VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI celebrated a low-key birthday with his brother at the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo.Read More

WASHINGTON – The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has ordered a “doctrinal assessment” of the “activities and initiatives” of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Maryland-based association whose members represent about 95 percent of the 67,000 women religious in the United States.Read More

For people whose view of history extends beyond last week, the furor over Notre Dame’s decision to invite President Barack Obama to be its commencement speaker and receive an honorary degree is simply the latest chapter in an old story by the name of “Americanism.” Notre Dame is a paradigmatic institution – flagship of the...Read More

Having written two monumental works, “The Birth of the Messiah” and “The Death of the Messiah,” the great Scripture scholar Sulpician Father Raymond Brown was asked, “Are you going to write about the Resurrection of the Messiah?”Read More

The Easter season provides the media with the opportunity each year to report on the state of the Catholic Church, Christianity and basically all-things-religion. This Easter was no different. The Easter-week edition of Newsweek contained an article entitled, “The End of Christian America,” based largely on the recently released 2009 American Religious Identification Survey which...Read More

VATICAN CITY – For making what he described as “the most difficult decision in my political life,” Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico was given a front-row seat at a papal audience and was to see Rome’s Colosseum lit up in honor of his state.Read More

NEW YORK – Archbishop Timothy J. Dolan predicted his style as New York’s archbishop will differ from that of his predecessors, but the substance will be the same.Read More

Lucas Dernetz might not be former New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath yet, but he’s pretty good at following through on guarantees.Read More