WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Friday fish fry is a big deal to lots of people in Catholic parishes, especially in some sections of the United States. One audience is, of course, the customers, who like supporting their parish and its organizations and groups with reasonably priced suppers. Another audien...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Scottish Cardinal Keith O'Brien, 74, announced he would not participate in the conclave to elect Pope Benedict XVI's successor because he did not want media attention focused on him instead of the election of a new pope. Pope Benedict XVI had accepted the cardinal's resignatio...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has ordered several changes to the Masses and liturgies that will mark the inauguration of the next pope's pontificate. Rites and gestures that are not strictly sacramental will take place either before a Mass or in a ceremony not involving Mass, Msgr. Guido...
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WASHINGTON (CNS) — The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty has urged the House of Representatives to extend long-standing federal conscience protections to the Affordable Care Act’s new coverage mandates for private health plans. Archbishop William...
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HATTIESBURG, Miss. (CNS) -- Just as they did following Hurricane Katrina and in response to other disasters, members of a Hattiesburg Catholic church joined together Feb. 16 and fanned out across the Hattiesburg area to help those impacted by the F-4 tornado that hit the area less than a week earli...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Italian cardinal leading Pope Benedict XVI's Lenten retreat was tweeting and podcasting his reflections, signaling that detachment from the outside world doesn't have to mean a total media blackout. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, 70, began the spiritual reflections Feb. 17 by...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While the surprise resignation of Pope Benedict XVI is a first for the church in centuries, it also leads to a complicated period of transition that ends in the election of a new pope. Regulated by ancient traditions and recent rules, the period between popes — known by...
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BURLINGTON, Mass. (CNS) -- After the Blizzard of 2013 dumped more than 2 feet of snow on New England Feb. 8 and 9, Catholic parishes in the region were among those facing the challenge of digging out after the storm. That weekend, the Archdiocese of Boston lifted obligations concerning Mass, becaus...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- During his almost eight-year pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI impressed the world as a teacher, guiding Catholics to the sources of the faith and urging modern society not to turn its back on God. Citing his age and diminishing energy, the 85-year-old pope announced Feb. 11 that...
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In the early Church and, to a lesser extent still today, there were two fasts. There was the "total fast" that preceded all major feasts or sacramental events. The ancient name for this fast was "statio" from the verb "sto, stare" to stand watch, on guard or in vigil. The second fast was a fast of...
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