WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Three young adults of the estimated 700,000 with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status remain undaunted after years of little to no action on their behalf in Congress and the courts, including the Nov. 12 Supreme Court hearing that could permit the Trump administration to cancel the program.
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PEORIA, Ill. (CNS) -- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen will be beatified Dec. 21, Bishop Daniel R. Jenky of Peoria announced late Nov. 18. He said the Vatican had just notified him of the beatification and he was announcing the news "with great joy and thanksgiving."
Read moreBUFFALO, N.Y. (CNS) -- During their two-hour group meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican Nov. 15, the Catholics bishops of the New York region experienced a "free and open discussion of many of the challenges and opportunities our church is facing," Buffalo Bishop Richard J. Malone said Nov. 18.
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SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- After a 10-member jury handed down a nearly $2.3 million judgment against David Daleiden late Nov. 15, a Chicago-based pro-life law firm said it would appeal the judgment on behalf of Daleiden and his organization, the Center for Medical Progress.
Read moreALEXANDRIA, Va. (CNS) -- Just a few words in a letter of John Rolfe's mark the arrival of the first Africans to Virginia in 1619. Four hundred years later, historians know little about the "20. and odd negroes" who arrived aboard the White Lion. They know their journey began in the port city and capital of modern-day Angola, Luanda, when they boarded the San Juan Bautista. Luanda was a slave trading hub.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In the hours before Supreme Court justices met in conference Nov. 15 to decide if they would take up the case of Rodney Reed, a death-row inmate scheduled for execution Nov. 20, Reed supporters kept vigil on the court steps.
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SOUTH BEND, Ind. (CNS) -- U.S. Catholics "have to be prepared for another wave of traumatic narrative" regarding the clergy sex abuse crisis, Archbishop Charles Scicluna said Nov. 13 at the University of Notre Dame.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A new Pew Research Center survey issued Nov. 15 gauges the influence religion has on Americans' lives and the hold Catholicism and other Christian religions has on their adherents.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Francis "seeks to shape a practical ecclesiology -- a church capable of shaping the world," Father J. Bryan Hehir told an audience at Georgetown University in Washington Nov. 12.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- The executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, known as CLINIC, told U.S. Catholic bishops Nov. 13 that the government is violating international and U.S. law when it denies asylum-seekers at the border entry into the U.S.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- One year after the U.S. bishops approved their pastoral letter against racism, the document is hardly just sitting on a shelf but is the basis for listening sessions in dioceses around the country and is an educational tool for individuals, schools and parishes, the bishops were told Nov. 13.
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TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (CNS) -- Nearly 100 people were bathed in light as they gathered for a prayer vigil at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Terre Haute, not far from the Federal Correctional Complex. Despite the lights and bright glow, the tone was heavy and somber. They were gathered to pray for the federal death-row inmates and all those affected by their pending executions scheduled for December and January at the prison.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- An experimental program to address chronic homelessness is guiding people into permanent housing while saving millions of dollars in health care costs, the president of Catholic Charities USA told the U.S. bishops.
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NORWALK, Conn. (CNS) -- In an effort to rebuild and heal the Catholic Church in the wake of the sex abuse crisis, women and lay leaders have taken a more central role in the process of bringing families back to Mass.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- A third-party reporting system to field sexual misconduct allegations against bishops could be in place by the end of February, an official of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops told the bishops during their fall general assembly in Baltimore.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops, aware of the growing numbers of Catholics in the country who are of Hispanic origin, voted to write a new pastoral plan for Latino Catholics that would be produced sometime between 2021 and 2024.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- After an attorney threatened to file a lawsuit alleging he abused a child decades ago when he was a priest in New Jersey, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, New York, issued a statement Nov. 13 denying the accusation and said he "will vigorously defend" himself against the claim.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- It's a population that almost every bishop in the United States comes into contact with: 700,000 young adults brought into the country as children without documents. So, it was natural that on the day the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on an important case involving them, even as they were conducting regular business during the fall meeting of the U.S. Conference Catholic Bishops in Baltimore Nov. 11-13, some bishops were monitoring the situation before the U.S. Supreme Court.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- In a high-stakes issue before the Supreme Court Nov. 12, it was not clear how the justices will ultimately resolve the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Current issues of the day and references to the teachings of Pope Francis can be found throughout the materials approved by the U.S. bishops to supplement their existing document on Catholic participation in public life.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops voted to approve close to 300 new hymn texts for the Liturgy of the Hours. The Nov. 12 vote was 205-5 with two abstentions. The proposal needed two-thirds of the Latin-rite bishops to vote yes, or 164 votes. They must now receive confirmation from the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops Nov. 12 adopted the sixth edition of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Program of Priestly Formation for U.S. dioceses and religious orders. The vote on the document, popularly known among the bishops as "the PPF," was 226-4, with three abstentions. It needed two-thirds of the bishops, or 179 votes to ensure passage. Before it can be implemented, it must first receive a "recognitio," or approval, from the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Auxiliary Bishop Robert E. Barron of Los Angeles did not just bemoan the fact many young people are leaving the Catholic Church. He said church leaders need to make it a priority to bring them back.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles was elected to a three-year term as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops during the bishops' fall general assembly in Baltimore.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- It will come as no surprise to anyone who has followed Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez that immigration reform is at the top of his priority list as the newly elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops heard Nov. 11 of plans to revise the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' existing Program of Priestly Formation for U.S. dioceses. The revision was introduced by Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, chairman of the bishops' Committee for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, on the first day of their Nov. 11-13 fall general assembly in Baltimore.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- In his final address as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston told his fellow bishops that it has been "an honor to serve you, even in the difficult times."
