Stanley Rother (pronounced ROW-ther) was born in 1935, grew up on a farm and attended Holy Trinity Church and School in Okarche. After discerning a call to the priesthood, he flunked out of the seminary because he struggled with Latin. The bishop of Oklahoma at the time, Bishop Victor Reed, gave him another chance and sent him to Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. He was ordained May 25, 1963.
WASHINGTON – Going on a retreat evokes images of praying in a monastery, reflecting in nature, or even or even having discussions on metal folding chairs in a parish cafeteria.
On Oct. 29, 1853, Harriet Thompson took pen to paper, wrote a letter to the pope, and started a fight for equality for blacks in the Catholic Church. Thompson was unhappy with the treatment she and her fellow African Americans were receiving not only from society but from the Church as well.
President Joe Biden called the state of the union “strong,” in his second such address Feb. 7, calling for national unity even as he argued for some Democratic priorities including reiterating his call to codify Roe v. Wade.
Two Catholic Churches are among 35 black religious sites around the country receiving grant money to help with renovations and building preservation.
Celebrating a Feb. 5 Mass in honor of Black History Month, Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory urged “ordinary people of color” to “vastly improve our world with an understanding of the strength of character that resides within the souls of our people.”
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has criticized a proposal by the Biden administration saying employers would no longer be able to refuse contraceptive coverage in their health plans based on moral grounds.
School choice measures, long-supported by Catholic education leaders, are gaining quick momentum at the start of the new year, with governors in Iowa and Utah signing universal school choice bills into law in late January and legislatures in other states considering similar actions.
In a ranking of how the 50 states protect religious liberties, New York came in last, and Mississippi came in first.
Colorado baker Jack Phillips — whose refusal to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple led to a Supreme Court case — lost his case before a state appeals court over his refusal to make a birthday cake celebrating a gender transition.
