News

Because of Ebola crisis, people ‘can’t even go to church,’ says priest

Father McDonald Nah is praying that the people of Liberia are just as resilient with the Ebola outbreak as they were following the country's civil war more than a decade ago.

Lay missioner in Liberia says Ebola devastating villages, local economy

When Joe Sehnert moved to Liberia in 2011, he knew the risks of going to a Third World country. Ebola wasn't among them; the deadly virus historically has been limited to countries in East and Central Africa.

Real-life experience can strengthen church teaching, bishops tell synod

When Catholics see couples who are patient, kind, never jealous or rude, they "behold the beauty and simplicity and strength of married love," but the church also must learn to help and to heal those whose dreams for lifelong love have been shattered, said Scottish Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow.

Mixing it up: Synod members turn to metaphor to get message across

Pope Francis may be the universal church's undisputed master of metaphor and analogy, but other members of the Synod of Bishops on the family are showing a willingness to use snappy images to get their points across, too.

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.”

U.S. couple at synod calls for ‘robust, creative’ family programs

Existing diocesan programs and Catholic organizations aimed at helping Catholic families fulfill their vocation clearly are not strong enough to meet modern needs, a Wisconsin couple told the Synod of Bishops.

On sexual and medical ethics, synod fathers speak of ‘graduality’

In their discussions of sexual and medical ethics, participants at the Synod of Bishops on the family are giving emphasis to the concept of "graduality," as a way of thinking about morality that allows for human imperfection without compromising ideals.

Dinner to support vocations to priesthood

The archdiocesan Office for Vocations to Diocesan Priesthood and the Serra Club, District 28, will sponsor “Encouraging the Call to Priesthood Reception and Dinner” on Thursday, Oct. 23 at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.

Ladies first – Daughters of Charity mark 200 years in city

The congregation founded by two saints was the first order of religious sisters, sent by another saint, to minister in Philadelphia. Service to the poor has always been, and remains, a charism of the order.

Life of newly beatified New Jersey sister called ‘recipe for holiness’

More than 2,200 people packed the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark Oct. 4 to celebrate the first beatification liturgy in the United States.