London, England, Jun 22, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- Legal efforts to bar the parents of a British baby born with a disabling medical condition from seeking treatment overseas are based on deep ethical errors, a Catholic expert in medical ethics has warned.
Read more
Washington D.C., Jun 21, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- The U.S. bishops have launched a website and video to mark the beginning of this year’s Fortnight for Freedom, focusing on religious freedom issues both at home and abroad.
Read more
QUEBEC CITY (CNS) -- Faith and films have been lifelong obsessions for director Martin Scorsese, obsessions that he said have given him moments of peace amid turmoil, but also challenges and frustrations that, in hindsight, he will accept as lessons in humility.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the chairmen of the bishops' migration and international policy committees urged Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly to defer deportation of Chaldean Christians and others arrested June 11.
Read moreBEIRUT (CNS) -- Bishop Joseph Absi was elected the new Melkite patriarch of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem and All the East during the Melkite Catholic Synod at Ain-Traz, Lebanon. Melkite leaders elected Bishop Absi June 21, one day after his 71st birthday. A native of Damascus, Syria, he has served as patriarchal vicar in the Archdiocese of Damascus since 2007.
Read more
OXFORD, England (CNS) -- Mali's Catholic church has urged a common front against Islamist violence after al-Qaida-linked terrorists attacked a tourist resort just days before the creation of the country's first cardinal.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- It is important the world move from indifference about the plight of the world's refugees to solidarity with them, Auxiliary Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville of Washington said June 19.
Read more
San Salvador, El Salvador, Jun 21, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- Pope Francis' decision to elevate Bishop José Gregorio Rosa Chávez is unprecedented: not only is he the first Salvadoran cardinal, he is also the first auxiliary bishop to be given a red biretta.
Read more
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Being a saint doesn't require spending long hours in prayer, but rather living life open to God in good times and in bad, Pope Francis said. Christians should live with the "hope of becoming saints" and with the desire that "work, even in sickness and suffering, even in difficulties, is open to God," the pope said June 21 during his weekly general audience.
Read more
Vatican City, Jun 20, 2017 National Catholic Register.- Here below is the full text of the letter, signed by Cardinal Carlo Caffarra on behalf of the four dubia cardinals, asking Pope Francis for an audience to discuss deep concerns over the Pope’s apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love).
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Why do Catholics pray the rosary? The history of the rosary traces to the 13th century. It is believed that Mary gave St. Dominic the rosary to rescue the church from the Albigensian heresy.
Read moreWASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. Catholic bishops "unequivocally reject" acts of violence such as the attack outside a London mosque and pleaded with all people "to cease from committing or plotting to commit further acts."
Read moreVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Just two years after being hired to help with the Vatican's efforts in finance reform, Libero Milone -- the Vatican's first independent auditor who answered only to the pope -- handed a request for his resignation to Pope Francis.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, said the state of Alabama erred in denying an indigent defendant now on death row a separate psychiatric evaluation that would assist in his own defense.
Read moreRUTENG, Indonesia (CNS) -- A group of priests in Indonesia's Ruteng Diocese appealed to the Vatican to intervene and resolve a dispute with their bishop, whom they accuse of misappropriating more than $100,000 in church funds.
Read more
Newark, N.J., Jun 20, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- Last month Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark welcomed a pilgrimage of self-identified LGBT pilgrims, with an archdiocesan spokesman saying it should be seen in the context of welcoming everyone, not as archdiocese sponsorship of the event.
Read more
Washington D.C., Jun 19, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a defendant has a right to a mental health evaluation independent of the prosecution, which could have wide-ranging implications for the justice system.
Read more
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A longtime diplomat and fluent in 17 languages, Indian Cardinal Ivan Dias died June 19 in Rome after a long illness. He was 81. Pope Francis called the cardinal a "wise and gentle pastor" who served the church and Vatican faithfully.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The retired Catholic archbishop of Havana called for dialogue between the United States and Cuba, and said it's the only way in which past and present problems can be solved. In a June 19 letter published in Palabra Nueva, the magazine for the Archdiocese of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, who played a major role in the rapprochement between Cuba and the U.S., said "resorting to old models" and applying them presently to Cuba can "overshadow or delay" the resolution of conflicts between the two countries.
Read more
AVE MARIA, Fla. (CNS) -- For Curtis Martin, founder and CEO of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, "It's all grace." He was describing the apostolate's consecration to Mary June 13 during its five weeks of new staff training at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria.
Read more
London, England, Jun 17, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- After facing backlash for his Christian faith, the head of the UK’s Liberal Democratic Party announced his resignation on Wednesday, claiming that leading the party was becoming incompatible with living his faith.
Read more
Manchester, N.H., Jun 18, 2017 National Catholic Register.- In the name of raising up lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ, another U.S. Latin-rite diocese has decided to restore confirmation to its traditional place before first Holy Communion.
