News
Family-owned businesses challenge HHS contraceptive mandate in court
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Lawsuits filed by family-owned businesses against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ contraceptive mandate on moral grounds continue to make their way through the courts. The businesses offer a range of services, from making wooden cabinets to selling car supplies to and running a chain of arts and crafts stores, […]
Florida bishops say use of death penalty ‘sanctions revenge’
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CNS) -- Using capital punishment to show that killing is wrong "sanctions revenge," Florida's seven Catholic bishops said in a letter to Gov. Rick Scott. Meanwhile, in Colorado, Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila of Denver urged legislators to repeal the death penalty.
Legionaries, Regnum Christi members begin novena of atonement, healing
ROME (CNS) -- As the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi prepare for a new beginning after a Vatican-ordered reform, the groups are asking members to participate in a novena of atonement and healing in the aftermath of their founder's misconduct.
Ancient art form of iconography called ‘Scripture in paint’
ANNANDALE, Va. (CNS) — Veronica “Ronnie” Royal of Virginia has been an iconographer since 1998, working diligently to hone her craft and encourage the use of icons in contemplation and prayer. Born in Nancy, France, she was raised in the Ukrainian Catholic Church by her Russian mother and Ukranian father. Icons were very much a […]
Gosnell trial’s details lead to hearings on bill to protect fetus from pain
An Arizona congressman recently reintroduced a measure that would outlaw abortions in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks, and he and a number of other members of Congress want to amend it to make it nationwide. Congress has legislative jurisdiction over the district. "Today there is ample documentation that unborn children experience serious pain from at least the 20th week," said New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, who is a cosponsor of the bill. "No one wants to die a painful death. Unborn children deserve no less."
At Roman parish, pope gives children first Communion, catechism lesson
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Visiting an ordinary Rome parish for the first time as the city's bishop, Pope Francis gave a group of children their first Communion and a catechism lesson on the meaning of the Trinity.
Shelters along Mexican border strained by migrants returning from U.S.
SALTILLO, Mexico (CNS) -- Gerardo Bueso, 26, has been deported from the United States twice. He is trying a third time to reach the United States, where he previously worked as a gardener. "The (Honduran) economy is very poor so we (migrate) to get ahead," said Bueso, who was born in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, an industrial city now considered the murder capital of the world. He is among the more than a million immigrants deported from the United States over the past five years.
Pope Francis plans to complete encyclical on faith, spokesman says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Continuing a papal tradition of finishing a predecessor's work in progress, Pope Francis intends to complete an encyclical -- on the virtue of faith -- begun during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. Pope Francis was also said to be planning an encyclical on poverty, "understood not in an ideological and political sense, but in an evangelical sense." It will be called "Beati pauperes" -- "Blessed Are the Poor," said Bishop Luigi Martella of Molfetta, Italy.
Vatican organizing worldwide, simultaneous eucharistic adoration June 2
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Vatican officials are making strategic phone calls to some of the world's most far-flung dioceses, trying to verify that in each of the world's inhabited time zones there will be an organized hour of eucharistic adoration coinciding with 5-6 p.m. Rome time Sunday, June 2. The Vatican is trying to organize a global hour of prayer around the Eucharist "for the first time in the history of the church," said Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, the office organizing events for the Year of Faith.
Tanzanian bishop warns of rising threat from militant Islamists
OXFORD, England (CNS) -- The head of the Tanzanian bishops' conference warned of a growing threat from militant Islamists and urged police and government to act more forcefully against violence and intimidation. "Ordinary Muslims have nothing against the Christian religion and Catholic faith -- the only ones who do are fundamentalists, pressed and influenced from outside," said Bishop Tarcisius Ngalalekumtwa of Iringa, Tanzania.