VATICAN CITY (CNS) — As the celebration of Christmas draws near, the plight of the Holy Family calls to mind the sufferings of the many men, women and children escaping war and persecution, Pope Francis said. Meeting with organizers and artists participating in a benefit Christmas concert at the Vatican, the pope said the holy
WASHINGTON (CNS) — It has been 25 years and counting, but Father Michael Shields doesn’t have any plans to leave the mission of the Archdiocese of Anchorage, Alaska, in Magadan, Russia, at least any time soon. Father Shields, 69, loves his ministry in the Russian Far East city of 100,000. Magadan and Anchorage are sister
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Just as she did hundreds of years ago from a small hill in Tepeyac, Mexico, Mary accompanies the downtrodden and the lowly like a mother caring for her children. Mary “is a woman who walks with the gentleness and tenderness of a mother, she makes her home in family life, she
WASHINGTON (CNS) — With a diapered baby Jesus doll in her arms, the woman named Mary descended the steps and walked toward an opening marked “Bethlehem” where she put the figurine on top of a bale of straw as Franciscan friars and other priests in brown habits and white cassocks sang all around. The baby
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Catholic media have a responsibility to be “spiritual antennas” that connect the world to the sufferings of the poor and the unwanted in society, especially prisoners on death row, Pope Francis said. During a Dec. 13 audience with journalists and collaborators of Telepace, an Italian Catholic television and radio station, the
SALT LAKE CITY (CNS) — By posting a complete list of priests with credible abuse allegations against them, the Salt Lake City Diocese said it “seeks to shed some light” on such claims within the diocese, “with the hope that it may further the healing process for those betrayed by men they believed they could
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The annual unveiling of the Vatican’s Christmas tree and Nativity scene brought some much-needed warmth to people’s hearts as winter approached. Hundreds of people in St. Peter’s Square Dec. 7 applauded as white curtains unfurled, revealing a 52-foot wide artistic representation of Jesus’ birth made entirely of sand and dubbed the
MANILA, Philippines (CNS) — After more than a century, the United States government has returned three church bells swiped by American forces as war booty from the central Philippine town of Balangiga. Ucanews.com reported that, after years of repeated demands for their return, the bells were brought home aboard a U.S. military plane Dec. 11.
ROME (CNS) — In the heart of Rome, near streets of fancy shops already blinged out for Christmas shopping, Pope Francis prayed for Romans struggling to survive and for families in the city and around the world who face the same lack of welcome that Mary and Joseph experienced. The pope concluded his public celebration
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (CNS) — To find Catholics who have left the church, start looking at the faces in the pews, according to a recent report. A 2018 study on young adults leaving the Catholic Church found people stopped identifying as Catholics at a median age of 13, long before they ceased attending a parish.
