A day after Gov. Martin J. O’Malley released his Jan. 20 budget in Annapolis, leaders of the Maryland Catholic Conference expressed grave concerns about how it could hurt the poor, children in nonpublic schools and the unborn.Read More

PHILADELPHIA – Who’s that you’re seeing on YouTube? Yes, it is really Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia. The cardinal is providing video reflections for each Sunday of Lent, as well as for Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter on the free, video-sharing Web site, which allows users to upload, view and share video clips. Once...Read More

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican has struck a positive tone as it opens relations with the administration of President Barack Obama, emphasizing hopes for cooperation on issues of peace and social justice, and – for now – downplaying differences on moral questions like abortion.Read More

WASHINGTON – Lack of federal funding could jeopardize therapeutic advances made in using umbilical cord blood for curing diseases, said Richard Doerflinger, deputy director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. Doerflinger told Catholic News Service that the bishops supported the 2005 law which authorized funds for collecting and storing cord blood and for...Read More

BRUSSELS, Belgium – Retired Belgian Archbishop Jean Jadot, former apostolic delegate in the United States, died Jan. 21 at his home in Brussels. He was 99 years old.Read More

According to Katie McGuire, marketing and communications manager for the Greater Chesapeake and Potomac blood services region of the American Red Cross, giving blood is quick and simple. The 1995 graduate of The John Carroll School, Bel Air, said the actual process of giving blood lasts about 10 minutes, while the entire process takes just...Read More

With many schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore facing declining enrollment and dwindling revenue, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien has appointed two prominent local Catholic figures to help enact his plan of reinvigorating the Catholic schools.Read More

BUCHAREST, Romania – Historians and communist-era diplomats have cast doubts on a former Romanian general’s claim that he helped with a KGB plot to portray Pope Pius XII as a Nazi sympathizer in order to weaken the Catholic Church. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, a Romanian intelligence chief under dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, said that between 1960...Read More