WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholic leaders, pro-life organizations, Republican members of Congress and several governors are among those on a long list of supporters backing Mississippi's ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and urging the court to reexamine its previous abortion rulings when it takes up this case in the fall.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The refusal by the U.S. House to include the Hyde Amendment and other pro-life riders in appropriations bills before lawmakers passed the measures is an "injustice" that overshadows the provisions that help "vulnerable people," said the chairmen of two U.S. bishops' committees.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Two Catholic organizations issued statements in July urging against imposing a coronavirus vaccine mandate without conscience, religious or medical exemptions. In a poll of its members, the Catholic Medical Association said in a July 28 statement that all who responded "voiced moral/ethical objection to the use of aborted fetal cell lines in development, testing and/or production of all three currently available vaccines."
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) -- YouTube, Facebook, parish websites -- all now offer livestream Masses from parishes across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. But before COVID-19 hit Minnesota in March 2020, most of those parishes had never livestreamed a single Sunday Mass.
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Rockville Centre, N.Y. (CNA) -- Bishop Peter Libasci has been accused in a lawsuit of committing sexual abuse while a priest in New York during the 1980s. The Bishop of Manchester is accused in a July 14 lawsuit of abusing a male youth on numerous occasions in 1983 and 1984. Bishop Libasci has not spoken out publicly on the allegations, but the Diocese of Manchester says the matter has been reported to civil authorities.
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BOSTON (CNS) -- The Boston Globe reported July 29 that police in the Boston suburb of Wellesley have charged former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 in a criminal complaint filed by Wellesley Police in a district court in nearby Dedham, Massachusetts.
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BALTIMORE (CNS) -- The rainbow flag is an instantly recognized symbol of the LGBTQ movement, just as the Thin Blue Line flag is synonymous with support for law enforcement. Now, leaders in the pro-life community hope a new flag featuring baby's feet held in a mother's hands will serve as the universal symbol for protecting the lives of the unborn.
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The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in the middle of drafting a teaching document on the Eucharist, received words of advice from a panel convened July 28 to discuss the challenges facing the American church as it emerges from the coronavirus pandemic and seeks to overcome divisions that threaten church unity.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The political, economic and social crisis in Nicaragua "is reaching a flashpoint" and "is more than likely to lead to more violence and destabilization in the country," Rafael Estrada said at a recent hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky won the Olympic gold medal July 28 for the women's 1,500-meter freestyle, a new event, on the heels of coming in fifth place in the 200-meter freestyle.
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CHAMPLIN, Minn. (CNS) -- The Twin City Twisters in Champlin is the home gym of Grace McCallum, a member of the 2018 World Championship U.S. gymnastics team. A large banner hangs over the facility's main entrance honoring that accomplishment. Now her supporters can put up a new banner that reads, "Home of Grace McCallum, 2020 Olympic Silver Medalist."
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INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) -- When the interview with Olympic cyclist Felicia Stancil began, the 26-year-old Indianapolis resident said it would be great if one particular story could be shared with people.
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MIAMI (CNS) -- Whatever their political leanings may have been, members of South Florida's Haitian-American community were left saddened by the inexplicable and as yet unsolved assassination of Haiti's president, Jovenel Moïse, who was gunned down in the bedroom of his residence early July 7.
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With a surge in the first few months of 2021 of minors entering the United States without a parent or guardian, figures from fiscal year 2020 already have surpassed the total of unaccompanied minors who made border entries during the previous fiscal year.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- At a Capitol Hill media event July 21, Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of Washington joined immigrants, agriculture and business representatives and two U.S. senators in calling for legislative protections for immigrants that keep families together, including a pathway to citizenship.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CNS) -- Coming into this track and field season, Adreanna Parlette was trying to recapture the form that made her a star at St. Cecilia Academy in Nashville. She ended up exceeding even her expectations, qualifying June 24 at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in the long jump in Eugene, Oregon, and finishing 17th out of 24 women competing for three spots on the Olympic team.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Teresa Rojo Tsosie's Catholic faith is one of the most important parts of her life, but she has often felt that as a Native American Catholic, her voice wasn't being considered or heard by the church as a whole. Tsosie, who works for St. Jude Catholic Church in Tuba City on the Navajo Nation in the Diocese of Gallup, New Mexico, finally found a place to discuss that feeling. She was one of the participants in Journeying Together, a national dialogue on diversity and faith among Catholic young adults organized by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church. The yearlong program has given young adults from every major cultural group in the country the chance to gather online to discuss issues and challenges facing their communities, as well as the way their cultures influence their faith. Several participants in the program's monthly online discussions said it was the first time they had been able to have such discussions with other Catholics who share their cultures, as well as people from different cultural backgrounds. "For me, it's been a struggle just being heard and recognized, and I think we have really started something with Journeying Together by just being able to talk freely," Tosie said. "I hope we don't lose this momentum."
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From uneven responses to the COVID-19 crisis to the raw racial tensions exposed by the death of George Floyd in 2020, Americans over the past year have become more conscious of the diversity of our population and the struggles that many different cultures experience on a day to day basis.
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) -- Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis said July 16 that, for now, parishes that celebrate Mass in the extraordinary form -- also known as the "traditional Latin Mass" or "Tridentine Mass" -- should stick to the status quo.
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Every subscriber of digital services and smartphones which access personal information should be aware that their actions are no longer "private" -- even despite the best efforts and intentions of service providers.
