News
Churches, faith groups across nation plan ‘preach-in’ on global warming
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Events that ended with the suffix “-in” were a staple of the late 1960s and early ’70s. But organizers think the time is right for a “preach-in” on the effects of climate change and global warming. Interfaith Power & Light, which is sponsoring the nationwide event Feb. 9-10, has already lined up […]
CRS Rice Bowl readies for Lenten campaign
Catholic Relief Services held its 2013 Rice Bowl kick-off event Jan. 29 at the St. Vincent de Paul Society food cupboard at Blessed Virgin Mary Parish, Darby. Auxiliary Bishop John McIntyre blessed sample rice bowls and Maureen McCullough, CRS regional director, thanked the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for its generous response to the program.
Pro-life Vietnamese offer dignified burial for aborted fetuses
HANOI, Vietnam (CNS) -- In a 160-square-foot hut 10 miles north of Hanoi, Anna Nguyen Thi Nhiem takes aborted fetuses out of a refrigerator and wraps them in white cloth and plastic bags, all the while saying prayers. She places about 20 tiny bodies into urns and buries them in freshly dug graves in the cemetery at Ben Coc sub-parish. "Aborted fetuses are saints and worthy of being interred properly," said Nhiem, a mother of four.
HHS offers new contraceptive insurance options, broadening exemptions
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Exemptions from certain requirements for contraceptive coverage in the Affordable Care Act will be broadened to include many more types of religious institutions and accommodate the needs of self-insured church entities.
Once more into the immigration law process: a familiar road
WASHINGTON (CNS) — They’ve been down this road before — trying to pass a far-reaching reform of the U.S. immigration system. The last time Congress passed a substantial immigration reform law in 1986, then-Father Nicholas DiMarzio, as director of Migration and Refugee Services for the U.S. Catholic bishops, was a part of coalition-building among interest […]
Cardinal Mahony relieved of public duties for past failure to protect children
LOS ANGELES (CNS) — Cardinal Roger M. Mahony will “no longer have any administrative or public duties” as retired archbishop of Los Angeles because of past failures to protect children from clergy sex abuse, Archbishop Jose H. Gomez announced Jan. 31. The archbishop’s statement came the same day the archdiocese released 12,000 pages of personnel […]
Students put their knowledge of faith to the test in Religion Bowl
SS. Philip and James School in Exton held a Religion Bowl Tuesday, Jan. 29 as part of its Catholic Schools Week activities. The competition featured six students in each of six grades – third grade versus fourth, fifth versus sixth and seventh versus eighth — answering questions on religion. The groups of contestants used a […]
Priests offer tips for Catholics long absent from the confessional
WASHINGTON (CNS) — After “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned” — even if they get that far — there are millions of Catholics who don’t exactly know what to say next. This is especially true for Catholics who have not gone to confession in years, or even decades. Despite parishes and dioceses inviting inactive […]
Archdiocese of Milwaukee seeks court relief to avoid financial woes
MILWAUKEE (CNS) — Nearly 25 months into the Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee continues to seek an answer to the question it has asked throughout the process: Who is eligible to make a claim? “How else are you going to satisfy them if you don’t know who has a claim?” Jerry Topczewski, […]
Media blitz can help youths find Gospel in digital deluge, speaker says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The best way the church can be heard and seen amid the deluge of the information age is to launch a media blitz of simple answers to life’s deepest questions, a young Catholic journalist told a Vatican news conference. “People always say it should be quality over quantity; perhaps this was […]