WASHINGTON (CNS) -- After the Senate voted July 25 to proceed with the health care debate, Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Florida, urged senators of both parties to "work together to advance changes that serve the common good."
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NEW YORK (CNS) -- A court ruling that the New York Archdiocese did not discriminate against a school principal when it did not renew her contract affirms "the freedom of a church to decide who will serve as its religious leaders," said the Alliance Defending Freedom.
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AKRON, Ohio (CNS) -- An old stick in the woods might not conjure much emotion for someone on a woodland hike, but for Les Johnson a stick is the start of a prayerful journey. Johnson turns Mother Nature's castaways into beautiful walking sticks. Before he finds a stick and after its discovery, he is in the midst of prayer, discerning just who he should gift with a piece created through what he believes is divine inspiration.
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OXFORD, England (CNS) -- A Catholic aid worker warned of a worsening crisis in the Central African Republic, as church centers are attacked and more armed groups fight over territory and resources. "Perhaps the situation is better in Bangui, the capital, but elsewhere conditions are deteriorating dramatically as conflicts multiply," said Christophe Droeven, country representative for the U.S.-based Catholic Relief Services.
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Louisville, Ky., Jul 25, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- Pro-life activists in the Archdiocese of Louisville have spoken out against a city ordinance which resulted in the creation of a temporary buffer zone outside Kentucky's only facility where abortions can be procured.
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Rome, Italy, Jul 25, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- One year after the brutal killing of Fr. Jacques Hamel, French bishops recalled the beautiful example of the man who lived out every day in simple faithfulness, rooted in the love of Christ.
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Santiago, Chile, Jul 25, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- This Aug. 15 will mark 90 years since the Sacramentine Sisters of Don Orione were founded to offer something very particular for the salvation of the world: their blindness.
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Los Angeles, Calif., Jul 24, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- Too many young people are threatened with deportation because their parents brought them to the U.S. without documentation, and Congress needs to pass the Dream Act to help them, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles has said.
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London, England, Jul 24, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- As part of an increasing government crackdown on internet pornography, U.K. porn sites will soon require users to provide proof of being at least 18 years old.
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Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Jul 24, 2017 CNA.- When Matt Hohler was in college in 2010, he was a reluctant Catholic - and not a coffee drinker. That year, his mom gave him a trip to a college Catholic conference as a Christmas gift. It was a conference with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, which annually draws several thousands of college students seeking to know more about their faith.
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MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- An explosive device was detonated outside the offices of the Mexican bishops' conference, directly across the street from the country's most visited religious site, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
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AMMAN, Jordan (CNS) -- As some Iraqi Christians make a slow return to the region around Mosul following the defeat of the Islamic State group, many say it will take time to rebuild their lives and even longer to rebuild their trust of those who betrayed them.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Sister Simone Campbell, a Sister of Social Service and executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice lobbying organization, personally delivered a letter to U.S. senators July 24 urging them to reject the Better Care Reconciliation Act and any proposals that would repeal the Affordable Care Act or cut Medicaid.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While Rome reels from one of its worst droughts in decades, the Vatican is doing its part to conserve water by shutting down the city-state's 100 fountains. The office governing Vatican City State announced July 25 that the drought has "led the Holy See to take measures aimed at saving water" by shutting down fountains in St. Peter's Square, throughout the Vatican Gardens and in the territory of the state.
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SAN ANTONIO (CNS) -- The "completely senseless deaths" of 10 people who died of heat exhaustion and suffocation they suffered from being held in a tractor-trailer "is an incomprehensible tragedy," said Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio.
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HONOLULU (CNS) -- An Oahu pro-life pregnancy resource center and a national network of pregnancy resource centers have filed a federal lawsuit to halt the enforcement of a new Hawaii law that requires such centers to "advertise" contraception and abortion "services."
