News
Nebraska’s bishops urge reversal of policy on student gender identity
The board had voted 6-2 just hours earlier to create a pathway for male students who identify as females to compete on girls' teams -- and females who identify as males to compete on boys' teams.
Pope receives official invitation to visit Rome’s mosque
A Muslim delegation formally invited Pope Francis to visit Rome's mosque, the largest mosque outside the Islamic world. It would mark the first time a pope visited the local mosque, which was opened in 1995.
Refugees in Lebanon plead with USCCB representatives for help in resettling
"We have come here to listen to your stories and to remind you that we are praying for you," Bishop Oscar Cantu of Las Cruces, New Mexico, chairman of the bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace, told the refugees.
No more waiting: Black Catholics mark Dr. King holiday with praise, rallying cry for justice
At the 33rd annual prayer service honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Catholics raised the roof of St. Katharine Drexel Church in Chester. Calls for year-round acts of mercy, charity and public protest marked the rousing service.
Area pro-lifers meet to study adoption as loving option
Participants at a pro-life summit gathered for Mass followed by talks on adopting children at birth. One speaker said only 2 percent of children from unplanned pregnancies are adopted; many of the rest are aborted.
Push for legalizing assisted suicide stalls out in New Jersey Senate
At least for the foreseeable future, assisted suicide will remain illegal in New Jersey. The state Senate's legislative session expired at noon Jan. 12, ensuring that a bill that would have legalized the practice would not come to a vote.
PREP religion teachers receive honors at cathedral
Mostly lay volunteers received awards last Sunday marking their anniversaries of teaching in parishes. A pastor and religious sisters were noted for serving the booming PREP classes for 1,500 Hispanic kids in Avondale.
Archbishop Francis Schulte, 89, dies in Darby hospital
The retired head of the Archdiocese of New Orleans and a former auxiliary bishop and priest of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, died Jan. 17 in Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital. He was 89.
Puerto Rico archbishop’s political opinion finds its way to Supreme Court
The gist of a Catholic archbishop's opinion, rendered in a guest commentary in a national magazine back in July, is today the basis of a U.S. Supreme Court case that has drawn local and international attention.
Teach the faith, expose extremism, Vatican official asks Arab leaders
"Extremism, with its violent tendencies, is incompatible with true religious ethics," said Comboni Father Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.