VATICAN CITY – Highlighting the fidelity and responsibility of women in the early Christian community, Pope Benedict XVI said the church could not have grown and developed as it has without the contribution of women. “The history of Christianity would have had a very different development if it had not been for the generous support...Read More

SALT LAKE CITY – Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald, administrator of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, called on Catholics Feb. 13 to unite in prayer for victims of a shooting spree at a shopping mall and their families and for the gunman and his family. Five people were killed and at least four more were...Read More

ST. LOUIS – Some Catholic and public high school officials in the St. Louis area said they are against a proposal to create separate state athletic championships for private and public schools. Private and public school educators and coaches contacted by the St. Louis Review, newspaper of the St. Louis Archdiocese, noted that their students...Read More

TOLEDO, Ohio – Like moviegoers everywhere, the 100-plus people who filled the auditorium at WGTE-TV in Toledo on a recent evening were looking forward to the show – complete with popcorn and beverages. But this was no ordinary “night at the movies.” It was the result of two years’ work and a partnership between Toledo’s...Read More

Scattered throughout the auditorium of The Cardinal Gibbons School, Baltimore, students from Mount de Sales Academy, Catonsville; Institute of Notre Dame, Baltimore; The Seton Keough High School; Cardinal Gibbons; and Mount St. Joseph High School, Irvington, practiced their lines, dance moves and songs. When dressed in costume, no one could tell which student was from...Read More

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI said people’s lives will be judged not on the basis of abstract ideals but on the concrete acts of charity. In a Feb. 10 talk to Italian volunteer groups that provide medical assistance and blood donation programs, the pope said the organizations were helping to spread the “Gospel of...Read More

WASHINGTON – Congress should heed the warnings of a recent report on global warming, with priority given to how climate change will affect the poor, the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Policy urged. In a Feb. 7 letter to congressional leaders, Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla., said the recently released...Read More

At a time when Catholics nationwide seem to be returning to their Democratic roots, Catholic voters in Maryland are increasingly casting their ballots for Republican candidates. According to CNN exit polls, Maryland Catholics solidly favored the Republican candidates for governor and U.S. senator in November’s election.Read More