News
West Chester Catholic school gets $5,000 from Giant supermarket
SS. Simon and Jude School, West Chester, received a generous donation of $4,950 from Giant Food Stores’ A+ School Rewards program on Thursday, May 23. The school was the top recipient from the Westtown Giant location, and one of the top recipients in the area. The A+ School Rewards program allows local schools to earn […]
Mater Dolorosa Parish plans farewell Mass, procession
Mater Dolorosa Parish, a beacon of faith in the Frankford area for over 100 years, will celebrate its farewell Mass on Sunday, June 30. A “procession of solidarity” begins the day’s events at 11 a.m., in which parishioners and friends are invited to gather at Paul and Unity Streets (the site of the original chapel and […]
15 men ordained deacons at Cathedral
Archbishop Charles Chaput ordained 15 married men of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to the permanent diaconate on Saturday, June 1 at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul. Almost all of the new deacons are college graduates and in keeping with the trend of Catholic migration to the suburbs, only one is a member of a Philadelphia parish.
Pope’s Sunday focuses on need for peace, gift of Eucharist
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The horror of war, the valor of peacemaking and the gift of the Eucharist were on Pope Francis’ mind June 2, the day Italy celebrates its establishment as a republic and the day most dioceses around the world celebrated the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. Pope Francis began […]
Pope ends Marian month meeting children with cancer, praying rosary
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- "Children are the ones Jesus loves most," Pope Francis told a group of young cancer patients and their parents at the Vatican May 31. The pope had invited the 22 children, who are being treated at the pediatric oncology ward of Rome's Gemelli Hospital, after they went on a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France and sent Pope Francis drawings of the shrine's famous grotto because he had never been there.
Hamas order would lead to the closing of two Catholic schools in Gaza
JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Five schools in Gaza -- two Catholic and three Christian -- face closure if the Hamas government follows through on an order forbidding coeducational institutions, said the director general of Latin Patriarchate Schools in Palestine and Israel.
Assignments for clergy in Archdiocese announced
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput announces 99 changes in assignment for priests and deacons in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Parishes in four regions of Philadelphia Archdiocese to merge July 1
Twenty-four parishes will merge into 10 as a result of the latest wave of parish consolidations in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s parish planning initiative. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput accepted the recommendations for the mergers from the Archdiocesan Strategic Planning Committee, and pastors at the affected parishes informed parishioners during all Saturday evening and Sunday morning Masses June 1-2. The mergers, in which the parishes will form new, consolidated parishes with some of the churches becoming worship sites, are occurring in four geographic areas: Lower Northeast Philadelphia, Northwest Philadelphia, West Philadelphia and Delaware County.
State legislators organizing to respond to religious freedom challenges
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- State legislatures, rather than the federal courts, are becoming the new battlegrounds over religious freedom, two state legislators acknowledged at the 2013 National Religious Freedom Conference. Citing examples of legislative proposals and the introduction of rules governing state-funded programs and schools, Oklahoma State Rep. Rebecca Hamilton, a Democrat, and Idaho State Sen. Curt McKenzie, a Republican, said they believe such efforts are intended to remove any religious influence from public life.
Keeping up with Francis: The nuances of Vatican communications
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Of the various innovations that Pope Francis has already introduced into the way a pontiff lives and works, one of the most significant is his celebration of weekday morning Masses with invited guests. The practice is revealing of the new pope’s character and of how he understands his role as leader […]