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MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- Pope Francis is praying for the parents of Charlie Gard after a U.S. doctor told them nothing could be done to help their son. Chris Gard and Connie Yates announced in London's High Court July 24 that they had ended their legal struggle to take their baby overseas for treatment after a U.S. neurologist, Dr. Michio Hirano, said he was no longer willing to offer Charlie experimental nucleoside therapy after he examined the results of a new MRI scan.
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MENLO PARK, Calif. (CNS) -- St. Patrick's Seminary and University is welcoming five professors and expects to admit as many as 15 new seminarians this fall as the institution's new president-rector reaches out to bishops in several Western states to encourage them to consider the Menlo Park seminary for priestly formation.
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Washington D.C., Jul 24, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- For some, it was a health-conscious decision. For others, it was environmental. For still others, it was faith-based. But no matter the reason, more and more women are ditching the pill and opting for fertility awareness methods as a natural way to achieve or delay pregnancy.
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Washington D.C., Jul 24, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- Catholic figures from Washington, D.C. are remembering the legacy of Fr. Arne Panula, former U.S. vicar of Opus Dei, and a beloved leader, mentor and friend of many throughout the city.
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Washington D.C., Jul 22, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- Congress’ proposed federal budget will fail to provide for the basic needs of millions of America’s poor people, the U.S. bishops have said in a call for a morally sound budget.
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Caracas, Venezuela, Jul 21, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- Venezuela's bishops have organized a day of prayer and fasting amid ongoing riots throughout the country as opposition to President Nicolas Maduro hardens.
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Sacramento, Calif., Jul 21, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- Pro-abortion groups are lobbying for a California law that Catholic leaders warn would open employers like Catholic schools to lawsuits for asking teachers to follow their codes of conduct.
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Washington D.C., Jul 21, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- While there is talk of criminal justice reform in the U.S., something must also be done about a decades-long spike in female inmates, experts and members of Congress of both parties said.
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Denver, Colo., Jul 20, 2017 CNA.- When most people hear about a stereotypical “large Catholic family,” they might picture a van that seats six or eight kids. Most wouldn’t think of having so many great-grandchildren that you’ve lost count.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- After a Texas attorney general gave the Trump administration an ultimatum to end a policy protecting young migrants or face a lawsuit in September, the Catholic bishops of Texas expressed disappointment in a letter to the state official and blamed Congress for the uncertain future the migrants are facing.
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UNITED NATIONS (CNS) -- The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals agreed upon in 2015 are "not ends in themselves," but a means to bring about "the true good" of the peoples of the world through care for one another and for "our common home," Archbishop Bernardito Auza said.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- While Capitol Hill and much of the nation have been following the roller coaster of debate surrounding what will come of GOP efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, some are focused on what President Donald Trump's proposed tax plan might mean for charitable giving.
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HONG KONG (CNS) -- The Chinese Communist Party's top leader in charge of religion has made it clear that Beijing intends to retain a tight grip on the Catholic Church. Yu Zhengsheng, a member of the elite seven-man Politburo Standing Committee and chair of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, told members of the open church community "to ensure that the leadership of the Chinese Catholic Church is held firmly in the hands of those who love the nation and the religion," reported ucanews.com.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Natural Cycles recently gained international attention as the first cellphone app to be recognized as a contraceptive by the European Union. The app's algorithm uses readings from a two-decimal basal thermometer to determine days of fertility or infertility.
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JERICHO, West Bank (CNS) -- Ahmed Za'atreh's love affair with photography began last year, when a relative came back from a trip abroad and gave him a camera. The 15-year-old focused his lens on the brown-hued desert mountains and valleys surrounding Jericho and began taking pictures.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis' decree to beatify two Colombian martyrs from two troubled eras in the South American country's history underscores his call for courageous witness amid violence and persecution.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- U.S. senators must reject any bill that would replace the Affordable Care Act unless suchameasure "protects poor and vulnerable people, including immigrants, safeguards the unborn and supports conscience rights," said the chairman of the U.S. bishops' domestic policy committee.
