Q. I am a lifelong Catholic. My wife was raised Lutheran and converted to the Catholic faith after we were married 35 years ago. We raised our four kids in the Catholic Church.    Our daughter, who is 24, joined a Protestant church about a year ago. She met a young man at church, and...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The sainthood process is long and technically complicated, and ultimately requires the approval of the pope, but the whole procedure is driven by Catholics in the pews and, especially, those on their knees. The Congregation for Saints' Causes and the official promoters of caus...
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A couple of pieces of legislation in Congress being backed by Catholic organizations aim for institutional fixes to criminal justice. But a prison chaplain in Indiana also advocates a more personal approach to what's known as restorative justice. At 77 years old, Father David Li...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- It's so important to go to Mass every Sunday because that's where people receive Christ who saves, forgives and unites everyone to his father, church and each other, Pope Francis said. It's also "important that children are well prepared for first Communion because ... after b...
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Q. I am involved in a long-distance relationship and would appreciate your advice. My girlfriend is a Filipina living and working in Hong Kong. (I was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines.) We have been corresponding for four years and have now decided on marriage. I intend to fly to the Phil...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Just a few days before the feast of St. John Bosco, founder of the Salesians, the Vatican Library announced a major project to inventory, digitalize, catalogue and study unique historical documents collected by a Salesian missionary to Japan. The estimated 10,000 original docu...
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- International law, the risk of using inhumane methods of execution and opposition to capital punishment by the survivors of murder victims are among issues that are bringing fresh energy to debate about the death penalty. In mid-January, Father Lawrence Hummer, of St. Mary's Cat...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Prayers of praise for God aren't just for charismatics, Pope Francis said in a morning homily. “You're able to shout when your team makes a goal,” the Holy Father said Jan. 28, “but you cannot sing the Lord's praises? “We find it easy to understand pray...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Many Catholic parents go to great lengths to ensure their children are baptized, and they must make similar efforts to see that their children are confirmed, Pope Francis said. Without confirmation, he said, young people will remain "halfway" on the path of Christian maturity...
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       Q. When I was reading evening prayer recently, I came across a quote about our filling up what is lacking in the suffering of Christ. For a few years in the early 1950s I was a Trappist monk at Gethsemani, and I have read a fair number of spiritual books since then....
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