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- The bishop's ministry and mission, and how he forges communion, was the message in Archbishop Christophe Pierre's address to the U.S. bishops Nov. 11 in Baltimore. The "ad limina" reports submitted to the Vatican in advance of U.S. bishops' meetings with Pope Francis and curial officials -- indeed, a handful of bishops were already in Rome for these visits -- "provide a clear picture of how the church in the United States is carrying out its mission," said Archbishop Pierre, the Vatican's nuncio to the United States.
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LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- The "failures" of the nation's leaders in Washington to make "comprehensive reforms to immigration policy "cut across party lines, said Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles. These failures date back to 1986, he said, which was the last time Congress passed immigration reform.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- During their Nov. 11-13 meeting in Baltimore, the U.S. bishops elected new officers and discussed challenges in the church and the nation. They spoke of their renewed efforts to help immigrants, youth and young adults, pregnant women and the poor as well their steps to combat gun violence and racism.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Four Catholic priests who serve in various ministries and are on the front lines facing the aftershocks of the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church gave their perspective on helping the church address the problem.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Eight centuries ago, St. Francis of Assisi took a risk when he crossed the battlefield between Crusader and Muslim forces near Damietta, Egypt, desiring to meet Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil and preach his faith in Jesus Christ.
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INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) -- At 20, Sophia Egold is part of a generation that communicates almost exclusively by text, Instagram, Facebook and other forms of social media, yet she has learned that none of them compares to the power of an old-fashioned, rapidly fading alternative.
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- A U.S. District Court judge's Nov. 6 ruling that halts a Trump administration conscience protection rule for health care professionals leaves them "vulnerable to being forced to perform, facilitate or refer for procedures that violate their conscience," said the senior counsel for the First Liberty Institute.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The chief communications officer for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops criticized a new book on Pope Francis' papacy for perpetuating "an unfortunate and inaccurate myth" that Pope Francis is facing resistance from the leadership and staff of the bishops' conference.
Read moreCOLUMBUS, Ohio (CNS) -- The Ohio Senate Nov. 6 passed a bill that would require a child born alive following an abortion receives the same medical care accorded any newborn at the same gestational age.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- No one can deny that the act was horrific. Six priests found face down on a lawn with bullet holes through various parts of their bodies. One was in his bathrobe. "Before the end of darkness on the morning of Nov. 16, with unspeakable and barbaric cruelty, armed men burst into the Jesuit residence at the University of Central America in San Salvador and shot six Jesuit priests to death. At the same time, the community's cook and her daughter were murdered in their bed. According to reliable reports, several of the priests, my brothers, had their brains torn from their heads," wrote Georgetown University president Father Leo Donovan Nov. 19, 1989, three days after the killings, in The Washington Post.
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BISMARCK, N.D. (CNS) -- The University of Mary plans to name its School of Health Sciences for a 20th-century Italian saint who saved the life of the child she was carrying despite a cancerous tumor in her uterus.
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CLEVELAND (CNS) -- Retired Bishop Richard G. Lennon of Cleveland lived his call to service by loving his brothers and sisters to whom he ministered throughout his priesthood, recalled Bishop Christopher J. Coyne of Burlington, Vermont.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A Chilean survivor of clergy sexual abuse pleaded for Catholic Church leaders to follow the example of a Wyoming bishop who continues to seek justice and answers for other survivors.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Six Catholic organizations have joined with other religious groups and denominational bodies in endorsing a wide-ranging platform calling for urgent attention to the nation's democratic principles with the national election one year away.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, called for a "common-good capitalism" to restore a balance between the extremes of corporatism and socialism that he sees as dividing the United States.
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NEW HOPE, Minn. (CNS) -- A German Messerschmitt fighter plane was bearing down on Don Stoulil's B-17 bomber as he flew a mission during World War II. Stoulil, the pilot, looked out the windshield of his cockpit and saw the enemy plane zooming straight at him with machine guns blazing.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Trump administration Nov. 1 announced a proposed rule to allow faith-based adoption and foster care agencies to follow their deeply held religious beliefs and not place children with same-sex couples.
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Washington D.C., Nov 1, 2019 CNA.- The Trump administration has announced a change to federal rules to preserve federal funding of faith-based adoption agencies, regardless of their views on same-sex marriage.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in consultation with the members of the USCCB Administrative Committee, has taken the highly unusual step of disinviting a fellow bishop from the conference's fall general assembly.