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Washington D.C., Jul 20, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- Father Arne Panula, the former U.S. vicar of Opus Dei, passed away at his Washington, D.C. home on July 19, 2017 after a battle with cancer. “Father Arne had the firm belief that anything is possible, the imagination to think big, and the drive and energy to make things happen,” said Father Thomas G. Bohlin, U.S. vicar of Opus Dei.
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LOWELL -- Steubenville East, held at University of Massachusetts Lowell's Tsongas Center, July 14 to July 16, wasn't exactly what first-timer attendee Maggie Van Dyne was expecting, but she's not disappointed.
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MILTON -- Close to 500 Catholic Hispanic young people from throughout the Archdiocese of Boston converged at Fontbonne Academy in Milton on July 8 for a day of prayer, dance, music, worship and adoration -- specifically geared for Hispanic youth.
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DORCHESTER -- The sun was just starting to set when the flashlights came on and chants of "Light up the streets, light up the night!" echoed across Dorchester's Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood. The chanting, coming from dozens of voices, caused residents to open their windows and their doors to peer out at the parade of civilians, police officers, and clergy members who made their way down the streets, shining flashlights on neighborhoods that have, especially in the last few weeks, seen some dark times.
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EVERETT -- Saugus senior citizen Ken Nadeau sounded emotional as he addressed the hundreds of people gathered in the auditorium of Pope John XXIII High School in Everett, June 29. He was on stage thanking the young adults who had cleaned his entire house and did yard work as part of the Catholic Heart Workcamp service program, during the camp's Resident Night.
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BOSTON -- A total of 360 volunteers from the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Boston internship program took part in a day of service to help local Catholic schools prepare for the upcoming-school year, July 14.
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ANDOVER -- Forty-nine teens, along with 18 adult participants, from St. Augustine Parish's Youth Ministry spent the first full week of summer vacation serving several of their local neighbors in need of help as part of the ministry's UNITAS program.
Read moreSOUTH END -- Two Cathedral High School graduates of the class of 2017 -- Amberose McDonald of South Boston and Tikia Price of Roxbury -- have been selected as Yawkey Scholars by The Yawkey Foundation.
Read moreBOSTON -- A New York man is suing the Archdiocese of Boston for sexual abuse he says he suffered decades ago at a Church-affiliated home for orphaned and foster children. Andre Jones, who's 51, said on Monday that he was abused in the 1970s by the late Brother Edward Anthony Holmes, a supervisor and counselor at the now-shuttered Nazareth Child Care Center.
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The Holy See announced June 30 that Pope Francis had accepted the request of Bishop Arthur L. Kennedy to resign as auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese. Bishop Kennedy had submitted the customary letter of resignation "on having reached the age limit" on his 75th birthday, Jan. 9, 2017. The Boston native has been serving as an auxiliary of the archdiocese since his episcopal ordination on Sept. 14, 2010.
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First, on Saturday (7/8) the archdiocese organized a rally for Hispanic youth at Fontbonne Academy in Milton. We had about 450 young people with us there. The kids all looked wonderful in their blue T-shirts that said "Atrevete a Navegar Contracorriente" ("Daring to Swim Against the Current") and had the symbol of the fish, which of course in the Early Church was the symbol of the Christian because it comes from the acrostic of the Greek words "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior."
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- There are plenty of myths that surround natural family planning, but advocates say the Catholic Church can help dispel those myths and raise an awareness of which fertility-awareness options exist for married couples that embrace church teaching.
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San Francisco, Calif., Jul 20, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- A federal judge has ordered over $136,000 in fines after the release of several undercover videos in a series that appeared to implicate Planned Parenthood officials and the National Abortion Federation in the illegal sale of unborn baby body parts.
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Washington D.C., Jul 20, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- Undocumented young people brought to the U.S. by their parents contribute to American society and deserve continued protections from the Trump administration, said the U.S. Catholic bishops this week.
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Washington D.C., Jul 19, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- Amid the Gard family's legal battle in the U.K. to pursue experimental treatment for their infant son, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation granting them permanent residency in the states.
