
Allentown Bishop John Barres named to Rockville Centre Diocese
Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop William Murphy and appointed Bishop Barres, 56, to succeed him as head of the Long Island, New York, diocese.
Bishop Burbidge urges Catholics to witness faith in public
At his installation as head of the Arlington Diocese, the Philadelphia native bishop called for Catholics to imitate the witness of St. Thomas More by bringing the Gospel to the public arena -- but there will be a price to pay for doing so.
Oakland Catholics offer prayers, support for fire victims
Parishioners, priests, students and Catholic Charities' workers have been helping victims of the Dec. 2 fire that erupted in an Oakland warehouse, killing 36.
Black pro-life leaders hold rally outside Planned Parenthood in D.C.
African-Americans make up just under 13 percent of the U.S. population, but "they represent over 30 percent of all abortions," said Alveda King, niece of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., leading a pro-life rally outside a new $20 million facility.
Panel: Genocide, wars, indifference will make Mideast Christians extinct
Establishing a safe haven for Christians while rebuilding their devastated homelands is preferable to massive permanent resettlement to other countries, including the United States, said speakers at an interfaith forum in New York.
Priest-historian: 75 years later, Pearl Harbor ‘such a powerful event’
The Dec. 7, 1941 attack by the Japanese on the Hawaiian outpost and the 9/11 terrorist attacks were both "cataclysmic events that galvanized our country," said the head of military chaplains, Father Daniel Mode, at the Pentagon.