News
Ignore ‘prophets of doom’ predicting end of religious life, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI asked nuns, brothers and priests not to listen to the “prophets of doom” who say that consecrated life has no future or that it has no meaning in today’s world. “Do not join the prophets of doom who proclaim the end or the lack of meaning of consecrated […]
Pope calls for protection of life, greater investment in families
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI called for greater investment in families and protecting life. As the Italian Catholic Church marked Day for Life Feb. 3, the pope used his Sunday Angelus address to echo the Italian bishops’ call “to invest in life and the family, also as an effective response” to the current […]
Priest says slain Texas man ‘exact opposite’ of those who took his life
NEDERLAND, Texas (CNS) — A Texas Catholic pastor remembered a former parishioner killed in an attack on an Algerian gas facility as being “a good man to everyone he met.” “Victor Lovelady was the exact opposite of the people who took his life,” Msgr. Dan Malain, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Church in Nederland said […]
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 […]