As the 125 high school girls from the Institute of Notre Dame, Baltimore, recently toured the newly restored Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, they entered a room that features exhibits reflecting the history of Catholicism in the United States. The room in the co-cathedral’s undercroft is designated...Read More

Memorial Day may be the kick off of the summer season, but for many aging veterans it will be a time to journey to the Maryland World War II Memorial to reflect on the ultimate sacrifice many in the state gave during that conflict. As spectators attend the Memorial Day ceremony at the Ritchie Highway...Read More

BEIJING – The Chinese bishop who served in Beijing for more than 25 years was given a funeral for a state leader. A three-part funeral was held April 27 at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery for Bishop Michael Fu Tieshan, 76, who died of lung cancer April 20. The cemetery is the main burial ground for revolutionary...Read More

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – Archbishop J. Michael Miller, secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education, told a symposium on Catholic higher education that he objected to the “bleaching” of Catholic identity and said some Catholic institutions have “ignored, hidden or lost their ecclesial identity.” To change this course, he said schools should adopt ways to...Read More

VATICAN CITY – Despite being held in a cool, climate-controlled conference room, some early discussions at a Vatican-sponsored seminar on global warming and climate change got pretty heated. The rifts and tensions still dividing the global debate on the causes of and remedies for drastic climatic shifts were gently simmering in the small microcosm of...Read More

ST. LOUIS – Saying that it sent a “contradictory message” for a Catholic institution to raise funds by featuring a musician who supports abortion and embryonic stem-cell research, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke of St. Louis announced April 25 that he had withdrawn his support for an upcoming benefit for SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center.Read More

When St. William of York, Baltimore, youth minister, Wayne Hipley, started his youth ministry career five years ago, he was told to “go where the kids are “– meaning find out what activities young people are interested in, what music they are listening to and what is “cool” and incorporate it into the youth group...Read More

On Ann Hennessy’s first day of school at St. Anthony of Padua in Baltimore during the Great Depression, the young girl knew she had better be good or her parents would suffer otherworldly consequences. The pastor had given a rabble-rousing homily a few weeks earlier warning that the flames of hell awaited parents who did...Read More