VATICAN CITY – The importance of marriage and the family and the values needed to sustain family life can be an appropriate starting point for interreligious dialogue, said an official of the Pontifical Council for the Family.Read More

I agree with Herman Schmidt’s letter (CR, Aug. 13), in which he is troubled by Richard Montalto’s letter (CR, Aug. 6), which states that Congress will pass a health plan in which the intention is not reform, but socialistic medical delivery system. Nothing could be better misstated.We can thank President Lyndon Johnson for the final...Read More

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Five Catholic priests and two women religious displaced by the Sri Lankan civil war and detained in refugee camps since May have been released.Read More

NEW YORK – Although security will be tight and tickets limited by the size of the venues that will host Pope Benedict XVI, careful arrangements have been made to allow him to interact with as many New Yorkers as possible during the visit, said Cardinal Edward M. Egan of New York.Read More

Sister Jean Clare Rohe, O.S.F., works four mornings a week as a rectory receptionist, and that, along with a ready wit and quick recall, makes it hard to believe she’s 90.Read More

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy – Without well-prepared priests, “the new evangelization” of society will be just a slogan, Pope Benedict XVI said.Read More

NEW ORLEANS – U.S. communities of women and men religious need to reach out to young Catholics to let them know about religious life and those communities also should have a full-time vocations director, said a Mercy sister involved in a new major study of vocations.Read More

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien challenged 90 presidents and principals of Catholic schools to take a more proactive role promoting vocations to the religious life.Read More