WASHINGTON – The clergy sex abuse scandal continued to have a major financial impact on U.S. Catholic dioceses in 2007 as multimillion-dollar settlements were reached with abuse victims and dioceses funded their share by selling church property, reducing staff and, in at least one case, soliciting contributions from priests and lay Catholics.Read More

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Catholic Relief Services’ staffers have to overcome political obstacles as they try to help the people of Sri Lanka rebuild three years after a tsunami hit, said a CRS official.Read More

The Archdiocese of Baltimore joined with the Catholic Church Extension Society to produce a spiral-bound 2008 calendar celebrating the 200th anniversary of the archdiocese.Read More

Continuing a tradition of his predecessor, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien will serve as retreat master for a Jan. 4-5 gathering of men who are thinking about becoming archdiocesan priests.Read More

After serving six months as temporary administrator and a year as associate pastor of Sacred Heart of Mary in Graceland Park, Father George Gannon is elated that Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien has appointed him the new pastor of the east Baltimore parish effective immediately.Read More

Father John A. Williamson has been appointed by Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien to serve as pastor of Church of the Ascension, Halethorpe, effective Jan. 15. The 35-year-old first-time pastor said he is looking forward to his assignment and feels his work at the Catholic Community of South Baltimore, where he has served for 18 months,...Read More

WASHINGTON – A Vietnamese-American theologian’s 2004 book on religious pluralism contains “pervading ambiguities and equivocations that could easily confuse or mislead the faithful,” the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Doctrine said in a Dec. 10 statement.Read More

WASHINGTON – When Arizona Rep. Morris Udall sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1976, the fact that he was a Mormon, albeit an inactive one, was barely mentioned.Read More