RADNOR, Pa. – After 30 years of war and repressive rule of the Taliban, today only 28 percent of the people in Afghanistan can read and write and 18 percent of them are women and girls, according to Catholic Relief Services representatives visiting the Philadelphia Archdiocese.Read More

BATON ROUGE, La. – Bobby Jindal, Louisiana’s Republican governor-elect, will be not only the nation’s youngest governor when he is sworn into office in January, but he’ll be the first Indian-American governor and the first who is a convert from Hinduism to Catholicism.Read More

VATICAN CITY – Top officials of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops met privately with Pope Benedict XVI Oct. 18 for a wide-ranging discussion about the church in the United States, including the pope’s planned visit to the U.S. in the spring.Read More

WASHINGTON – When Katie Odette Washington of Gary, Ind., took the stage May 16 as what is believed to be the University of Notre Dame’s first black valedictorian, she told her fellow graduates to step outside of their comfort zone and challenge the conventional to make their imprint on the world.Read More

Eric Stag draped an arm around his parents, Anne and Jack, and smiled. Known for his hugs, Eric delivered the sweetest yet.Read More

The way Shawn Goldfaden sees it, there’s something dirty about the way most drycleaners clean their clothes. It’s called perchloroethylene, a chemical solvent more commonly known as “perc” that has been used by dry cleaners since the 1950s. The EPA has classified perc as a toxic air contaminant and a possible human carcinogen, leading California...Read More

ST. PAUL, Minn. – St. John Vianney Seminary in St. Paul has increased its housing, its staff and what it demands of students. And the men keep coming.Read More

To know the background of Mother Mary Lange was to appreciate the atmosphere May 8 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore, where Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien led a Mass to pray for her sainthood.Read More