Like thousands of other American Catholics of his generation, Cardinal William H. Keeler knows why God made him. “To know, love and serve him," Cardinal Keeler told The Catholic Review, paraphrasing the often-repeated answer he memorized as a child from the famous Baltimore Catechism. The familiar passage from the catechism is just one of many...Read More

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI has granted the Congregation for Clergy new powers to dismiss from the priesthood and release from the obligation of celibacy priests who are living with women, who have abandoned their ministry for more than five years or who have engaged in seriously scandalous behavior.Read More

ROME – More than 2,000 people protesting capital punishment marched through Rome to St. Peter’s Square on Easter morning. The Easter March, as it was called, was designed to put pressure on the Italian government to propose a moratorium on capital punishment at the U.N. General Assembly April 23. The April 8 march was organized...Read More

VATICAN CITY – In almost six years dealing with the most sensitive and serious matters of individual conscience, U.S. Cardinal J. Francis Stafford said he has had the “enormous grace” of coming to a deep understanding of how central forgiveness is to the message of the Gospel and the mission and life of the church.Read More

ELLICOTT CITY – In a Veterans Day homily at St. Paul in Ellicott City, Auxiliary Bishop F. Richard Spencer of the Archdiocese for U.S. Military Services challenged Catholics to never forget the needs of the nation’s veterans.Read More

OMAHA, Neb. – In an effort to support Pope Benedict XVI's proclamation of the Year for Priests, a designated time to encourage and foster “spiritual perfection” in priests, the Institute for Priestly Formation will offer a 10-week summer program to equip diocesan seminarians and priests with ways to further guide the people of their parishes...Read More

Concerned about threats to religious freedom in Maryland and beyond, the state’s Catholic bishops released a Nov. 9 statement challenging all Marylanders to “reaffirm the basic, foundational principles upon which our democratic society is built.”Read More

On July 2, the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first order of African American Sisters in the United States will celebrate their 180th anniversary of dedication, service and love to God and his people.Read More