National News
Faith leaders urge support of federal minimum wage legislation
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A group of religious leaders stressed the moral obligation to raise the federal minimum wage in an April 29 letter to Congress, describing increased wages as "indispensable to ensuring that no worker will suffer the indignity of poverty."
Politics called a moral vocation, with pitfalls for moral actions
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholic teaching may view politics as "a central element in building up the kingdom of God" and a "deeply moral" vocation, as San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop Robert W. McElroy described it, but politicians acknowledged at an April 28 forum that that can be a punishing standard.
Religious, political leaders share joy in canonizations of popes
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Religious, political and secular leaders congratulated the Catholic Church on the April 27 canonization of Sts. John XXIII and John Paul II. A summary of the statements follows:
NCEA hears that the new evangelization turns church to Jesus’ good news
PITTSBURGH (CNS) -- The new evangelization is not a new Gospel, but refocuses the faithful on the good news of Jesus and involves the renewal of faith and the willingness to share it, Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington told the National Catholic Education Association.
Farmer who wrote Pope John Paul II looks back on 1979 Iowa visit
TRURO, Iowa (CNS) -- People in and around the small town of Truro, southwest of Des Moines, still remember Joseph Hays as the farmer whose letter persuaded Pope John Paul II to come to Iowa during his, and any pope's, first tour of the United States in 1979.
Catholics pray at renamed St. John Paul II shrine during canonizations
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Nigerian native Lillian Ekwosi of Lanham, Md., didn't mind staying awake all night to witness the canonizations of Sts. John XXIII and John Paul II in a Northeast Washington shrine.
Federal court orders preliminary relief from HHS mandate for FOCUS
DENVER (CNS) -- The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado issued an order April 23 granting a preliminary injunction on enforcement of the federal contraceptive mandate against the Fellowship of Catholic University Students.
Archbishop says pastoral visit to troops in Afghanistan ‘deeply moving’
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- After returning from a Holy Week pastoral visit to U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the head of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services said it was "deeply moving" to spend time "with that portion of my flock which is serving the cause of peace and development" in that country.
New Hampshire priest gets four years in prison for felony theft
Msgr. Edward Arsenault pleaded guilty to stealing from his diocese, a Catholic hospital and the estate of a dead priest. He was sentenced to prison and ordered to repay the $185,000 he stole and to pay restitution, totaling about $300,000.
Catholic education is everybody’s ‘task,’ cardinal says in NCEA keynote
PITTSBURGH (CNS) -- Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington told Catholic educators in Pittsburgh for the National Catholic Educational Association's annual convention that "education is the task of all of us."