News
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 […]
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 […]