News
Catholic group enlists young adults to help people ‘lift themselves up’
BALTIMORE (CNS) -- When Towana Bowers-Scott looks at Anthony Newman, she doesn't see a youthful do-gooder spending his second post-college year doing a year of service for a Catholic organization. The 30-year-old Baltimore high school dropout sees a tireless tutor determined to help her pass her GED high-school equivalency exam. "He don't give up on us," Bowers-Scott said, following a tutoring session with Newman at the McElderry Park Community Resource Center in an east Baltimore neighborhood littered with boarded-up houses and all of the markings of extreme poverty.
Sister Catherine Shean, M.M.S.
Sister Catherine Shean, M.M.S., a Medical Mission Sister who lived at St. Joseph’s Manor in Philadelphia, died Oct. 1 in Philadelphia. She was 97 years old. After receiving her diploma as a registered nurse from St. Vincent’s Hospital inNew Yorkin 1937, Sister Catherine worked as a nurse at several health facilities before entering the Medical […]
Papal butler says he’s innocent of theft, but guilty of betraying pope
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Paolo Gabriele, the papal butler charged with stealing and leaking papal correspondence, said he was innocent of charges of aggravated theft, but "I feel guilty for having betrayed the trust the Holy Father placed in me." "I loved him like a son," Gabriele said of the pope during the second day of his trial. The morning session of the trial Oct. 2 also featured brief testimony by Cristina Cernetti, one of the consecrated laywomen who work in the papal apartment; and longer testimony by Msgr. Georg Ganswein, Pope Benedict XVI's personal secretary.
Missouri Catholic businessman to appeal judge’s decision on HHS lawsuit
ST. LOUIS (CNS) — A federal court ruling that rejected a Catholic St. Louis business owner's challenge to the federal mandate that employee health insurance cover contraceptives will be appealed to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. U.S. District Judge Carole Jackson Sept. 28 granted the Obama administration's motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed […]
US Catholics urged to renew commitment ‘to defend’ life during October
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- During October, designated each year as Respect Life Month by the U.S. Catholic Church, Catholics should "renew their personal commitment to defend all human life, especially the most vulnerable members of the human family," said the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities.
Archbishop urges Catholics to follow pope’s ‘road map’ of faith renewal
LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- In a wide-ranging address at the eighth annual Los Angeles Catholic Prayer Breakfast, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia spoke of the "debris of failure" that must be dealt with if the Catholic Church in America is to be truly renewed. The archbishop said the obvious problems include the clergy sex abuse crisis, a decline in priestly vocations, struggling Catholic schools and parishes, years of deficit spending and unrealistic financial management, and drastic demographic changes.
Sister Rita Tassinari, M.P.F.
Sister Rita Tassinari, M.P.F., 70, died Sept. 25 at the St. Joseph Hall Infirmary, Morristown, N.J. Born in Somerville, Mass., Sister Rita entered the Religious Teachers Filippini on July 14, 1951, and made her religious profession Aug. 27, 1961. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education from Seton Hall University, South Orange, […]
La Milagrosa to be sold by Vincentians to benefit order’s retirees
The Congregation of the Mission, also known as the Vincentians, intends to sell Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Chapel and other properties in order to support the retired priests and brothers of the order in Spain, where it is headquartered in Barcelona. Best known in the Hispanic community as La Milagrosa, the chapel is associated with the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul and located just blocks from the cathedral at 1903 Spring Garden St. in Philadelphia. In a statement released Sept. 28, the Archdiocese said it does not own the property and does not have the funds to purchase it from the Vincentians.
Puerto Rican mass at Cathedral
On Sept. 27 at the Cathedral Basilica of SS Peter & Paul Archbishop Charles Chaput celebrated the annual Puerto Rican mass with a dozen other priest and deacons from the archdiocese. Coral Nueva Creacion Choir with Damaris Thillet and Diego Correa provided music for the night. Before mass there was a procession of the holy rosary.
True marriage ‘part of natural law,’ archbishop says in pastoral letter
Marriage is "not created by law or the state" because it is "a natural and pre-political institution," Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark said in a pastoral reflection issued Sept. 25. "How long would the state permit churches, schools or parents to teach their children that homosexual activity is contrary to the natural law if homosexual marriage were a civil right?" he asked. "Already in Canada and other democratic nations 'hate speech' laws have been used to harass or even arrest clerics who preach the biblical message about marriage."