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MOBILE, Ala. (CNS) -- Mercy Sister Mary Aidan Donaldson worked in education for almost 50 years, and that wasn't nearly half her life story. The eldest Sister of Mercy in the world and possibly the oldest living religious died Oct. 25 at the age of 111 at the Convent of Mercy retirement home in Mobile.
Read moreBROOKLYN, N.Y. (CNS) -- Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn has concluded an apostolic visitation of the Diocese of Buffalo. The news Bishop DiMarzio was assigned by the Vatican to make the visitation came via a communique released in early October by the apostolic nunciature in Washington, which coordinated it.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A bill in Congress to require respectful disposition of fetal remains from abortions as well as accountability from the abortion industry "is in keeping with society's treatment of all other deceased persons," said the chairman of the U.S. bishops' pro-life committee.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholic leaders joined more than 35 other groups that have filed friend-of-the-court briefs urging the Supreme Court to support the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, known as DACA.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Kamila Kaminska, the Polish actress who played St. Faustina Kowalska in the new movie "Love and Mercy: Faustina," read the diaries her fellow countrywoman wrote to help prepare for the role.
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FLORENCE, S.C. (CNS) -- Former Vice President Joe Biden attended the 9 a.m. Mass at St. Anthony Church Oct. 27 and when he presented himself to receive the Eucharist was refused by the pastor. "Sadly, this past Sunday, I had to refuse holy Communion to former Vice President Joe Biden," Father Robert Morey wrote in a statement responding to queries from the Florence Morning News. "Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the church. Our actions should reflect that. Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of church teaching."
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CLEVELAND (CNS) -- Bishop Richard G. Lennon, 72, whose time as the 10th bishop of Cleveland was marked by a commitment to evangelization with an emphasis on the Gospel, died Oct. 29 following a prolonged illness.
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PHILADELPHIA (CNS) -- Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia said the city's plan to create a safe drug injection site now that it has the legal go-ahead to do so "is simply the latest dose of despair offered by a confused and suffering culture."
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The image seems inoffensive on the surface: a figure of a gray-haired man, presumably God, with text that says: "I gave you free will so use it exactly as I command you to." It was one example of an image known as a meme offered by Heidi Campbell, a communications professor at Texas A&M University, who studies how such images can affect widespread perceptions of religion and of members of religious groups.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- "Nones," those who profess no religious affiliation, are now the largest subgroup in American society, their numbers having grown in the past decade while the percentage of Catholics in the United States slipped over the past 10 years.
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Washington D.C., Oct 23, 2019 CNA.- Last week’s Pew report revealed that Catholics are no longer a majority among U.S. Hispanics—a stark challenge to the Church in the U.S. to evangelize.
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Austin, Texas, Oct 23, 2019 CNA.- A Texas jury this week ruled against a father who wants to block the hormonal gender transition of his 7-year-old son James into a girl named Luna. Texas dad Jeffrey Younger had appealed to a state court to obtain sole custody of his twins, Jude and James, in part to save James from a hormonal gender transition that the boy’s mother has been planning, according to the Washington Examiner.
Read moreWICHITA FALLS, Texas (CNS) -- By annulling an Obama administration requirement that doctors perform gender transition procedures or treatments, as well as abortions, a federal judge in Texas has upheld the conscience rights of medical professionals across the nation, said a lawyer for plaintiffs in the case.
Read moreWASHINGTON (CNS) -- A collection of pro-life groups Oct. 22 called for an end to the use of aborted fetal tissue in animal research. Although the Trump administration banned the practice in June for federal research at the National Institutes of Health, the group White Coat Waste Project said research continues in 31 different states with research dates not expiring until 2023 or even later, with some projects having open-ended deadlines.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- An update to the Program on Priestly Formation, a progress report on the establishment of a nationwide, third-party reporting system for abuse or misconduct by bishops, and a vote on new leadership for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are on the agenda for the bishops' fall general assembly.
Read moreTALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CNS) -- The eight Catholic bishops of Florida have written to Gov. Ron DeSantis urging him to stay the Nov. 7 execution of James Dailey at the Florida State Prison in Starke. "While we urge you to stop every execution and end the use of the death penalty in Florida, this case of a veteran with evidence of innocence is especially alarming," wrote the bishops.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- After the Washington Nationals won the World Series Oct. 30, the team's chaplain said the players' example carried a spiritual message that goes beyond baseball. "Their witness is an inspiration not only to others in baseball but to all of us: 'Stay in the fight,' he said, referring to the team's rallying cry.
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) -- Since learning about the Peace Corps in high school, Diane Yonga felt a tug that never went away to help the poor and hungry in Africa. Decades later, her calling is being fulfilled through the Lay Mission-Helpers Association, a Catholic organization based in Los Angeles, as well as assistance from the Center for Mission in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
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CHICAGO (CNS) -- Dozens of Chicago-area Catholics were joined by Lutheran, Jewish and Muslim representatives as they all prayed for immigrant children held in U.S. detention centers Oct. 16. At the Healing Garden near Holy Family Church, the group sang and prayed at the "They're All Our Children" service before participants each pledged to spend one of the next 40 days in prayer and fasting for detained immigrant children and their families.
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