TRENTON, N.J. (CNS) -- Catholic officials have praised the recommendation by a New Jersey panel that the state abolish the death penalty in favor of life imprisonment without parole. The New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission, created in 2005, submitted its findings Jan. 2 to Gov. Jon S. Corzine. In their report commission members said...Read More

WASHINGTON – Catholic organizations expressed dismay over the Sept. 16 announcement from the U.S. Census Bureau that the number of Americans living in poverty in 2009 rose to 43.6 million, or 14.3 percent of the population.Read More

Stephen Hawking may be a genius, but he’s not omniscient. Hawking has written a new book with Leonard Mlodinow titled “The Grand Design,” in which the physicists posit that the universe did not need anything to come into being from nothingness. That is, no outside factor – whether it’s called God, the Creator or any...Read More

When Peter O’Malley walked into Donna’s Café & Coffee Bar in Mount Vernon on a recent afternoon, the staff was immediately thunderstruck by the 36-year-old’s startling resemblance to his brother, Gov.-elect Martin O’Malley. The Mount Washington resident and Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Homeland, parishioner and the 43-year-old future governor share the same megawatt smile....Read More

The kidnapped rector of the Chaldean Catholic seminary and a kidnapped parish priest in Baghdad, Iraq, have been released. The Rome-based AsiaNews agency reported Dec. 11 the reasons for the priest's abduction and release were still unknown, but it said the rector's health "was fine."Read More

WASHINGTON – A Jesuit priest who is former president of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., has taken to YouTube and his blog to rebut arguments raised by British physicist Stephen Hawking, who says in a new book that God had no role in creating the universe.Read More

VATICAN CITY – The decision to follow Christ is not an easy one to make, so young people should look for support from the Christian community and the church, Pope Benedict XVI said in his message for World Youth Day 2011.Read More

St. Paul the Hermit was born in Egypt circa 230. He fled when Decius began persecuting Christians. St. Paul lived in the desert as a hermit for the rest of his life. He wore leaves and ate fruit and water to survive. He died in 342. St. Paul the Hermit is patron saint of weavers.Read More