Councilman Eric A. Ulrich (R-Queens) and Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens (CCBQ) held a press conference on Monday, Sept. 22, to announce city funding to support bus service for seniors at four CCBQ centers in Howard Beach, Woodhaven, Rockaway Beach and Ozone Park.
NEWARK, N.J. (CNS) – Although Sister Miriam Teresa Demjanovich was personally unassuming, the spiritual impact she had on other Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth was so unmistakable that they began the effort to have her canonized soon after her May 8, 1927, death in Paterson, N.J.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in September, 2015 will serve as a forum for debating issues on the agenda for the world Synod of Bishops at the Vatican the following month, said the two archbishops responsible for planning the Philadelphia event.
Myriad Catholic groups joined a singing, chanting sea of people who streamed along Manhattan’s West Side Sept. 21 to urge global action on climate change. Organizers of the People’s Climate March estimated nearly 400,000 men, women and children rallied to the cause.
TIRANA, Albania (CNS) – In a world “where an authentic religious spirit is being perverted and where religious differences are being distorted and exploited,” Albania is an “aspiring example” to everyone that peaceful coexistence is possible, Pope Francis said during a one-day visit to the country Sept. 21.
Pope Francis looks at tombstones as he walks through the Austro-Hungarian cemetery for soldiers of World War I in Fogliano di Redipuglia, Italy, Sept. 13.
CHACAS, Peru (CNS) – Freddy Cerna is about the same height as the statue he carves from Italian Carrara marble. His backward baseball cap and buggy protective goggles are a sharp contrast to the delicate face he perfects with his carving tools. The statue of Mary, her hands folded in prayer, stares back at him.
BATON ROUGE, La. (CNS) – The Diocese of Baton Rouge has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a Louisiana Supreme Court decision that a priest may be compelled to testify as to what he heard in the confessional in 2008 concerning an abuse case. The legal step is the latest in a case involving Father Jeffrey Bayhi, pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Zachary, La., and the sanctity of the seal of confession.
(CNS) – Religious liberty is under aggressive assault on many fronts in a culture increasingly insensitive to rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, according to speakers at a Sept. 15 forum in Manhattan. The program, “In the Founding Tradition,” was organized by the Alliance Defending Freedom and drew 100 people to the Union League Club.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The “Francis effect” has spilled over into the Sistine Chapel, bringing a surge in visitors but also increasing risks to maintenance of what Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums, calls “the world’s chapel.” Prior to a 14-year restoration, completed in 1994, visitors to the chapel numbered about 1.5 million annually. That rose to more than 5 million in 2011. Since the March, 2013 election of Pope Francis, whose weekly public audiences and readings of the Angelus have boosted turnout in St. Peter’s Square, the number of chapel visitors is up to 5.5 million, or 20,000 per day and 30,000 on the last Sunday of every month, when admission is free.
