St. Anthony of Padua was born to a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1195. He became a priest and a Franciscan. He later joined the Friars Minor so that he could travel to Morocco to evangelize. When he was shipwrecked in Sicily, he went to Portiuncula and lived in a cave, leaving only to...Read More
METUCHEN, N.J. – The sainthood cause has formally opened for Maria Esperanza Medrano de Bianchini, a Venezuelan woman believed to have seen 31 apparitions of Mary who spread worldwide a message of family reconciliation and fraternal unity that she said Mary relayed to her.Read More
St. Thomas, also known as Doubting Thomas, was an Apostle. He doubted that Christ was truly resurrected until he was able to touch Christ’s wounds. The saint preached in Persia and India. He helped start the church in various places by forming many parishes and building churches as he traveled. He was killed in India...Read More
LIMA, Peru – When a magnitude 8 earthquake crumbled houses and toppled churches in Pisco in August 2007, millions of dollars’ worth of aid poured into Peru from around the world.Read More
St. Ignatius of Loyola was born in Spain in 1491. The youngest of more than 10 children in a noble family, St. Ignatius became a soldier in the army in 1517. After a bad leg injury during a battle in May 1521, the saint needed a lot of time to rest and heal. During that...Read More
VATICAN CITY – Catholic teaching and the truths of the Gospel have a right to be heard in public debate, especially in a country where so many people claim to be Christian, Pope Benedict XVI told the bishops of England and Wales.Read More
St. Rose was born in 1586 in Lima, Peru, to Spanish immigrants. She took a vow of chastity, and she lived in a garden where she prayed and grew vegetables to help support her family. She also did embroidery to help her family and the poor living around her. This mystic and visionary is said...Read More
WASHINGTON – Under a new U.S. tax law, people who have donated to charities providing relief to Haitians since the Jan. 12 earthquake can take a tax deduction for the contribution on their 2009 tax return instead of their 2010 return.Read More
Heidi Montag has given new meaning to the concept of one-stop shopping. The 23-year-old reality TV star – one of those who is famous for being famous – underwent 10 plastic-surgery procedures in one day, as pin pointed in People magazine and now scrutinized online.Read More
St. Rose Philippine Duchesne was born Aug. 29, 1769, in Grenoble, France. As young as age 8, she knew she wanted to evangelize in America because she’d heard a Jesuit discuss his missionary work there. In 1788, she joined the Visitation nuns in Grenoble without her family’s knowledge. Her convent was closed in 1792 during...Read More
WASHINGTON – Despite overcast skies, the mood at the Jan. 22 annual March for Life in Washington was decidedly upbeat as speaker after speaker urged the crowd to keep up their efforts in the pro-life arena.Read More