VATICAN CITY – Sometime soon, Pope Benedict XVI is expected to broaden permission to use the Tridentine Mass, a long-standing request of traditionalists who favor the rite used before the Second Vatican Council. The move is aimed at ending a liturgical dispute which has simmered for more than 20 years. In the process, it could...Read More
MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. – About 20 death penalty opponents gathered in the bitter cold in Michigan City for a peaceful protest and to pray as the state of Indiana prepared for the first execution in Indiana since 2007.Read More
MENLO PARK, Calif. – Even though the average age of religious-order priests, sisters and brothers serving in the United States is increasing and their numbers are declining, don’t conclude religious communities are dying out, a well-known scholar said during a recent national meeting in Menlo Park. Instead, think of consecrated life as an “ongoing history”...Read More
OSLO, Norway – The presence of Christians in the Holy Land is a force for peace and harmony in the region, particularly because of the education and health care they offer to all, said U.S. Cardinal John P. Foley, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem.Read More
While on his second tour in Iraq, U.S. Army Maj. David Anthony had no Knights of Columbus council to join. But by the time the St. Francis de Sales, Abingdon, parishioner left the Middle East 10 months later, the Camp Victory Knights of Columbus Round Table in Baghdad was established and growing. Maj. Anthony joined...Read More
WASHINGTON – As a vote neared on a bipartisan abortion amendment to the Senate’s version of health care reform legislation, three leading U.S. bishops said the proposed revision “simply corrects ... grave departures from current federal policy.”Read More
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has conducted raids in recent weeks at workplaces across the U.S. to round up workers who are in the country illegally. In two communities where raids took place March 6 – South Bend, Ind., and New Bedford, Mass. – members of the Catholic community and the...Read More
WASHINGTON – Thirteen human embryonic stem-cell lines have been approved for use in federally funded research and approval of many more lines is expected to follow, the head of the National Institutes of Health announced Dec. 2.Read More
MEXICO CITY – Catholics and civic organizations have launched a campaign against a Mexico City proposal to legalize abortion during the first three months of pregnancy. The proposal “has awoken the conscience of civil society in this city,” said Armando Martinez, president of the College of Catholic Lawyers in Mexico City, at a March 18...Read More
NEW ORLEANS – More than 500 students from Jesuit colleges, universities and high schools gathered in New Orleans March 9-11 to discuss racism and poverty and engage in spring-break service work. They were among the approximately 2,000 Jesuit-affiliated students who were to descend on New Orleans in a 10-day period to aid in the city’s...Read More