WASHINGTON – Bil Keane, the Catholic cartoonist who originated the comic strip “The Family Circus” more than 50 years ago, died Nov. 8 at age 89 in Paradise Valley, Ariz., near Phoenix. The cause of death was given as congestive heart failure.Read More

VATICAN CITY – New biotechnologies raise questions in the fields of medicine, economics, ethics and philosophy, and the Vatican plans to look at all of them during a three-day conference devoted to adult stem-cell research, officials said.Read More

WASHINGTON – With the Senate preparing to take up the appropriations bill for foreign aid, Baltimore Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden called to mind some of his more vivid encounters with recipients of such assistance and how it affected their lives.Read More

Father Eugene Nickol resigned as pastor of Our Lady of the Fields in Millersville Oct. 25 following a recent archdiocesan audit of the parish’s financial and child and youth protection records. The audit showed a lack of “appropriate controls to ensure compliance with archdiocesan child protection and financial policies,” according to an Oct. 30 archdiocesan...Read More