Tristan Deppe acknowledges that then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s “Introduction to Christianity” was not exactly at the top of his reading list. But the text by the future Pope Benedict XVI was just one of several weighty theological works the 16-year-old parishioner of Immaculate Heart of Mary, Baynesville, read for the first time last semester as one...Read More

Regarding “Parishes introduce new settings” (CR, Sept. 15), I do not disagree with the view that, in an archdiocese as diverse as ours, “it would be catastrophic to only have had one or two musical settings of the new translation to choose from.”Read More

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Catholic Campaign for Human Development has been waging a new media campaign to raise awareness in the nation, especially among the nation's Catholics, about the extent and impact of poverty in America. "Right now in America 37 million people are working to become independent while struggling to afford the very basics...Read More

WASHINGTON - New York Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, told President Barack Obama in a Sept. 20 letter that his administration’s fight against the Defense of Marriage Act will undermine marriage and create a serious breach of church-state relations.Read More

I wish to respectfully disagree with James Dickinson’s letter (CR, Jan. 4), in which he states that the right to life should take issue before all others – meaning the end of legal abortion. I agree with him that Democrats should change the pro-abortion platform. In the same breath, if the Republicans think that prolife...Read More

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien is urging the Obama administration to back down from a pending health mandate that he believes violates the conscience rights of Catholic health care providers and others.Read More

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The resignation of a Polish archbishop over spying revelations has highlighted a tension between judgment and forgiveness in the church, one that has taken on new meaning in post-communist Europe. In the broadest sense, it’s a tension found in the teaching of Christ, who preached forgiveness but told his followers to...Read More

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican has given the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X a formal “doctrinal preamble” listing several principles they must agree with in order to move toward full reconciliation with church.Read More