(RNS) The Association of U.S. Catholic Priests gathers this month to discuss an agenda for church reform. They point to support among the laity as well as inspiration from the top: Pope Francis.
(RNS) Once the appeal period is over, the city will follow normal procedures and cremate and bury the remains of 47 bodies aborted by Kermit Gosnell, despite pleas from the Philadelphia archdiocese to give them a religious burial.
(RNS) A spokeswoman for the Philadelphia district attorney said several people have called and tweeted requests for the bodies of babies killed by abortion provider Kermit Gosnell, but the ultimate decision will come from the medical examiner’s office.
Fr. Andrew Greeley died on May 29, 2013. He was 85. Greeley’s peers and family speak about his influence, Catholic faith and the accident that ended his writing.
(RNS) The U.S. Catholic Church’s top liaison to the Boy Scouts of America is telling Catholic Scout leaders and troop sponsors that the BSA’s new policy welcoming gay Scouts “is not in conflict with Catholic teaching” and they should continue to support Scouting programs.
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (RNS) With the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop, the “Nuns on the Bus” on Wednesday kicked off a cross-country tour for immigration reform aimed at giving a faith-based push to legislation that is hanging in the balance in Congress.
(RNS) Is Pope Francis endorsing heresy? It might look that way from headlines that made it seem as though the pontiff had said that everyone – even atheists! – were destined for heaven. What he actually said was boilerplate Catholic doctrine.
(RNS) As U.S. Catholics grow increasingly accepting of homosexuality, there’s going to be inevitable conflict as an uneasy “Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell” policy clashes with gay Catholics’ increasing visibility in the form of marriage licenses or wedding announcements.
(RNS) Nothing can upset the folks in the pews as much as changing the liturgy that they’re used to, and that seemed likely to be the case when the Vatican ordered revisions to the familiar prayers of the Catholic Mass. But now, more than a year after the changes took effect, a survey of American priests shows that they are more disturbed by the innovations than their flock.
DUBLIN (RNS) After 32 years as an interior designer, Patricia Wojnar went back to school for a master’s degree in bereavement studies, a hot commodity in Ireland’s “post-Catholic” economy that features growing markets for wedding and funeral officiants who aren’t associated with the scandal-scarred Catholic Church.
