STUTTGART, Germany – Representatives of nearly 240 Christian movements have urged Europe’s churches to be a cohesive force in defending the continent’s Christian identity and pressing for greater solidarity with the poor and marginalized. “We see more clearly our responsibility in facing Europe’s challenges today: to be a strong social, cohesive force in its cultural...Read More

Through media reports the Archdiocese of Baltimore learned today (Jan. 6) of the apparent death of Laurence Brett, a former priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who was defrocked after several individuals reported they were sexually abused by Brett when they were children in the early 1970s.Read More

Catonsville resident Jeanne Marie Hannon doesn't mind getting her hands dirty if it means slowly watching the plants at Catholic Charities' Gallagher Services in Timonium transform into colorful flowers or luscious vegetables. Cultivating plant life for the summer is an annual tradition for the St. Agnes, Catonsville, parishioner and client of the residential and day...Read More

WESTMINSTER – As the Supreme Court considers a high-profile case involving the Westboro Baptist Church, much media attention has focused on what the Kansas church members did outside St. John parish during Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder's 2006 funeral.Read More

VATICAN CITY – If the world is to help stop the spread of nuclear weapons, nations must take positive steps toward nuclear disarmament, a Vatican official said. Nuclear disarmament and nuclear nonproliferation “are interdependent and mutually reinforcing,” said Monsignor Michael W. Banach, the Vatican’s representative to the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization....Read More

HONG KONG – The Chinese government branded a Vatican statement on China’s policy of religious freedom as “very imprudent and ungrounded.”Read More

SAO PAULO, Brazil – Arriving in Brazil on his first papal trip to Latin America, Pope Benedict XVI said he wanted to help reinforce Christian values and counter new threats to the poor, the abandoned and the unborn. “I am well aware that the soul of this people, as of all Latin America, safeguards values...Read More

Catholic leaders offered a supporting presence to families and emergency personnel in the spate of major fires that beleaguered Baltimore in December.Read More