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Denver, Colo., Jul 20, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- From a young age, Catholics are taught to pray about and discern their vocations – whether they're called to marriage, to the religious life, to the priesthood, or consecrated single life.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Not all Catholics are familiar with the Land O' Lakes statement, a document on Catholic higher education with a cool sounding name, but this landmark text needs no explanation for Catholic college and university leaders.
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JERUSALEM (CNS) -- The heads of Jerusalem's Christian churches expressed "serious concern" over an escalation in tensions in Jerusalem's Old City as hostilities remained high following the mid-July shooting deaths of two Israeli policemen and three gunmen on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. House budget resolution "will place millions of poor and vulnerable people in real jeopardy" because it reduces deficits "through cuts for human needs" and by trying to slash taxes at the same time, said the chairman of the U.S. bishops' domestic policy committee.
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LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- When Pope Francis visits Colombia in September, he will take his message of mercy and reconciliation to Cartagena, a city that still bears scars of its painful history as a slave port. And he will walk the streets where another Jesuit, St. Peter Claver, put that message into practice four centuries ago.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. Supreme Court said grandparents can be included among those who have a "bona fide" relationship with refugees seeking to enter the United States from six majority-Muslim countries under the Trump administration's temporary travel ban.
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Fuzhou, China, Jul 19, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- As the Catholic Church in China journeys toward a normalized relationship with the Holy See, one priest in dialogue with Chinese bishops has seen vast improvement in openness and dialogue on the part of leaders, both in the patriotic and underground Churches.
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Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jul 19, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- Maximiliano Acuña is a garbage collector in Buenos Aires who earlier this year was injured in a serious accident that left him without legs.
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Butembo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jul 19, 2017 CNA.- Gunmen have abducted two Catholic priests in the Democratic Republic of Congo, prompting the country’s bishops to plead that the captives not be harmed.
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El Paso, Texas, Jul 19, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- A U.S. bishop on the border of Mexico hopes his new pastoral letter on migration will turn the hearts of Catholics to encounter their migrant brothers and sisters in a concrete way.
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New York City, N.Y., Jul 19, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- Religious leaders, not secularists, are often in the best position to persuade violent religious extremists towards peace, the papal nuncio to the United Nations has said in response to an effort to prevent atrocities.
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Philadelphia, Pa., Jul 19, 2017 CNA/EWTN News.- A prominent Catholic journal’s critique of American religion and politics got quite a bit wrong, Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said yesterday.
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FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (CNS) -- Catholic bishops in Sierra Leone called on citizens to refrain from actions to destabilize the West African nation and to come together before next year's elections in the same spirit that helped end the country's civil war and overcome its Ebola epidemic.
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YAOUNDE, Cameroon (CNS) -- The bishops' conference of Cameroon launched a private lawsuit over the alleged murder of Bishop Jean-Marie Benoit Bala of Bafia, whose body was found floating in a river in June.
Read moreNEW BRIGHTON, Minn. (CNS) -- Five years ago, Joannie Moses was in her late 60s and widowed. Her husband, Terry, had died of pancreatic cancer. She thought that after a long stint as a caregiver, and nearly 30 years as the religious education director at St. Maron Maronite Catholic Parish in northeast Minneapolis, it was time to reinvent her life.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholic Facebook pages whose sponsors reported had been suddenly removed late July 17 were restored just over 24 hours later. Twenty-one Brazilian-based Catholic Facebook pages, such as a Papa Francisco Brazil page, as well as four English sites, could not publish content July 18 due to Facebook silently taking down their sites. Millions of followers were affected, according to ChurchPOP, a Christian Culture brand website.
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PHILADELPHIA (CNS) -- Over the past 18 years, the use of opioid drugs -- both legal and illicit -- has surged throughout the United States. Thousands of overdoses, disorders and deaths have accompanied this increase, which public health and law enforcement officials have called an epidemic.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- More than 500 boys suffered abuse at the hands of dozens of teachers and priests at the school that trains the prestigious boys choir of the Regensburg Cathedral in Germany, said an independent investigator.
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