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WASHINGTON – Thailand, Gaza and South Africa were ranked as some of the “worst places for refugees” in the 2009 World Refugee Survey for attacks and abuse by militaries and xenophobic civilian mobs.

Off the radar: Pope’s teaching ministry finds little echo in media

VATICAN CITY – News coverage of Pope Benedict XVI tends to leap from big event to big event, so perhaps it’s no surprise that after his Holy Land pilgrimage last month the German pontiff has fallen off the mainstream media radar.

Women religious to combat human trafficking for 2010 sporting events

ROME – Criminals thinking about trafficking women and children for prostitution at the world’s largest sporting events in 2010 will have to face the combined force of hundreds of women’s religious orders.

Illinois widow leaves $2 million to her parish

WASHINGTON – Before her death in October 2008, Alyce Christopher was a familiar face at St. Mary Nativity Parish in Joliet, Ill.

Munafo cherishes father’s lessons, supports Catholic Charities

Marc Munafo can’t help but think about what might have been.

With marriage laws changing, issue seen as top priority for bishops

SAN ANTONIO – In one of a series of status reports on ongoing projects of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops June 18, bishops attending their spring meeting in San Antonio were told the rapid pace of legal changes on the status of marriage in the United States has been keeping that concern a top priority.

MySpace, Facebook users at Vatican hit firewalls

VATICAN CITY – Vatican employees are now banned from accessing some social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace while at work.

Apostolic visits to orders of religious women to begin in spring 2010

WASHINGTON – The superior general overseeing the apostolic visitation of U.S. orders of women religious is hoping to gather up to 150 names of people who will begin visiting a cross section of congregations starting next spring.

Hamilton Okeke (center) prays during the priest ordination at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen

Sulpician formation guides future priests

George P. Matysek Jr.

Local News, News, Vocations

Wandering a long corridor flooded with light that poured in through large arched windows, Deacon Gregory Rapisarda could hardly believe St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Roland Park was his home. Thousands of men had walked the seminary’s terrazzo floors before him, and he was now following in their footsteps to the priesthood.

Bishops call for Congress to pass immigration reform by year’s end

SAN ANTONIO – Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago urged President Barack Obama and Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform before the end of 2009.

Pope thanks God for gift of priesthood, but also recognizes failures