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March 2014

March 23

Vatican, Rome gear up for canonizations of John XXIII, John Paul II

March 23, 2014

VATICAN CITY - Just over five weeks before the canonizations of Blesseds John XXIII and John Paul II, Rome hotels are reporting they are almost fully booked and the Vatican has confirmed the Mass will take place in St. Peter's Square, despite knowing that hundreds of thousands of people will have to watch the ceremony on large video screens.

When Pope Francis meets Obama, expect collaboration over conflict

March 23, 2014

ROME - U.S. President Barack Obama is to meet Pope Francis for the first time March 27 as Obama wraps up a European tour, a high-profile encounter between two major world leaders that appears to carry especially high stakes from the U.S. perspective.

March 24

Salvadoran bishop says he expects Romero beatification in three years

March 24, 2014

WASHINGTON - Auxiliary Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez of San Salvador said there's strong hope and signals from the Vatican that beatification for Archbishop Oscar Romero, the man many consider a modern-day saint, will come in three years.

Cardinal O'Malley, abuse survivor among members of Vatican commission

March 24, 2014

VATICAN CITY - Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, four women -- including a survivor of clerical sex abuse -- two Jesuit priests and an Italian lawyer are the first eight members of the new Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Can Pope mend relationship between Obama and U.S. bishops?

March 24, 2014

When President Obama and Pope Francis sit down at the Vatican on March 27, the meeting may well offer a vision of what could have been for Democrats and the Catholic Church over the last six years: a leader of the state and a leader of the Church working on the many issues where they agree while working through the issues where they don’t.

March 25

Cocaine-filled condoms intercepted en route to the Vatican

March 25, 2014

VATICAN CITY (RNS) A sting inside Vatican City aimed at nabbing the mystery buyer of more than $55,000 in cocaine that was hidden inside 14 condoms was foiled, leaving law enforcement officials searching for the source of a leak.

Priest: Ukrainian Catholics flee Crimea to escape threats of arrest

March 25, 2014

OXFORD, England (CNS) -- Members of the Ukrainian Catholic Church are fleeing Crimea to escape threats of arrest and property seizures, a priest told Catholic News Service just four days after Russia finalized the region's annexation.

Supreme Court told Loyola is "not asking for the moon"

March 25, 2014

OTTAWA - A Catholic school cannot be neutral when teaching Catholicism "otherwise it is not a Catholic school," said a lawyer representing Montreal's Loyola High School in arguments before the Supreme Court of Canada.

Ugandan priest witnesses great suffering among South Sudanese refugees

March 25, 2014

ADJUMANI, Uganda, - It has been two months since Father Raphael Ayiga Lebu has had a good night, or a good day, of sleep.

March 26

Ontario declares April 2 John Paul II Day

March 26, 2014

Toronto - Ontario will make celebration of the life of Pope John Paul II on annual event following passage of legislation naming a day in his honour.

Vatican accepts resignation of Germany's 'Bishop Bling'

March 26, 2014

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican has accepted the resignation of a German bishop who was at the center of controversy over expenditures for his residence and a diocesan center.

March 27

African clergy join fight to save elephants and rhinos

March 27, 2014

NAIROBI, Kenya - The escalating slaughter of elephants and rhinos is drawing the anger of conservationist clerics, who have begun enlisting church members in the battle to save Africa’s wildlife.

Achieve change, says abuse survivor

March 27, 2014

DUBLIN - The lone victim of clerical abuse nominated by Pope Francis to sit on the new Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors said the commission must achieve concrete change in order to “show other survivors that the Church is going to get it right.”

Modern slavery

March 27, 2014

Human trafficking is a vile crime, a form of kidnapping and slavery that preys largely on women and children. It respects no boundaries and is conducted worldwide, in rich nations and poor, yet it rates alongside religion and politics as topics polite society prefers to avoid.

Next global extinction on its way

March 27, 2014

There have been five mass extinctions in the last 540 million years. Science tells us a sixth is now underway. But only faith can tell us how we will live through it.

Pope Francis, Obama meet privately at Vatican for 50 minutes

March 27, 2014

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis received U.S. President Barack Obama at the Vatican March 27. In what was their first encounter, the two leaders spoke in private for more than 50 minutes, an extraordinarily long time for such a meeting.

Gauging the rights of religious institutes

March 27, 2014

Religious and conscientious freedom is at the heart of several ongoing news stories. Some of the stories involve institutions and others individuals, but they all raise the troubling spectre that these rights may exist more in theory than in practice.

School fights Quebec

March 27, 2014

In the name of neutrality, seven Supreme Court of Canada justices peered down from their red leather bench at 27 lawyers armed to the teeth with briefs and bristling with arguments in a courtroom full of spectators ripe for the legal fight.

Weigel and the Station Church Pilgrimage

March 27, 2014

The Fourth Sunday of Lent is Laetare Sunday — the Sunday of rejoicing, complete with rose vestments to lighten the Lenten purple. It complements Gaudete Sunday — the Third Sunday of Advent — but poses a puzzle.

Basilica hits the spot for Lenten renewal

March 27, 2014

Cradle Catholics sometimes miss the wonder of the universality of their Church: universality in two senses — the “here comes everybody” that overpowers the new convert, and the geographic universality of the Church being everywhere in the world so no one is ever without a home.