"Magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt his name together," Jim Henry quoted Psalm 34:3 to a packed St. Francis Xavier (College) Church last week, after receiving an immediate and enthusiastic standing ovation from the audience at the end of the Catholic High School Choristers concert he directed.

Henry emphasized the word "together," noting that the students, representing 11 high schools in the archdiocese, truly had come together throughout the week to be formed as one in praising...

As I continue this series on the family, I want to reflect about children in the family. I do so with a special awareness that July 20-26 was designated Natural Family Planning Week by the U.S. bishops.

As our faith in the Trinity took definitive shape, theologians explored ways that the family might provide us with an analogy for understanding the Trinity. But a special emphasis of St. John Paul II was to turn the matter around -- not to ask whether the family can help us to...

VATICAN CITY -- As the last Iraqi Christians in Mosul fled the city, Pope Francis urgently called for prayers, dialogue and peace.

"Violence isn't overcome with violence. Violence is conquered with peace," the pope said before leading thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square in a moment of silent prayer July 20.

"Our brothers and sisters are persecuted, they are chased away," he said, as he assured Christians in all of Iraq and the Middle East of his "constant...

Like many photojournalists I know, I started my career early. In the fall of 1986, as a scrawny high-school freshman, I joined our yearbook staff. My mother had required me to do an extra-curricular activity and I wasn't good or even interested in many sports. The yearbook sounded like fun.

I was pretty much obsessed with news photography from my first "assignment" -- a football game. I recently discovered a photo from that game. A quarterback was pitching the ball as defensive...