WASHINGTON – As the March unemployment numbers showed another increase in the percentage of jobless people, one profession is, perversely, in greater demand: those who can provide counseling services to people whose emotional distress has outpaced their financial distress.Read More

ST. LOUIS – Pope Benedict XVI has laicized a suspended priest of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau who had been hired by the board of directors of the St. Stanislaus Kostka Corp. to be pastor of its church in St. Louis.Read More

WASHINGTON – U.S. dioceses and religious orders spent more than $436 million in 2008 on settlements and other costs related to clergy sex abuse, a decrease of 29 percent over the $615 million paid out in the peak year of 2007.Read More

VATICAN CITY – In a letter to the world’s bishops, Pope Benedict XVI expressed regret that his lifting of the excommunications of four traditionalist bishops gave rise to a storm of protests and bitterness.Read More

WARSAW, Poland – Poland’s Catholic bishops said the Vatican has cleared them of collaborating with communist-era secret police.Read More

ALBANY, N.Y. – The possibility the Catholic Church will allow married priests shouldn’t be dismissed, New York Cardinal Edward M. Egan said March 10 during a radio interview.Read More

Monsignor Stuart Swetland, the vice president for Catholic identity and mission at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, will present a lecture on the “The Catholic Virtue of Patriotism: Being an Authentic Catholic and a True Citizen during Difficult Times,” at St. Ignatius in Hickory March 19 at 7:30 p.m.Read More

The quaint notion that The New York Times is the nation’s paper of record took another hit Feb. 23, when the Grey Lady ran a commentary on Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s appointment as the new archbishop of New York. Written by Michael Powell and headlined, “A Genial Enforcer of Rome’s Doctrine,” the article displayed a...Read More