ROME – Calling the Blessed Virgin Mary the “first tabernacle that gave a home to Jesus,” Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien celebrated a June 27 Mass for more than 100 pilgrims inside the ornately decorated Borghese Chapel of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.Read More
JERUSALEM – The influx of Iraqi refugees into Jordan as well as continuing Israeli-Palestinian tensions are two of the major concerns the new Latin patriarch of Jerusalem said he would face after his June 22 installation.Read More
A U.S. Jesuit brother who works as a Vatican astronomer says doomsday is not coming in 2012, as portrayed in a current movie or rumored in the Mayan long-count calendar of 5,125 years.Read More
WASHINGTON – Europe and Iraq were ranked among the 10 “worst places for refugees” in the 2008 World Refugee Survey for policies such as “warehousing” refugees for decades or for forcing them back to dangerous situations in their homelands.Read More
McALLEN, Texas – Throughout his childhood, David Calvillo’s mother urged him to pray the rosary but he admits the recommendation went in one ear and out the other.Read More
As Deacon Gregory Rapisarda of St. Margaret, Bel Air, stood in the sanctuary of the nation’s first cathedral and watched his son John Christopher Rapisarda become a priest for the Archdiocese of Baltimore June 21, a sense of awe came over him.Read More
VATICAN CITY – An insensitive, hardened heart, over-confidence and world-weary smugness keep people from experiencing the true joy and love found in Jesus Christ, said Pope Benedict XVI.Read More
QUEBEC CITY – Nearly 25,000 Catholics from around the world poured through the narrow streets of Quebec City, accompanying the Eucharist in an outpouring of religious fervor absent from this city for at least half a century.Read More
WASHINGTON – Whenever Robert Carlisle leaves his modest apartment on Cleveland’s near west side, he turns off the heat so he can save a little money on his gas bill for a pair of shoes or a bus pass. He does the same at night when he climbs into bed under an extra blanket.Read More
PERTH, Australia – The Australian bishops have undertaken a nationwide newspaper advertising blitz, inviting lapsed Catholics to return and asking for forgiveness for any hurt the church caused individuals in the past.Read More
PORTLAND, Ore. – In the heyday of Santiam Canyon’s lumber enterprise, laborers without college degrees could work at any of eight or nine mills, supporting families of four, five or six.Read More