News
Today’s teaching on the family
See the daily excerpt from the preparatory catechesis for the 2015 World Meeting of Families, “Love is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive.”
Vatican watcher sees ‘something extraordinary going on’ with Pope Francis
Longtime journalist John Allen, speaking at the Cardinal John Foley lecture Tuesday night, pointed to the pope's mastery of communications, his personal qualities underlying it and how all Catholics should employ it.
After his two years as pope, ‘Francis effect’ has taken hold
Pope Francis provides both comfort and challenges to Catholics, according to a panel of U.S. Catholic leaders March 10. He is "reimagining how the church presents itself to the world," said one speaker.
Bishops urge people to pray for those who face religious persecution
Leaders of the U.S. bishops' conference invited people to pray for "those facing the stark reality of religious persecution in the Middle East and elsewhere."
Investors convince PNC to stop financing mountaintop removal mining
Faith-based investors lauded PNC Financial Services' decision to no longer finance coal-mining firms' major mountaintop removal ventures in Appalachia.
Mexico bishops hear Pena Nieto’s plans for re-establishing public trust
Auxiliary Bishop Eugenio Lira Rugarcia of Puebla, secretary-general of the Mexican bishops' conference, described the discussion with the president and Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong March 10 as, "open," and, "frank," as the prelates spoke of issues causing concern for the faithful and citizens at large.
Christians either follow God or they’re corrupt hypocrites, pope says
"Jesus says, 'Whoever is not with me is against me.' Well, can't there be a compromise -- a bit here and a bit there? No. Either you are on the path of love or you are on the road of hypocrisy," he said March 12 in the homily at his early morning Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae where he lives.
Hearing confession is source of grace, conversion for priest, pope says
Hearing a Catholic's confession should be awe-inspiring for a priest, an experience that makes him look at his own life and willingness to convert, Pope Francis told a group of seminarians, new priests and priests who hear confessions in the major basilicas of Rome.
Pope to celebrate Holy Thursday Mass at prison, wash feet of detainees
The Vatican announced March 11 that the pope will visit the Rebibbia detention facility on the outskirts of the capital April 2, then celebrate Mass in Our Father Church on the grounds of the complex.
Cardinal Egan’s ‘pearl of great price’ described as his faith in Jesus
At his funeral Mass March 10 in New York's splendid St. Patrick's Cathedral, Cardinal Edward M. Egan was remembered as a churchman whose faith in Jesus Christ outshone even his considerable temporal qualities.