News
Secular Christmas seen as encroaching on Christian Advent season
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Already.
Caritas Philippines leader calls typhoon devastation ‘unimaginable’
MANILA, Philippines (CNS) -- The devastation brought on by Super Typhoon Haiyan is on a scale so big it is "unimaginable," said Jesuit Father Edwin Gariguez, head of Caritas in the Philippines. "This is beyond our capacity," he said. With about 600,000 people displaced by the storm, the task of getting aid to Filipinos posed a challenge in terms of coordination and the logistics.
Belgium’s faith leaders: Don’t allow kids to decide on own euthanasia
BRUSSELS (CNS) -- The president of the Belgian bishops' conference joined other faith leaders who criticized proposed legislation to extend euthanasia to children and dementia sufferers, warning the measure risks "destroying the functioning of society."
Family businesses win victory in suit over HHS mandate
INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) -- A Catholic family in Madison, Ind., that owns a vehicle lighting manufacturing company won an important religious liberty victory in a Nov. 8 ruling handed down by a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. An appeals judge ruled the family and their company cannot be compelled to provide abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations and contraceptives to their employees in their company health plan as required under the Affordable Care Act.
Women signing up fast for first conference in Phila. next month
The Catholic Women’s Conference titled “Feminine Genius: Every Woman’s Gift” will meet in Philadelphia Dec. 7. More than 350 women -- married, single and consecrated religious -- have registered so far, and there is capacity for 700 attendees to the all-day event at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
CRS asks bishops to take up second collection to aid Philippines
BALTIMORE (CNS) — Catholic Relief Services officials committed $20 million in emergency aid for survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan, expecting that the funds will come from a second collection the agency asked U.S. bishops to take in their dioceses before the end of the year. “Our goal is to serve 100,000 families, about a half […]
Church beatifies German nun who founded order for perpetual adoration
PADERBORN, Germany (CNS) -- A Catholic nun who was born into a poor rural family and founded a religious order has been beatified in her native Germany more than a century after her death. "It is written in the Bible that love of neighbor is linked inseparably to love of God," Archbishop Hans-Josef Becker of Paderborn said at the Nov. 10 beatification of Mother Maria Theresia Bonzel.
Archbishop: DOMA ruling, ENDA passage put marriage at ‘critical point’
BALTIMORE (CNS) — The Supreme Court’s ruling that rendered the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, and the Senate’s passage Nov. 7 of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act put the legal defense of marriage “at a critical point in this country,” said the archbishop who heads the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee on the Promotion and Defense of […]
Archbishop Kurtz, Cardinal DiNardo elected to top USCCB posts
BALTIMORE (CNS) -- UPDATED -- Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops by a wide margin Nov. 12. The archbishop, the current USCCB vice president, received 125 votes during the first round of balloting during the fall general assembly of the U.S. bishops in Baltimore. Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston was elected vice president, edging Archbishop Charles Chaput.
Bishops OK plan to address pornography in new statement
BALTIMORE (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops Nov. 12 approved the development of a pastoral statement on the dangers pornography poses to family life that would serve as a teaching tool for church leaders. On Day Two of their annual fall general assembly in Baltimore, the bishops voted 226 to 5 to allow the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth to develop the statement.