City pastors who worked with Mayor Sheila Dixon on issues ranging from homelessness to immigration gave the outgoing mayor generally high marks for her performance in office. Yet, as the 56-year-old mayor prepares to step down Feb. 4 as part of a plea deal in a corruption case, priests throughout the city expressed disappointment in...Read More

LONDON – Britain’s two cardinals reminded Catholic politicians that it is unacceptable for them to vote for abortion rights. Cardinals Keith O’Brien of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, Scotland, and Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster, England, denounced the 1967 Abortion Act May 31 as the act approaches its 40th anniversary.Read More

WASHINGTON – When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., hosted a national summit on child welfare, she shined a light on a problem that is all too familiar to officials of Catholic Charities USA. “The numbers are moving in the wrong direction,” said Desmond Brown, director of health and welfare policy at Catholic Charities USA, about...Read More

ARMAGH, Northern Ireland – Cardinal Cahal Daly, the former primate of all Ireland and an outspoken critic of paramilitary violence and poverty in Northern Ireland, was a man “ahead of his time,” his successor told mourners.Read More

VATICAN CITY – An uptick of violence against Catholic Church workers in the Americas contributed to almost doubling the number of missionaries who were murdered in 2009 compared to the previous year, the Vatican’s Fides agency said.Read More

MILWAUKEE – Marquette University is receiving $51 million from an alumni couple to help build a new law school facility. A university news release described it as “the largest gift ever made by individuals to a Wisconsin college or university” as well as one of the largest gifts ever given to any U.S. law school....Read More

El BANANAL, Argentina – Church workers ministering to Argentine indigenous communities have been watching the Latin American and Caribbean bishops’ meeting in Brazil with bated breath, wondering whether Latin American bishops will change their methods in evangelizing the Gospel to native peoples. “We are waiting and watching with anxiety, given that before Benedict was pope...Read More

PITTSBURGH – They grew up with each other in Pittsburgh. They played and prayed together. They even got into the same line of work.Read More