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The bishops who head the El Paso and Dallas dioceses in Texas have asked Gov. Greg Abbott to halt an order that could result in shutting down, by the end of August, Catholic Charities facilities in Texas that care for foster and migrant children, saying that doing so violates state laws protecting religious freedom.
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) -- For Father Stephen Hilgendorf, it has been a long journey from his role as a priest in the Anglican tradition. It included a desire to be in full communion with the Catholic Church that was so strong he was willing to give up ministry altogether.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the chairman of the USCCB's international policy committee expressed their solidarity and that of all the U.S. bishops "with our brothers in the Cuban episcopate, and with all men and women of goodwill in Cuba."
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PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) -- Four Portland Catholic churches have been vandalized in the span of about six weeks. At least one incident involved a group protesting the recent discovery of unmarked graves at primarily Catholic-run schools in Canada, while other instances appear to be the work of disgruntled teens and individuals with general anger toward the church.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Randolph R. Calvo of Reno, Nevada, and named Auxiliary Bishop Daniel H. Mueggenborg of Seattle as his successor. Bishop Calvo, who turns 70 Aug. 28, has headed the northern Nevada diocese since 2006.
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QUEENS, N.Y. (CNS) -- Two religious statues displayed outside Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church in the New York borough of Queens were destroyed in an act of vandalism in the early morning hours of July 17.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CNS) -- Coming into this track and field season, Adreanna Parlette was trying to recapture the form that made her a star at St. Cecilia Academy in Nashville. She ended up exceeding even her expectations, qualifying June 24 at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in the long jump in Eugene, Oregon, and finishing 17th out of 24 women competing for three spots on the Olympic team.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholic immigration advocates are urging Congress and President Joe Biden to speed up legislation to protect immigrants after a federal judge ruled July 16 to end a program that prevents the deportation of thousands of immigrants brought into the U.S. illegally as children.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Extensive damage from back-to-back tropical storms in the middle of a pandemic has made a bad situation worse in Guatemala, argued immigration advocates July 14, seeking a special immigration status for nationals from the Central American nation.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Immigrant advocates, including Catholic organizations, launched a campaign July 13 to provide legal aid those who may need it, in case Congress, under the Biden administration, approves some type of reform.
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SEATTLE (CNS) -- A Seattle-area Christian church is fighting a Washington state law that requires churches to provide coverage for abortion despite their religious or moral objections. The law states that if the church also offers maternity care coverage to its employees, it must provide coverage of abortions or face fines and criminal penalties, including imprisonment.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The mere act of lifting the dispensation from the Sunday Mass obligation as the coronavirus pandemic eases won't be enough to get Catholics to come back to church, and some dioceses and Catholics are actively working to bring people back.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- It may seem like a coincidence that two U.S. Olympic teammates bound for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo attended the same Catholic elementary school and high school. But for soon-to-be three-time Olympian Katie Ledecky, 24, and Phoebe Bacon, 18, swimming in her first Olympics, their similarities represent many shared, God-given talents that drive them to persevere and excel.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The House Committee on Appropriations is poised to mark up "the most extreme pro-abortion appropriations bill we have seen" because it excludes the 46-year-old Hyde Amendment and other long-standing bipartisan provisions that prevent tax money from being spent on abortion, two U.S. bishops' committee chairmen said July 13.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Four Cuban American bishops called on the international community to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Cuba and expressed solidarity with them following protests that erupted on the island nation starting July 11.
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CHAMPLIN, Minn. (CNS) -- The Twin City Twisters in Champlin is the home gym of Grace McCallum, a member of the 2018 World Championship U.S. gymnastics team. A large banner hangs over the facility's main entrance honoring that accomplishment. But her supporters are hoping the gym will soon need a new banner that reads, "Home of Grace McCallum, 2020 Olympic Gold Medalist."
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. Catholic Church continues "to offer our heartfelt prayers and good wishes" for Pope Francis' recovery, said Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The call to end a U.S. policy that keeps migrants out because of COVID-19 fears has been a constant rallying cry among immigrant advocate circles this summer. Though it seems as if the heat and pressure mounting on the Biden administration to end it may be having some effect, advocates also fear restrictions may stay in place for some -- at least for a while longer.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As news events made headlines across the United States for months last year -- particularly the 2020 election, the coronavirus pandemic and racism in America -- priests' homilies did not mention these events nearly as much as did sermons by Protestant preachers, according to a report issued July 8 by the Pew Research Center.
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NEWARK, N.J. (CNS) -- Taxpayer-funded abortion "represents a failure to recognize the sanctity of human life and promotes a culture in which human life in its most vulnerable moment is perceived as disposable," said Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark.
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ASHEVILLE, N.C. (CNS) -- Vandals defaced the long-revered statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus outside St. Lawrence Basilica over the July 3-4 weekend, but it was quickly restored by parish staff. Arriving for Sunday Mass around 8 a.m. July 4, staff discovered the 7-foot statue of Jesus was covered in gallons of oil-based red paint. The damage occurred sometime after the vigil Mass July 3.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The day after issuing its final opinions for the current term, the Supreme Court announced it was taking up one religious rights case and rejecting another for its next term. Both cases sound somewhat familiar based on previous court rulings.
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SURFSIDE, Fla. (CNS) -- After spending time at Surfside's informal Wall of Remembrance memorial for the victims of the Champlain Towers South collapse, Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski told CBS4 Miami July 2, "It's quite shocking to see."
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