National News
USCCB welcomes Treasury Department guidance on ‘parking lot tax’
The USCCB also called for the full repeal of a provision in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that would tax houses of worship and other nonprofits for parking and transit benefits they provide to their employees.
Creche up for one day, then Delaware town’s leaders order its removal
Catholics members of St. Edmond Parish in Rehoboth Beach got verbal approval to erect the Kiwanis Club's creche in the town square, as it has for the past 50 years. But town leaders later objected after receiving complaints.
Catholic social teaching held up in efforts to overcome polarization
The basic message behind such efforts during the last year is simple: come to see perceived "enemies" as real people, deserving of respect and dignity.
New law will provide relief to genocide victims in Iraq, Syria
President Donald Trump has signed into law the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act of 2018, which will provide humanitarian relief to genocide victims in Iraq and Syria and hold accountable Islamic State perpetrators of genocide.
Young adults who leave church start at age 13, study shows
A new study on young adults leaving the Catholic Church found people stopped identifying as Catholics long before they ceased attending a parish. The leading reasons: church teaching on homosexuality and disbelief in religion.
U.S. bishops move to address allegations of abuse, claims of cover-up
Catholics felt betrayed by church leaders accused of sexual misconduct and cover-up revealed this summer and this cloud still hung over the church at the year's end.
Pilgrimage across U.S. lets peacemaker spread light from Bethlehem
For more than a decade, volunteers have driven the Peace Light, a flame kindled in Bethlehem, West Bank, from coast to coast, lighting hundreds of lanterns along the route.
High court won’t hear states’ appeals over defunding Planned Parenthood
Pro-life leaders said they were disappointed the U.S. Supreme Court declined Dec. 10 to hear appeals from Kansas and Louisiana on lower court rulings that have stopped the states from blocking Medicaid funds going to Planned Parenthood.
Venerating Cure d’Ars’ relic can help church ‘heal,’ says head of Knights
The incorrupt heart of St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, "reminds us God uses instruments to be ministers of his grace and mercy," said Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the U.S.
Priest sees his personal Christmas cards to parishioners as evangelizing
Father Frank Uter pens personal tidings in Christmas cards to 4,100 families at Immaculate Conception Church in Denham Springs and its mission church, Sacred Heart in Livingston.