National Catholic Sisters Week

As part of a national effort to highlight and recognize the contribution of women religious, NET-TV will air the documentary, “Women and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America,” produced by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, on Saturday, March 8, at 8 p.m. It will be repeated during the month.

Marriage Doesn’t Need to Be Redefined

WASHINGTON (CNS) – Marriage needs “to be preserved and strengthened, not redefined,” San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone said Feb. 28 in support of the State Marriage Defense Act of 2014, introduced into the U.S. Senate by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). “Every just effort to stand for the unique meaning of marriage is worthy of […]

Synod Responses Show Many Are Suffering in the Church

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The responses to the Vatican questionnaire about Catholics’ family life reflect a great amount of suffering around the world, said the general secretary of the synod. As of Feb. 19, about 80 percent of the world’s bishops’ conferences and 60 percent of the Vatican congregations and councils had turned in formal […]

Court Rules Notre Dame Must Supply Contraceptive Coverage

CHICAGO (CNS) – The University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind., must provide free coverage of contraceptives as required by the federal health care law despite its moral objections to doing so, said a panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a ruling that denied the university an injunction against enforcement of […]

Cardinal O’Brien Expects Fall Synod to Make News

by George P. Matysek Jr. BALTIMORE (CNS) – U.S. Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien doesn’t know what will come out of the Synod on the Family set for October, but the former archbishop of Baltimore believes it will be significant. “Hold onto your seats,” Cardinal O’Brien told a gathering of seminarians and faculty at St. Mary’s […]

New Bishop Prays for the Unborn

Bishop-designate Edward Scharfenberger joined Msgr. Philip Reilly and the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants to pray for the unborn at an abortion clinic in Jamaica on Saturday, Feb. 15. The Rosary vigil was preceded by Mass at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church. Bishop-designate Scharfenberger will be ordained a bishop and installed as the […]

New Orleans Archbishop: Do Not Help Build Abortion Clinic

by Peter Finney Jr. NEW ORLEANS (CNS) – Faced with the looming construction of a multimillion-dollar, regional abortion facility by Planned Parenthood Gulf South, New Orleans Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond has cautioned local Catholics and businesses they would be “cooperating with the evil that will take place” at the clinic if they participated in its […]

March for Life – Neither Snow Nor Frigid Temperatures Could Chill Pro-Lifers’ Enthusiasm

by Carol Zimmermann and Katie Talalas WASHINGTON (CNS) – The polar vortex couldn’t chill the ardor of thousands of participants who demonstrated their determination to continue speaking out against abortion at the annual March for Life and rally Jan. 22 in Washington, D.C. Temperatures went briefly into double digits but hovered around 8 degrees. At […]

Court to Decide Where Talk About Abortion Is Allowed

by Patricia Zapor WASHINGTON (CNS) – Supreme Court justices Jan. 15 pressed attorneys about when it is constitutional to prohibit certain kinds of speech in a case over buffer zones around abortion clinics. In oral arguments in a case over a 35-foot buffer zone around Massachusetts Planned Parenthood clinics, the attorney for people who want […]

Transportation to the March for Life

Bus transportation will be available from various points around the diocese to Washington, D.C., for the national March for Life next Wednesday, Jan. 22. Buses are leaving from the following sites. Call to reserve your seat in advance. B.V.M. Help of Christians (St. Mary’s Winfield), Woodside — Bus leaves after 5:30 a.m. Mass. Call Kevin and […]