Home Page

CND, CCBC sign agreement

College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Baltimore, and the Community College of Baltimore County signed an articulation agreement during a ceremony Jan. 30 to permit students to transfer credits from CCBC to CND toward a bachelor’s degree in general education and business after earning an associate’s degree.

Oil-rich African nations no better off than neighbors

WASHINGTON – Despite the massive profits available to oil-rich African countries, which have had an estimated $1 trillion in export revenues over the past 40 years, they are no better off than African nations that do not have petroleum to export. The problem of persistent poverty in nations where multinational companies extract natural resources is unsettling to Rees Warne, a Catholic Relief Services adviser on extractive industries.

Collection of pope’s ‘essential writings’ to be published

SAN FRANCISCO – A new book to be published in March by HarperSanFrancisco brings together what its editors call “the central writings and speeches” of Pope Benedict XVI. “The Essential Pope Benedict XVI: His Central Writings and Speeches” opens with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s sermon at the funeral of Pope John Paul II April 18, 2005, and closes with his first encyclical, “Deus Caritas Est” (“God Is Love”), dated Dec. 25, 2005.

U.S. farm bill to impact international trade

WASHINGTON – Across the street from the Capitol Hill hotel where the annual Catholic Social Ministry Gathering was being conducted, a group of Koreans was protesting an impending free-trade deal with South Korea. The protest was complete with chanting and drums. Inside the hotel, Oblate Father Andrew Small, a policy adviser for the U.S. bishops who focuses on international economic development, shushed his audience at a Feb. 12 briefing on the 2007 U.S. farm bill. “Can you hear them?” he asked. People could.

Faith unlocks doors for former death row inmate

CAMBRIDGE – If anyone has experienced sheer terror, it’s Kirk Bloodsworth. Tried and found guilty of the brutal rape and murder of a 9-year-old Rosedale girl, the barrel-chested crabber from the Eastern Shore was sentenced to die in the gas chamber for his horrific crimes. But Mr. Bloodsworth didn’t have anything to do with what he was accused of. A former marine with no criminal record, he had been wrongly convicted and would later become the first American on death row to be exonerated by DNA testing.

U.S. praised for fighting HIV/AIDS abroad

WASHINGTON – Catholic social ministry leaders got an unusual message Feb. 12 as they were preparing for a day of lobbying on Capitol Hill: Thank your legislators for supporting the funding of a massive program to combat the spread of the global AIDS/HIV pandemic. On many issues that Catholic social activists bring up with their senators and representatives, they are challenging current legislation or seeking politically unpopular legislative reforms.

Bishop reiterates call for release of U.S.-held prisoner

SYDNEY, Australia – The head of the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council has reiterated calls for the release of an Australian imprisoned at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Bishop Christopher Saunders of Broome, the justice council head, joined the increasing criticism of the Australian government’s efforts on behalf of David Hicks, a 31-year-old imprisoned at Guantanamo. U.S. forces captured Hicks in Afghanistan in 2001 and charged him with providing “material support” for the international terrorist organization al-Qaida.

En español »