When Facebook forced Father Moses Wright of Holy Resurrection Monastery in St. Nazianz, Wisc., to change his profile name from Hierodeacon Moses – his identity as a Byzantine monk – to his baptismal name, Michael Wright, he decided to take steps to legally change his name.
In this second installment of Catholic News Service’s ongoing series, “American Parish,” the focus is on how different types of U.S. parishes handle contemporary challenges, including the declining number of priests.
Pope Francis’ Sept. 1 announcement that priests worldwide will be able to absolve the sin of abortion will have little effect on pastoral practices in the U.S., where most priests already have such authority in the sacrament of reconciliation.
“We are in need of a profound conversion of heart at all levels of our lives. Let us examine our choices,” Archbishop Wenski said in the statement, dated Labor Day Sept. 7.
Catholic bishops of New Mexico welcomed a ruling by the state’s Court of Appeals that reversed a lower court’s approval of physician-assisted suicide.
If Pope Francis were to have time on his U.S. visit in September to stop at “typical” parishes, it might take a week or two just to see a representative sample.
Flanked by Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner – two high-profile Catholic politicians – the visual of Pope Francis’ Sept. 24 address to Congress will signal an evolving narrative.
Pope Francis held a “virtual town hall” with Catholics in Chicago, Los Angeles and McAllen, Texas, in advance of his Sept. 22-27 visit to the U.S. The town hall was arranged by ABC News, which will air an hour-long version of its “20/20” newsmagazine called “Pope Francis & the People,” Sept. 4.
New Orleans attorney Brandon Briscoe was a second-year pre-theology student at Notre Dame Seminary in 2005 when he took a photograph of rescuers evacuating him and 20 others from the seminary on the afternoon of Sept. 1 – three days after the landfall of Hurricane Katrina.
An estimated 400 people packed the sidewalk outside Planned Parenthood’s Charlotte Health Center, making it the largest pro-life event in western North Carolina that participants said they have seen in recent memory.
