OXFORD, England (CNS) – Portuguese Catholic officials criticized government plans to suppress two religious public holidays as part of an austerity drive and urged postponing the plans until next year. Father Manuel Morujao, spokesman for the Portuguese bishops’ conference, told Catholic News Service that church officials understand that government leaders are trying to solve the […]

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (CNS) – The March visit to Cuba by Pope Benedict XVI has helped reawaken people’s interest in the Catholic Church, according to the Archbishop of Havana who was visiting the U.S. But it also has stirred criticism of the church’s efforts to work with the government more and may be connected to a […]

HARTFORD, Conn. (CNS) – In what he called “a moment of sober reflection, not celebration,” Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed into law a bill outlawing the use of capital punishment in the state. The law, which takes effect immediately, makes life imprisonment without the possibility of release the highest punishment possible in Connecticut.  The […]

by Mary Iapalucci Although it will no longer be home to men studying for the priesthood, the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, Huntington, will still be a house of formation and an institution of Christian learning, according to Msgr. Richard Henning, who will serve as the director of the new Sacred Heart Institute for Ongoing […]

by John Woods As major seminarians from the Dioceses of Brooklyn and Rockville Centre join their counterparts from the Archdiocese of New York this fall at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie, they will discover a place that has educated and formed men for the priesthood for more than a century. Along with men from parishes […]

by Tim Puet COLUMBUS, Ohio (CNS) – Pope Benedict XVI wants the Catholic Church in America to be in the forefront of reviving Catholicism worldwide, the apostolic nuncio to the United States said in Columbus. “The church in the United States should lead the entire church in the world” in a revitalization effort, Archbishop Carlo […]

LONDON (CNS) – The leader of the Catholic Church in Nigeria has criticized his government for allegedly failing to protect Christians in the north of his country from attack by Islamist terrorists. Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, said he could not understand why the government appeared powerless to […]

The internet can create strange bedfellows. A generation or two ago, when the media might have excused itself for missing a massacre or two – like the millions under Pol Pot while Cambodia was “out of range” (all eyes being on Viet Nam next door!) – today it is not so easy. What is happening […]