PHOENIX – A nun who concurred in an ethics committee’s decision to abort the child of a gravely ill woman at a Phoenix hospital was “automatically excommunicated by that action,” according to Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix.Read More

St. Francis Xavier was born in Spanish Navarre in 1506. St. Ignatius of Loyola convinced his friend Francis Xavier to help spread the Gospel. Francis was one of the founding Jesuits and the first Jesuit missionary. Also a priest, he preached, helped the sick and taught the catechism to children in Goa. He served as...Read More

MADISON, Wis. – Despite news that the plans were dropped for the Madison Surgery Center to begin offering late-term abortions, questions remain after a statement from UW Health May 5 said the organization is still committed to including late-term abortions among its reproductive health services.Read More

WASHINGTON – A year after the fractious conflict over the University of Notre Dame’s decision to invite President Barack Obama to be its commencement speaker and give him an honorary degree, some protesters still face charges.Read More

TURIN, Italy – The Shroud of Turin is an icon of “the most radical solidarity”: Christ sharing the loneliest moment of human existence by lying in a tomb, Pope Benedict XVI said after he knelt in silent prayer before the linen cloth. The pope did not discuss the authenticity of the shroud as the cloth...Read More

How do we understand someone rising from the dead? As we celebrate the seven weeks of the Easter Season, the 50 days from Easter to Pentecost, it seems clear from the Scriptures that there were stages of understanding for the first followers of Christ.Read More

Though baptized Presbyterian as an infant, I grew up without any discussion of, or experience with, Christianity at home. But I always believed in a higher order of things, and had a sense that this higher order was a benevolent force. In my late 20s, I began to understand that having faith in a power...Read More

VATICAN CITY – A retired Vatican cardinal said the late Pope John Paul II had approved his congratulatory letter to a French bishop who refused to report a sexually abusive priest to police.Read More