National News
Catholic archbishop, Orthodox leader see significance in Havana meeting
"The new and critical factor at this point in history is the emergence of the Russian Orthodox Church in its willingness to join the world community at the ecumenical table."
Full day of confessions is opportunity for mercy, Minnesota priests say
An extended opportunity for the sacrament of reconciliation will begin at the St. Paul and Minneapolis co-cathedrals at noon March 4 and last until noon March 5 as part of 24 Hours for the Lord, a worldwide Year of Mercy event backed by Pope Francis.
Toledo Diocese closes Catholic Chronicle under plan to bridge deficit
The Toledo Diocese will cease publishing its newspaper, close its related website, end production of a weekly televised Mass and reduce spending at the diocesan pastoral center by 20 percent to plug a budget deficit.
EWTN says foundress Mother Angelica remains in ‘delicate’ condition
Members of her religious order, the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration at Our Lady of Angels Monastery in Hanceville, asked for prayers for her.
Death-row experience interweaves lives of priest, man he helped free
When Father Neil Kokoothe first met Joseph D'Ambrosio on Ohio's death row in December 1998, he intended to describe the funeral of the condemned man's mother.
Illinois state budget impasse seen as threat to social services network
In addition to the $25 million it is owed, Catholic Charities, one of the state's largest social service agencies, floats the state more than $2 million each month.
Bishop challenges Catholics to combat ‘ugly tide of anti-Islamic bigotry’
"We are witnessing in the United States a new nativism, which the American Catholic community must reject and label for the religious bigotry which it is," he said in a keynote address delivered Feb. 17 in the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice.
Bishop decries shootings in Michigan, prays for victims
Bishop Paul J. Bradley of Kalamazoo offered prayers at a Mass Feb. 22 for the six people who were killed and two others injured by a gunman. Other western Michigan churches also held memorial services.
Mourners praise life, legacy of Scalia, call his faith ‘remarkable’
Following the Feb. 20 funeral Mass for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, some who attended the funeral shared their profound admiration and fond memories of the late justice.
The deeper his faith, the better public servant Scalia was, says son
Just as many pilgrims are passing through the Holy Door at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in this Year of Mercy, the casket bearing the body of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia entered through the door Feb. 20.