LOS ANGELES – The heated national debate over Arizona’s tough new immigration law has drawn much-needed attention to calls for immigration reform, but it also has obscured the fact that there is “actual common ground” among Americans on “key elements” of reform, according to Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles.Read More
With a consistent congregation of more than 100 each week, a two-month pilot program offering a weekly Spanish Mass at St. Michael the Archangel, Overlea has become a permanent fixture on the parish’s schedule.Read More
NEW YORK – Hope still exists in Haiti six months after a huge earthquake killed a quarter-million people in the Caribbean nation, according to the secretary-general for the U.N. Association of Haiti.Read More
Loyola College in Maryland senior Matt Greer was relieved when he learned the school scheduled a special 4 p.m. Mass on Super Bowl Sunday because he would probably have had to skip his weekly spiritual ritual to watch the big game with his buddies. “I usually attend the 9 p.m. Mass,” said the 21-year-old student...Read More
Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien named Dr. Barbara Edmondson, principal of School of the Incarnation in Gambrills, interim Superintendent of Schools.Read More
VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI urged young people to express love in unselfish ways, looking past social goals of competition and productivity in order to become “witnesses of charity” in the world. He held out Blessed Teresa of Calcutta as an example of a Christian who translated love into concrete action to help the...Read More
PORTLAND, Ore. – An aging leather case used by priests on sacramental missions of mercy for decades has been passed on to the next generation, providing a link to clergy in Oregon’s past.Read More
VATICAN CITY – The Vatican turned down a laicization request from a Paraguayan bishop who wants to run for president and suspended the bishop from exercising his priestly ministry. Bishop Fernando Lugo Mendez of San Pedro, Paraguay, 57, had announced Dec. 25 that he would ask the Vatican to return him to the status of...Read More
Second in a seven-part series The celebration of the Lord’s great love for us in the Eucharist begins with the Introductory Rites. As the name implies, these rites help to introduce the Mass and set a tone for the celebration. The Opening Song provides a strong and beautiful reminder that we are not merely a...Read More
WARSAW, Poland – Many Eastern European church officials said they lack procedures for handling claims of clergy collaborating with communist secret police nearly 20 year after the collapse of communism. Father Laszlo Nemeth, secretary-general of the Hungarian bishops’ conference, told Catholic News Service that although Hungarian bishops had debated the issue in the early 1990s...Read More
VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI has chosen Swiss Bishop Kurt Koch of Basel to be the new president of Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.Read More
VATICAN CITY – The death of an Italian muscular dystrophy patient who had his respirator disconnected is fueling a complex and significant discussion among top church officials. Piergiorgio Welby, who was paralyzed and kept alive by a breathing machine for nine years, pleaded for months for the device to be turned off. He said medical...Read More