News
Marketing success: Allentown Diocese shows how to raise school enrollment
Allentown was the only diocese in Pennsylvania to show a school enrollment increase and the only diocese in the Northeast states to show an increase in elementary school enrollment. How did they do it? A bishop's committee looking into how to market the schools better included seven chief executive officers. The reasoning: If you want to sell a product, listen to people who know how to sell products. The EITC and OSTC state tax credit programs, plus the Healey Education Foundation, were also keys to success.
Foundation crucial to Allentown’s success now helping six schools in archdiocese
Part of the turnaround of the Allentown Catholic schools was the adoption of methods pioneered by the Healey Education Foundation. Along with funding by the Connolly Foundation, the methods are coming to schools in Philadelphia, Levittown and West Chester.
Most Catholics aren’t searching for spirituality online, study says
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Most U.S. Catholics are not looking for spirituality online, in fact, half of them are unaware the church even has an online presence, according to researchers at Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. The most widely used communication tool in Catholic Church is the parish bulletin, followed by a […]
The economic and moral dimensions in debt-ceiling debate
Economics professors from Villanova and other universities consider one of the biggest economic decisions the United States has ever faced: Do we increase the national debt ceiling, or allow the federal government's borrowing power to run out Oct. 17? And what are the moral implications of either choice?
Pope meets Rome Jews, commemorates deportations to Auschwitz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- At a meeting with members of Rome's Jewish community, Pope Francis denounced anti-Semitism and recalled the 1943 deportation of more than 1,000 of the city's Jews to the most notorious Nazi death camp -- an incident that has proven a major source of tension between the papacy and Jewish leaders. Of the more than 1,000 people sent to Auschwitz by the German occupiers on Oct. 16, 1943, just 16 eventually returned.
Pope declares medieval mystic a saint, without second miracle
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis advanced the sainthood causes of seven men and women, including a Canadian and an English founder of two religious orders for women. He also declared the Italian medieval mystic, Blessed Angela of Foligno, a saint, foregoing the usual process of canonization and without formally recognizing a second miracle.
New California laws mean big jump in number of abortions, says bishop
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CNS) -- New California laws allowing non-physicians to perform abortions and repealing some building regulations that govern abortion clinics "dramatically increase the availability of abortion" in the state, said the president of the California Catholic Conference.
Ambassador, priest pay tribute to Jesuits who perished in Holocaust
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (CNS) — Israel’s ambassador to the Holy See joined Oblate Father Thomas B. Curran, president of Jesuit-run Rockhurst University in Kansas City, in laying a wreath Oct. 9 at a plaque on campus that pays tribute to the more than 150 Jesuits who died at the hands of the Nazis. “It is […]
Pope meets Rome Jews, commemorates deportations to Auschwitz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — At a meeting with members of Rome’s Jewish community, Pope Francis denounced anti-Semitism and recalled the 1943 deportation of more than 1,000 of the city’s Jews to the most notorious Nazi death camp — an incident that has proven a major source of tension between the papacy and Jewish leaders. “It’s […]
Pope declares medieval mystic a saint, advances seven other causes
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis advanced the sainthood causes of seven men and women, including a Canadian and an English founder of two religious orders for women. He also declared the Italian medieval mystic, Blessed Angela of Foligno, a saint, foregoing the usual process of canonization and without formally recognizing a second miracle. Pope […]