Read more
DETROIT (CNS) -- The organizer of a June 16 protest in Detroit against federal agents' rounding up more than 100 Iraqi-American immigrants told local media that those who were detained had no prior warning that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be arresting them the morning of June 11.
Read more
ROME (CNS) -- Instead of "pretending to be adolescents," parents must help young people see the blessing of growing into adulthood, Pope Francis told priests, religious, catechists and parish council members from the Diocese of Rome.
Read more
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis will travel to Colombia in September and, the Vatican announced, he will return to South America in January for a visit to Chile and Peru. The pope will be in Chile Jan. 15-18, visiting the cities of Santiago, Temuco and Iquique, the Vatican press office announced June 19. He then will fly to Peru and from Jan. 18-21, he will visit Lima, Puerto Maldonado and Trujillo.
Read more
LONDON (CNS) -- An English cardinal has condemned an attack against Muslims who had gathered close to a London mosque. Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster issued a statement following the fourth terror attack in the United Kingdom in the past three months.
Read more
NEW ORLEANS (CNS) -- Father Tim Hedrick, parochial vicar of St. Catherine of Siena Church in Metairie, was in Washington continuing his canon law studies when a news alert came across his phone June 14 that Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise, the House majority whip, had been shot.
Read more
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Pope Francis encouraged her to support international agreements like the Paris climate accord as well as to break down walls that divide people.
Read moreVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Pontifical Academy for Life is and always will be against abortion and is committed to involving increasing numbers of people in the defense of human life, said Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, academy president.
Read more
INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops voted June 15 to make the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty a permanent standing committee. The 132-53 vote came on the second day of the bishops' spring assembly in Indianapolis. There were five abstentions. A simple majority was required for approval.
Read more
Vatican City, Jun 15, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- The General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops announced the launch of a new website for the upcoming synod on youth, and encouraged young people to take the survey available there.
Read moreTURIN, Italy (CNS) -- Inside a copper teapot in a kitchen cupboard, Italian police found the relic of St. John Bosco that had been stolen two weeks earlier from the basilica erected at his birthplace.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Two court cases seeking to shape the place of religion in U.S. society are under review by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Cincinnati, one with the possibility of reaching the Supreme Court of the United States.
Read more
ROXBURY -- In a last major step toward the priesthood, seven men were ordained transitional deacons in the presence of family, friends, fellow seminarians, clergy, and religious during a June 10 Mass at Holy Name Parish in Roxbury.
Read more
BOSTON -- The Archdiocese of Boston's Planning Office for Urban Affairs honored Anne Finucane, vice chairman of Bank of America, during the organization's Spring Celebration, June 8 at the Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center in Boston.
Read more
BRAINTREE -- Having grown up in the Dominican Republic, Yannelly Mercado didn't move to the United States until she was in 6th grade, and didn't fully learn the English language until she was in 9th grade.
Read more
He traveled far from home in Milton to complete his seminary studies; and save for two years, he served only a few miles from Milton in the city of Boston for five decades. Father Walter J. Waldron who was born in Boston on Feb. 16, 1940 became a senior priest of the archdiocese on June 13, 2017. In between those dates is the story.
Read more
Born in Somerville on Jan. 4, 1942 and raised in St. Polycarp Parish and later at St. Agnes Parish in Reading, Father John W. O'Brien was granted senior priest/retirement status by Cardinal O'Malley effective June 1, 2017.
Read moreSOMERVILLE -- The Little Sisters of the Poor in Somerville were chosen among over 500 applicants to be a recipients of this year's Cummings Foundation 100K for 100 program. The sisters are thrilled about this generous gift, as it will help them in continuing their mission of serving the Elderly Poor of the Greater Boston area.
Read moreSALEM -- Citing ongoing financial challenges, the Salem Catholic Collaborative has submitted a plan to Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley that would see two of the collaborative's parishes merged into one and a third parish converted into a shrine.
Read moreBRAINTREE -- Two Catholic schools, Country Day School of the Holy Union in Groton and St. Joseph School in Haverhill, have announced they will be closing following the end of the 2016-2017 school year.
Read more
This past weekend was, of course, Pentecost (6/3) and as has been my tradition, I celebrated confirmations for the young people of the Brazilian community in the archdiocese. Ordinarily, we would hold all the confirmations at the same time at the cathedral. However, this year, because the upper church of the cathedral is closed, we are holding them in stages at different locations. This first group was held at the Madonna Queen Shrine in East Boston and next weekend we'll be celebrating confirmations at St. Tarcisius in Framingham.
Read more
Denver, Colo. (CNA) -- It's only been out for a few weeks, but that's enough time for "13 Reasons Why" to have become the latest teenage Netflix binge craze. Based on the 2007 young adult novel by the same name, "13 Reasons Why" follows the story of Hannah Baker, a troubled 17 year old who took her own life.
Read more