VATICAN CITY – Despite being held in a cool, climate-controlled conference room, some early discussions at a Vatican-sponsored seminar on global warming and climate change got pretty heated. The rifts and tensions still dividing the global debate on the causes of and remedies for drastic climatic shifts were gently simmering in the small microcosm of...Read More

ST. LOUIS – Saying that it sent a “contradictory message” for a Catholic institution to raise funds by featuring a musician who supports abortion and embryonic stem-cell research, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke of St. Louis announced April 25 that he had withdrawn his support for an upcoming benefit for SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center.Read More

When St. William of York, Baltimore, youth minister, Wayne Hipley, started his youth ministry career five years ago, he was told to “go where the kids are “– meaning find out what activities young people are interested in, what music they are listening to and what is “cool” and incorporate it into the youth group...Read More

On Ann Hennessy’s first day of school at St. Anthony of Padua in Baltimore during the Great Depression, the young girl knew she had better be good or her parents would suffer otherworldly consequences. The pastor had given a rabble-rousing homily a few weeks earlier warning that the flames of hell awaited parents who did...Read More

Looking for help drawing up a will? Need advice on estate planning? Looking to stay fit after 50 or spend more time with grandchildren? The World Wide Web offers a plethora of resources to help seniors and their loved ones answer those and many other questions related to aging.Read More

Neil Lupton traveled from his home in Boston in early February to attend the Immaculate Conception, Towson, Boy Scout 50th Anniversary Celebration. It was there that he met up with four of his fellow troop members, Robert Carter, David Duley, Ed Bollinger and Michael Topper, whom he hadn’t seen for more than 45 years. The...Read More

WASHINGTON – A campaign finance reform law that limits certain types of “issue” advertising shortly before elections should not preclude ads that specifically mention a politician facing a tight election, the Supreme Court was told April 25 by the attorney representing Wisconsin Right to Life. In oral arguments on the court’s last day to hear...Read More

WASHINGTON – The U.S. bishops, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities USA, the National Catholic Rural Life Conference and Network, a Catholic social justice lobby, are joining more than a dozen other religious groups in advocating reforms in federal farm policy that could be implemented through the farm bill now working its way through Congress. The...Read More