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March 14, 2014
BEIRUT - Catholic bishops of Syria called for a cease-fire in Syria and for the pursuit of the Geneva peace talks to end the crisis in the war-torn country.
OXFORD, England -- A Ukrainian Catholic priest in Crimea said church members are alarmed and frightened by the Russian military occupation and fear their communities might be outlawed again if Russian rule becomes permanent.
TORONTO - There’s about one million Canadians who know suicide is wrong, assisted suicide turns doctors into murderers, the state has an obligation to protect life until natural death and that not everything in medicine depends on the freely chosen wishes of the patient. These people are not Catholic. They’re Muslim.
OTTAWA - The three most recent popes provide examples for campus ministry, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan told a Catholic Christian Outreach (CCO) fundraising dinner in Kingston, Ont., Feb. 27.
WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan invitation to Pope Francis to address a joint session of Congress if he comes to the U.S. in 2015 recognizes "the importance of the qualities" the pontiff embodies that resonate with people around the globe, said Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington.
March 15, 2014
TORONTO - Toronto’s inaugural Steubenville conference has already sold out, months in advance.
Catholics know the Virgin Mary well as mother, but not as daughter, woman or wife. The film Mary of Nazareth extrapolates from what is known of the Immaculate Conception to explore the life of a Jewish girl famous for saying yes to God.
TORONTO - Jean Vanier High School kickstarted March Break this year with Luke Boyd, a Canadian rapper known onstage as Classified, performing and preaching the importance of music at school.
March 16, 2014
EDMONTON - Alberta’s Catholic bishops have apologized to those who experienced physical and sexual abuse in Indian residential schools run by the Church.
Walk through the tea estates of Darjeeling and meet the families who have spent generations harvesting the leaves that may end up steeped in Canadian cups. Meet the children of the lowest caste who, with classical musical instruments, literally play their way through school and then out of poverty.
VATICAN CITY - Figuring out why Pope Francis has upended so many expectations, how exactly he’s changed the Catholic Church in his first year and what he might be contemplating for the future has become a Catholic parlour game that is almost as popular as the pontiff himself.
March 17, 2014
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis met privately at the Vatican with the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church March 17, the day after pro-Russian voters on the Crimean peninsula voted to secede from Ukraine in a referendum the United States and European Union called illegal.
HONG KONG - Bishop Joseph Fan Zhongliang of Shanghai, a prominent leader of China's underground Catholic Community, died after a brief illness March 16 at his home. He was 96.
March 18, 2014
ROME - The Vatican said March 17 that Pope Francis will preside over a prayer vigil dedicated to victims of mob violence in Italy and their families.
NEW DELHI - Protests are growing in Sri Lanka over the security forces' arrest of two outspoken Catholic human rights activists under stringent terrorism laws.
March 19, 2014
CAIRO - Weeks after a controversial bill against homosexuality became law in their country, there was still no official word from Uganda's Catholic bishops on how they perceived it, said a senior Catholic spokesman.
OTTAWA - Ottawa priest Fr. Joe LeClair received a one-year jail sentence March 19 for stealing $134,000 from parishioners to feed a pathological gambling addiction.
VATICAN CITY - Russell Crowe, who plays the title character in the new Hollywood blockbuster Noah, lobbied hard for a personal audience with Pope Francis. What he got March 19 instead was a blessing.
VATICAN CITY - Without a canonization ceremony, Pope Francis will declare three pioneers of the Catholic Church in the Americas saints April 2, according to a Jesuit working on the causes.
March 20, 2014
The ordination of a bishop is always a joyous event, but the anointing of Bishop Christian Riesbeck is more than a celebration of his personal episcopal calling. It is recognition of the important contribution that his fledgling order, the Companions of the Cross, has made to the life of the Church in barely one generation.