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March 17, 2010
WASHINGTON -- In the final days of the national health reform debate, U.S. bishops called for political courage and for prayers that Congress would come up with legislation that would respect human life and dignity at all stages.
"In moments of concern and crisis, Catholic tradition through the centuries has unfailingly urged the faithful to turn to the spiritual aids of prayer and fasting in order to draw closer to our Lord and his wil...
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March 17, 2010
DENVER -- The decision to refuse re-enrollment at a Boulder Catholic school to two children of lesbian parents was the only outcome that was fair to the children, their teachers, school parents and "the authentic faith of the Church," said Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput.
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March 17, 2010
ROME -- The Vatican should prepare a document giving local bishops and their tribunals a detailed procedure based on canon law for conducting their initial investigations of accusations of sexual abuse against a priest, said Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, head of the Vatican's supreme court.
Archbishop Burke is prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura and archbishop emeritus of St. Louis.
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March 17, 2010
VILLANOVA, Pa. -- Desktop and laptop computers will be artifacts in the Smithsonian in three years, replaced by mobile computing devices known as "smartphones," a keynote speaker predicted at a technology summit for parishes.
Steve Hewitt, editor of Christian Computing Magazine and Christian Video Magazine, called it the "personal computing age" led by those under 40.
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March 17, 2010
Official resigns, priest suspended in Munich Archdiocese
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March 17, 2010
WASHINGTON -- "Despite the good" that proposed health reform legislation "intends or might achieve," concerns about the abortion wording in the Senate-passed bill compel the U.S. bishops to "regretfully hold that it must be opposed until these serious moral problems are addressed," Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago said March 15.
The statement from the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops came soon after the head of...
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 A woman cried during a funeral for victims in the Dogo Nahawa village, near the capital city of Jos in central Nigeria March 8. Cultural, economic and tribal differences are feeding the bloody conflict between Nigerian farmers and herders that has left hundreds of people dead, Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja said.
March 10, 2010
VATICAN CITY -- Violence does not resolve problems, but only multiplies the tragic consequences of tensions between different groups, Pope Benedict XVI said as he appealed for an end to violence in Nigeria.
Cultural, economic and tribal differences are feeding the bloody conflict between Nigerian farmers and herders that has left hundreds of people dead, Nigerian Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja told Vatican Radio March 8....
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 Capuchin Father James Stump visited with patient Valentino Juanitas in early December in the acute-care ward at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto, Calif. Father Stump said he makes his rounds with one purpose in mind — to invite sick and wounded veterans to encounter the living Christ.
March 10, 2010
PALO ALTO, Calif. (CNS) -- To watch Capuchin Father James Stump at work is to see a Christ-centered "ministry of presence" in action as a daily routine.
A chaplain at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto, Father Stump makes his rounds with one purpose in mind: to invite sick and wounded veterans to encounter the living Christ.
Father Stump is quick in his step and quick with a joke as he goes about his work....
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March 10, 2010
MEXICO CITY -- The lawyers representing the supposed children and former partner of Legionaries of Christ founder Father Marcial Maciel have severed their relationship with the complainants, a Spanish news agency reported March 8.
The lawyers' spokesman, Jose Bonilla, said in a statement to the news agency, EFE, that the supposed family of Father Maciel went public March 3 with the story of their lives with the Legionaries of Christ fou...
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March 10, 2010
VATICAN CITY -- To understand President Barack Obama, one must be aware of his personal experience of faith and the importance of religion in U.S. political life, according to a new book written by a Vatican Radio editor.
"God and Obama: Faith and Politics at the White House" by Alessandro Gisotti takes a detailed look at the president's faith and his efforts to construct a "common ground" with the Catholic Church.
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March 10, 2010
MONTREAL -- Just 73 years after his death, Brother Andre Bessette will become the first Canadian-born man elevated to sainthood.
The news of the Holy Cross brother's Oct. 17 canonization, one of six announced by Pope Benedict XVI Feb. 19, was met with elation by the members of the Church in Montreal.
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March 9, 2010
ORLANDO, Fla. -- About 100 traditionalist Anglican parishes in the United States have decided to join the Catholic Church as a group.
Meeting in Orlando, the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America voted to seek entry into the Catholic Church under the guidelines established in Pope Benedict XVI's apostolic constitution "Anglicanorum Coetibus" ("Groups of Anglicans"), said a March 3 statement.
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March 3, 2010
La Paz, Bolivia -- The Archbishop of Krakow, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was Pope John Paul II's personal secretary for 40 years, told participants at a Colombian conference that the late Pope's beatification process "is practically finished."
The cardinal made the comment at a conference on the legacy of Pope John Paul II.
In Colombia, where Cardinal Dziwisz traveled to participate in a conference on the legacy of...
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 Earthquake victims laid in beds March 1 in a field hospital set up after a major earthquake in Talca, Chile. At least 800 people were killed when the massive quake struck the country’s central coast early Feb. 27.
March 3, 2010
LIMA, Peru -- While media attention focuses on looting in Concepcion, the largest city near the epicenter of the magnitude 8.8 earthquake Feb. 27, Catholic Church workers struggle to reach quake victims in rural areas who are far from the spotlight.
"We are receiving funds to help the poorest people, who are in the countryside," Father Waldo Alfaro, head of the Caritas Chile office in Linares, told Catholic News Service March...
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March 3, 2010
WASHINGTON -- Catholic Charities of the Washington Archdiocese has told staff members that a new same-sex marriage law in the District of Columbia has forced the agency to make changes to its health care coverage for spouses of employees.
"I am writing to you to inform you of an important change to our group health care benefit plan that will take effect on March 2, 2010, due to a change in the law of the District of Columbia,...
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March 3, 2010
DUBLIN, Ireland -- A member of a banned Loyalist paramilitary organization that waged a 30-year campaign of violence against Northern Ireland's Catholics has become a Catholic.
The revelation that Ian Stewart, a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force, is Catholic came in Belfast Crown Court Feb. 26 during the trial of nine men charged with murdering a fellow Loyalist paramilitary member.
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February 24, 2010
Charlotte, N.C. -- A proposed North Carolina school textbook that described Roe vs. Wade as a ruling against government oppression of rights has been altered following opposition from Catholics and other pro-life advocates.
More than 1,800 participants in the Catholic Voice campaign e-mailed the state's Department of Public Construction with their concerns. The material was removed on Feb. 18.
Bishop of Raleigh Michael F. Burbidg...
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February 24, 2010
Washington D.C. -- The Catholic Church's membership in the United States grew at the "robust" rate of about 1.5 percent in 2008, according to National Council of Churches' (NCC) new 2010 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches.
A slight loss in Catholic membership in the U.S. was reported in the 2009 Yearbook, but the NCC said the latest figure shows "robust growth." The figures come from 2008 statistics. The gr...
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