News
Catholic colleges gear up for U.S. papal visit with special programs, volunteering
The colleges located in the three cities where the pope is visiting -- Washington, New York and Philadelphia -- are particularly pulling out the stops by donating their parking spaces, rescheduling classes and sending groups of students as volunteers to help at papal events.
Nuns on the Bus tour seeks to ‘bridge the divides, transform politics’
At a time when Republican presidential candidates compete with one another in their demands for the federal government to spend less on social programs and to rein in illegal immigration, the sisters will carry a significantly different message on their tour.
Israel’s Christian students demonstrate against cuts in school budgets
Chanting slogans, waving banners and signs, and pounding on metal barriers, high school students who have not yet started classes, took the front row in the demonstration.
Protests, prayer provoke change in Guatemalan government
"Please rid us of this corruption and the leaders who have taken us down the wrong paths," prayed Father Hugo Estrada, Mass celebrant. "We ask that you be with this great nation of Guatemala."
New Jersey bishop urges people to do more to protect environment
He urged the hundreds of people in attendance "to decide what actions we must take here and now, not when it's too late" during the Mass Sept. 1 at Our Lady Star of the Sea Chapel in the ocean-side community that was severely damaged by Superstorm Sandy nearly three years ago.
Images, heart, faith come together in refugee response, Jesuits say
For eight years, Jesuit Father Peter Balleis has captured the beauty, the determination and the exhaustion in the faces of the migrants and refugees he has met around the world as international director of Jesuit Refugee Service.
Catholic policy advocates crossing fingers in advance of papal visit
"We're hoping and expecting that he is going to speak on issues of migration, and I'm hoping he'll talk about the dignity of those who are seeking a better life," said Jeanne Atkinson, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.
Tickets for major papal events offered today
Up to 20,000 tickets to see Pope Francis at the biggest public events during his two-day visit in Philadelphia will be available Sept. 9. Tickets to the Festival of Families are already gone; tickets for the papal Mass go up at 8 p.m.
Pope calls on Europe’s parishes to take in refugees
Given the ongoing crisis of people fleeing from war and poverty, Pope Francis asked every parish and religious community in Europe to take in one family of refugees as a sign of God's mercy.
Divorced Catholics will face simpler, cheaper annulments
Pope Francis rewrote Canon Law to minister to people who feel alienated from the church and the complexity of the annulment process. The changes go into effect Dec. 8. The Philadelphia Archdiocese has responded to the news.