WASHINGTON – The expertise honed by years of resolute follow-up work with natural disaster victims has landed Catholic Charities USA a five-year federal contract potentially worth more than $100 million.
WASHINGTON – The expertise honed by years of resolute follow-up work with natural disaster victims has landed Catholic Charities USA a five-year federal contract potentially worth more than $100 million.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI expressed his sadness at the death of former Philippine President Corazon Aquino and praised her commitment to freedom and justice for Filipinos.

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy – Pope Benedict XVI met with participants in the world swimming championships and asked them to be models of values and behavior for young people around the world.
VATICAN CITY – Each of the 14 Conventual Franciscans who live in the Vatican and hear confessions full time in St. Peter’s Basilica offers absolution to an average of between 8,500 and 9,000 penitents each year.
WASHINGTON – Despite the support of a U.S. cardinal and its own initial approval, the House Energy and Commerce Committee July 30 rejected an amendment to a House health care reform bill that would have prohibited any mandated abortion coverage, except in cases of rape, incest or life-threatening danger to the mother.

WASHINGTON – Members of Congress and some religious groups are touting newly proposed legislation as a big step toward common ground on abortion, but a staff member of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities said the bill should be called “the Planned Parenthood Economic Stimulus Package of 2009.”

KORIAN, Pakistan – The Christian village of Korian in the Punjab province of Pakistan was destroyed July 30 in a violent raid by thousands of Muslims.
The year 2009 represents 180 years of love, service and dedication to the church community by the Oblate Sisters of Providence. The Africentric column of The Catholic Review highlighted the event with five articles on the historical happenings within the congregation.

PORTLAND, Ore. – He rebuilds the blown-up and regenerates the maimed.
DUBLIN, Ireland – The Irish government is clamping down on the sale of pre-signed Mass cards at newsstands and by other vendors.
VATICAN CITY – Even though taking the abortion pill RU-486 may be less traumatic than a surgical abortion, it still involves the taking of an innocent human life, said Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

WASHINGTON – Mexican immigration to the U.S. has continued to dwindle this year after being down at least 40 percent from 2005 to 2008, according to a July analysis released by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research organization.
