News
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 […]
Why not women priests? The papal theologian explains
Some Catholics persist in asking why, as traditional distinctions between the sexes break down in many areas of society, the Catholic clergy must remain an exclusively male vocation, and what this suggests about the church's understanding of women's worth and dignity. Few are as well qualified to answer such questions as Dominican Father Wojciech Giertych.
Ravens player says his Catholic faith plays ‘huge role’ in life, career
ROCKFORD, Ill. (CNS) -- Sean Considine, a safety for the Baltimore Ravens who played three seasons for the Philadelphia Eagles, is the first to point out that he belongs to some important families -- God's family, the family his parents began, his hometown community, the family he shares with his wife and four children, and the NFL.
Experts, activists address effects of 40 years of legal abortion
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- To Gerard Bradley, leading constitutional scholar and professor at the University of Notre Dame's law school, "abortion is the greatest civil rights issue of our time." Bradley was one of several speakers from the legal and medical fields who joined activists at the National Press Club in Washington for a conference on "The Future of Roe: Women, Health and Law in the Obama Era," sponsored by Americans United for Life.
Sister Virginia Stallings, S.S.N.D., longtime teacher, dies at 92
Sister Virginia Stallings, S.S.N.D., who taught elementary and junior high school grades in four states for more than 25 years before becoming a high school librarian at the Institute of Notre Dame in Baltimore, died Jan. 27 at Maria Health Care Center in Baltimore. She was 92 years old and had recently celebrated her 70th […]
St. Barbara Parish to hold Mardi Gras party
A “Mardi Gras Cabaret” sponsored by the St. Barbara Social Trendsetters, Knights of Peter Claver & Ladies Auxiliary, #326, will be held Saturday, Feb. 9 in the St. Barbara Parish Hall, 54th St. and Lebanon Ave. in Philadelphia from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Tickets price is $15 and includes set-ups and beer. BYOB and BYOF. Come dressed for […]
Known for keeping many friendships, Msgr. Degnan dies at 91
Born Aug. 20, 1921 in Norristown, the son of the late Henry B. and Elizabeth E. (Boyle) Degnan, he attended St. Patrick School in Norristown and West Catholic High School before entering St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. He was ordained May 22, 1948 by Bishop J. Carroll McCormick, and his first assignment was as parochial vicar […]
Don Guanella Village, serving intellectually disabled men, switching to cottage homes for care
An era will end when, as announced recently, Don Guanella Village begins to move from a full campus-based program to smaller, community-based group homes. The facility for intellectually disabled men in Springfield, Delaware County has been run by archdiocesan Catholic Social Services for almost half a century.