News

Speakers address role of laity as church moves forward from abuse scandal

In introductory remarks during a conference examining the laity's role in helping the church move forward from the clergy abuse crisis, a speaker pointed out that what has happened impacts, and continues to affect, the whole church.

Chaput: Testing of Christianity today not a defeat but a new awakening

For the past three centuries, Western societies have worked hard to "to construct a harmonious moral life through human reason alone, without God," but "it doesn't work," Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput told a New York audience April 27.

Archbishop Chaput: Synagogue attack is an obscenity

The April 29 attack on Congregation Chabad Synagogue near San Diego, which left one dead and three wounded, stems from "the toxic nature of our politics on both the left and the right," said Archbishop Chaput, who calls on all area Catholics to pray for the local and national Jewish community.

Volunteers are the ‘backbone’ of Catholic Social Services’ success

Some of the more than 3,400 people who dedicated almost 92,000 hours last year to archdiocesan social ministries were honored recently for offering help to those who need it in the community.

As seasons wind down, Catholic teams jockey for playoff spots

John Knebels reviews the Catholic League's spring sports landscape as baseball, softball and girls and boys' lacrosse look toward perennial rivalries, the path to league championships and beyond.

Chilean bishops fear new measure would enforce breaking confession seal

The 155-member Chilean House of Representatives unanimously approved a measure April 23 that would add clergy and religious men and women to the list of police, members of the armed forces, teachers and civil servants who are obliged to report all crimes under article 175 of Chile's penal code.

Word of God must be ‘beating heart’ of church, pope says

Reading the Bible and praying with it is "the best vaccine" against Catholic communities closing in on themselves or focusing only on self-preservation, Pope Francis said.

Court upholds rule that House open each day it is in session with prayer

The decision from Judges David Tatel, Douglas Ginsburg and Harry Edwards also confirmed that the U.S. House chaplain, Jesuit Father Patrick Conroy, can reject a secular invocation to open the sessions.

As refugee child, she knew no English; now as teen, she’s poetry champ

At the end of April, Belise Nishimwe will share her vocal and inner power at a national poetry competition in Washington.

Church needs joyful disciples, pope tells young people, deaf association

In back-to-back audiences with a group of French young people and an Italian association for deaf people, Pope Francis cited personal example and witness as a vital piece in the church's evangelization mission.