By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) – A massive, detailed Vatican-ordered investigation of U.S. communities of women religious ended with a call to the women themselves to continue discerning how best to live the Gospel in fidelity to their orders’ founding ideals while facing steeply declining numbers and a rapidly aging membership. Although initially seen […]
International News
Austrian Markets Reflect the Spirit of Christmas
By Cristina Muller VIENNA (CNS) – Tucked behind the Austrian capital’s well known Museumsquartier – a complex of art, natural history and cultural museums – is a little side street Christmas market called Spittelberg. No more than a medieval alleyway, gray cobblestones and slightly wobbly Tudor-like white and dark timber buildings, Spittelberg is a place […]
Ireland to Make Parish Records Free Online
A National Library of Ireland statement called the records the single most important source of information on Irish family history prior to the 1901 census.
Popemobile Donated to Holy Land Franciscans
The Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land (FFHL) has announced that the popemobile used in Bethlehem by Pope Francis during his pilgrimage of peace last May has been donated to the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land by the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. According to the Franciscan Media Center, the popemobile will […]
Pope Wants Church to Foster More Inclusion
By Francis X. Rocca VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis said that the Catholic Church must consider various ways to integrate the divorced and civilly remarried in the life of the Church – not merely allowing them to receive Communion, but letting them serve as eucharistic ministers and godparents – and to make it easier for […]
Pope: Advent Is a Time For Silence and Service
ROME (CNS) – In the heart of Rome’s high-end shopping district, sparkling with Christmas lights and shiny baubles in the windows of famous designers, Pope Francis prayed that people would spend time in silence and in service as they prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth. Celebrating the feast of the Immaculate Conception Dec. 8, Pope Francis […]
Tradition at Spanish Steps
An image of Mary is adorned with flowers at the foot of a tall Marian statue overlooking the Spanish Steps in Rome Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Rome’s firefighters have observed the tradition every year since 1857.
Bishops Receive Questions for Synod
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – To help set the agenda for the 2015 Synod of Bishops on the family, the Vatican is sending the world’s Catholic bishops’ conferences a list of questions on a range of topics, including matters of marriage and sexuality that proved especially controversial at the 2014 family synod. Together with the final […]
Vatican Report on US Women Religious Life Due This Week
By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The final report of a five-year, Vatican-ordered study of communities of women religious in the U.S. will be released by the Vatican Dec. 16. The top two officials of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life and three leaders of women’s congregations were […]
Saintly Celebration at Greenpoint Parish
Ornate Indian parasols decorated the exterior of St. Anthony-St. Alphonsus Church in Greenpoint, where hundreds of Indian Catholics rejoiced over their newest saint. Devotees from Brooklyn and Queens as well as New Jersey, Connecticut and Philadelphia attended a Sunday afternoon Mass of thanksgiving on Dec. 7 to celebrate the canonization of St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara. […]