VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In addition to having worked sweeping floors and running tests in a chemical laboratory as a teenager, Pope Francis revealed he also used to work as a bouncer. No longer kicking troublemakers out of clubs, he has discovered the secret to bringing people back, this time, into the church, according to […]
Author: settinger
Pope: Purify Church By Looking Within
By Francis X. Rocca VATICAN CITY (CNS) – When the Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization met at the Vatican in October, 2012, among the top items on the agenda was the threat of militant secularism in a post-Christian West. “It is as if a tsunami of secular influence has swept across the cultural […]
Pope Stirs Controversy With Words on Economy
By Francis X. Rocca VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In enunciating the principles of Catholic social teaching, popes have long stressed the Church’s special concern for the poor and the need for state intervention to promote economic justice. Pope Benedict XVI, for instance, blamed the “logic of profit” for widespread hunger and pollution; called for a […]
ACLU Sues US Bishops
DETROIT (CNS) – Lawyers for a woman who claims she suffered a miscarriage because of the way a Michigan Catholic hospital handled her case have filed suit on her behalf against the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) over its “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care.” The lawsuit was filed Nov. 29 in […]
HHS Mandate Threatens Church Ministry to Poor
By Sean Gallagher NEW ALBANY, Ind. (CNS) – Defending the religious rights of the Catholic Church against the government’s contraceptive mandate is tied to the Church’s ministry to those in need, Baltimore’s archbishop told a New Albany audience Nov. 29. The Church’s worship life and its faith-driven ministries to the poor and others cannot be […]
Congressman Deplores Move of Embassy
A Brooklyn Congressman has criticized the Obama Administration for its plan to close the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See and to consolidate it into the larger embassy in Italy. Rep. Michael Grimm, who represents parts of Bay Ridge and all of Staten Island, said that “The Obama Administration’s plan to close the Vatican Embassy […]
The Lights Are On In Brooklyn
The Christmas creche and trees were lit Dec. 1 at Visitation Monastery, Bay Ridge, to mark the traditional opening of the Festival of Lights. Msgr. Jamie Gigantiello, chaplain to Visitation Academy, blessed the manger scene and then celebrated Mass for the First Sunday of Advent. Following Mass, two awards were presented: the Distinguished Faculty Award […]
Finding Focus Amid Seasonal Distractions
by Father Eugene F. Hemrick AFTER EXPERIENCING Christmas for so many years, it’s easy for it to become “just another” Christmas. It makes me think of a quote by A.J. Conyers in his book, “The Listening Heart: Vocation and the Crisis of Modern Culture.” Conyers says the following: “To be modern is to exist increasingly […]
Now Is the Time to Change Our Ways, to Turn Our Lives Around
by Sister Karen M. Cavanagh, C.S.J. THE RITE of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) process is such a wonder-filled experience. Accompanying members of a parish community on their pathway to baptism can be a blessed teachable moment for the candidates (the elect) and for teachers and parishioners who journey with them. One December evening during […]
Men of Character in American Public Life
by George Weigel IN HIS 2008 BOOK, “The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America,” Boston College historian James M. O’Toole did a fine job of fleshing out the conventional U.S. Catholic story-line by emphasizing the role prominent lay men and women played in the Catholic experience in these United States. Yet there seemed to […]