JERUSALEM – After three days of Israeli attacks on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a local parish priest said the buildings are shaking, the bombing is continuous and “they are bombarding us like the demon.”Read More

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Two months after resigning as president of St. John’s University so he could focus on his treatment of malignant melanoma, Benedictine Brother Dietrich Reinhart died Dec. 29 at age 59.Read More

Parishioners of St. Leo in Little Italy were informed Dec. 28 that Michael Salerno, their former Pallottine pastor, admitted to the sexual abuse of a minor in the 1970s and that his faculties to function as a priest have been permanently revoked.Read More

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Christmas with a call to peace and a plea on behalf of the world’s children.Read More

WASHINGTON – A new study, to be published in February, shows that exposure to violent media makes adolescents more likely to be violent or aggressive themselves.Read More

JERUSALEM – Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal’s first Christmas message as patriarch of Jerusalem was one of hope and encouragement, without ignoring the Holy Land’s difficulties.Read More

ALBANY, N.Y. – A new budget released by New York Gov. David Paterson Dec. 16 that proposes $9 billion in spending cuts would eliminate a program used by Catholic schools and other independent and religious schools.Read More

January 1 marks the feast of the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God. The holy day of obligation falls on a Thursday this year. According to the Dictionary of the Liturgy, “this feast recognized Mary as the physical parent of Christ, the God-Man, defined at the Council of Ephesus in the fifth century.Read More