WASHINGTON – Will federal health reform be like “the Massachusetts plan on steroids,” as one commentator predicted, or something else entirely? Will it require individuals or employers to “play or pay”? Will it involve some new form of government-run health care or leave the current system more or less intact? And the biggest question of...Read More

When fund-raising efforts to restore the old church at St. Athanasius, Curtis Bay began in 2005, life-long parishioner Helen Swinko imagined it would take years before she would see the place where she received her first Communion utilizedRead More

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- With an estimated 1.2 billion followers, Islam is the second largest religion in the world. Islamic organizations say there are an estimated 6 million to 7 million Muslims in the United States; of those, 85 percent are U.S.-born.Read More

NEW DELHI – Church leaders in Kerala state have expressed shock and outrage over the killing of Sister Valsa John, who campaigned for tribal rights in eastern India.Read More

St. Jerome Emiliani, born in Italy in 1481, is the patron saint of abandoned children and orphans. He became a priest in 1518 and began to devote much of his time to helping orphans, especially during a plague in 1528. He founded orphanages, a hospital and a shelter for women.Read More

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – When Hippolyt Pul was a young boy, farmers in his home country of Ghana often referred to the feast of the Ascension as “the feast of the bean leaf.” Rain came like clockwork each year right after Easter, so farmers planted their first seeds no more than two weeks after the holy...Read More

St. Perpetua was born to a noble pagan family, but she converted to Christianity with her maid and friend, St. Felicity. The two saints became martyrs in Carthage, North Africa, when they were mauled by animals and beheaded for their faith. They are patron saints of cattle and martyrs.Read More

As parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter, many pastors reported higher Mass attendance than previous years despite an unseasonably cold holiday that brought some snow flurries. More than 800 people were welcomed into full communion with the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil in the Baltimore archdiocese...Read More