News
Gov. Corbett touts educational innovations in visit to Catholic ‘mission’ school
Governor Tom Corbett visited a Northeast Philadelphia Catholic grade school Jan. 18 and lauded a new educational model for Catholic schools in the city. Independence Mission Schools, a management organization for 16 independent Catholic elementary schools located in mostly poor city neighborhoods, also introduced its new president, Al Cavalli.
Faith groups begin to muster their members in support of gun controls
WASHINGTON (CNS) — If Vincent DeMarco is right — and he’s got a whole bunch of faith leaders and their organizations lined up to work with him — ending easy access to the kinds of high-power guns used in mass shootings can be accomplished with a tried-and-true strategy. DeMarco, national coordinator of Faiths United to […]
Recanting of former priest’s testimony has no bearing on Msgr. Lynn, lawyer says
Former priest Edward Avery pleaded guilty last year to child sexual assault, for which he is serving a term in prison. He recanted that testimony on the stand Jan. 17 at the trial of Oblate of St. Francis de Sales Father Charles Engelhardt and former Catholic school teacher Bernard Shero, whose trial began this week.
Abortion in America
The number of abortions performed annually in the U.S. hit a high point in 1988 and has been on a decline since.
Deacon: Rev. King’s civil rights advocacy marked by faith, hope, love
GARY, Ind. (CNS) -- The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. may have been a reluctant leader, "but he was willing to put himself out there," said Deacon Melvin R. Tardy Jr. He was "the right person for the moment" in the civil rights movement, said the deacon, an academic adviser at the University of Notre Dame. What separated Rev. King from other contemporaries was faith, hope, and love, he added.
Priest urges Catholics to regain ‘ardor’ for risen Christ to evangelize
SALT LAKE CITY (CNS) — To evangelize in today’s world, Catholics “need to recover their sense of ardor for Jesus risen from the dead,” a Chicago priest told attendees at the national Cathedral Ministry Conference in Salt Lake City. Father Robert Barron, a Chicago archdiocesan priest long involved in media ministry, also told his listeners […]
Citing conscience laws, Illinois judge halts contraceptive mandate
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Catholic owners of an Illinois health services consulting company have won a temporary restraining order against the state's contraceptive mandate. Judge Terence M. Sheen of the DuPage County Circuit Court granted the order Jan. 15 to Christopher and Mary Anne Yep and their company, Triune Health Group Inc., saying Illinois' conscience laws take precedence over the state mandate that the health insurance they provide to their employees must cover abortion, sterilizations and contraceptives.
Pro-lifer says activism has shown her ‘despair’ in abortion ‘mindset’
ARLINGTON, Va. (CNS) -- Pro-life activist Lila Rose was a just child when she first became aware of the tragedy of abortion. Growing up in San Jose, Calif., the third of eight children, "we were taught from a young age to love and respect human life," she told more than 150 pro-life advocates gathered at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Arlington for a mini-retreat. Rose, a 24-year-old Catholic convert, officially became involved with the right-to-life movement at 15 when she founded Live Action, a pro-life nonprofit specializing in investigative journalism.
Flu epidemic prompts some churches to stop offering Communion chalice
WASHINGTON (CNS) — This year amid the raging flu epidemic in the United States, several dioceses have issued recommendations for receiving Communion, offering the sign of peace and even attending Mass. According to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the flu season started earlier than usual this year. As of […]
Everyone, even atheists, has human desire to know who God is, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The desire to see and know God is innate in everyone, even nonbelievers, Pope Benedict XVI said. But it’s especially important that people don’t just seek God when they need him but make room for him throughout their busy lives, he said during his weekly general audience in the Vatican’s Paul […]