CHESTNUT HILL -- As at other parishes throughout the archdiocese, those preparing to enter the Church at Easter gathered at St. Ignatius of Loyola Church in Chestnut Hill to participate in the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion on Feb. 21, the first Sunday of Lent.
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DORCHESTER -- Cristo Rey schools have long been known for their innovative approach to make a Catholic school education affordable to low-income students. But beginning this month, Cristo Rey Boston High School is taking that commitment a step further -- by granting full-tuition scholarships to all current and incoming students.
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BRAINTREE -- The annual Catholic Appeal usually involves distributing envelopes for parishioners to take home, fill out, and bring back to church with donations. But in the time of the coronavirus, when the ministries and organizations that benefit from the appeal most need support, the collection will look different -- with more digital communication and less direct contact.
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BOSTON -- Researchers can now search hundreds of thousands of records containing detailed information about people buried in eastern Massachusetts Catholic cemeteries through a new online database, thanks to a partnership between American Ancestors/New England Historic Genealogical Society, the Archdiocese of Boston's Archive Department, and Catholic Cemetery Association (CCA).
Read moreLAWRENCE -- A four-alarm fire blazed in the rectory of Corpus Christi Parish at Holy Rosary Church in the evening of Feb. 22 but was contained and prevented from reaching the attached church building.
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Last Friday, we had one of our regular meetings of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference. As always, it was an opportunity to speak about legislation and other public-policy items of interest to the Church in the Commonwealth.
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SYDNEY (CNS) -- The need for "deep, spiritual conversion of all members of the church stands out" as a key theme of the "instrumentum laboris," the working document for Australia's Plenary Council, due to begin in October, said one of its authors.
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Washington D.C., Feb 24, 2021 CNA.- President Joe Biden's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services declined at a hearing Wednesday to state if he would support any theoretical type of restriction on abortion.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis has yet to sign decrees in sainthood causes that follow the new path he approved in 2017, that of giving one's life in a heroic act of loving service to others. It is still a bit early as the normal sainthood process is never quick, and cases require careful and thorough investigation, study and verification.
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INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) -- On the day his dream came true, Desmond Bane stood in front of the modest home where he grew up, wanting to pay tribute to all the people who supported him along the way. Flashing a huge smile, the 22-year-old Bane created a video that focused on his family, his friends and all his supporters in his hometown of Richmond, Indiana.
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BROOKLYN, N.Y. (CNS) -- Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio said Feb. 22 a lawsuit filed against him in New Jersey Superior Court over a claim of abuse that allegedly occurred decades ago "is defamatory."
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MADRID (CNS) -- Spain's Catholic bishops defended their church's property rights, after the government accused the church of improperly claiming ownership of thousands of buildings and parcels of land.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- For believers, the ability to practice their faith and receive spiritual guidance are "the highest of essential services," and pandemic practices over the past year have shown they are not automatically super-spreader events, the Vatican foreign minister said.
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Vatican City, Feb 24, 2021 CNA.- A robust understanding of the right to religious freedom is being eroded in the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Vatican’s foreign minister said in a video message to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When Pope Francis met with a Catholic News Service delegation marking the agency's 100th anniversary, he encouraged the agency to continue to foster dialogue and honest communication.
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ARLINGTON, Va. (CNS) -- The Virginia General Assembly passed a final version of a bill that will abolish the death penalty in the state Feb. 22. The Senate voted 22-16 to pass the death penalty abolition bill and the House of Delegates voted 57-43 to approve the identical bill, according to the advocacy group Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. There is expected to be a public signing ceremony with Gov. Ralph Northam in April.
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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (CNS) -- Catholic bishops in Malaysia urged the government to refrain from deporting hundreds of Myanmar nationals, including refugees and asylum-seekers, reported ucanews.com.
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- During a Feb. 22 evening program on CNN, Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory offered a prayer for those who have died from COVID-19 asking God to "grant enteral peace to all our sisters and brothers lost to this disease."
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican threw its support behind an effort by India, South Africa and a host of developing nations to loosen international patent protections and speed up sub-licensing agreements for the production of COVID-19 vaccines, pharmaceuticals and personal protective equipment.
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MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- A priest related to Princes William and Harry took a major step closer to sainthood when Pope Francis declared him venerable. Like St. John Henry Newman, Passionist Father Ignatius Spencer is considered one of the towering figures of the 19th-century revival of English Catholicism, often referred to by church historians as the "Second Spring." The Feb. 21 announcement means the Catholic Church is satisfied that Father Spencer lived a life of heroic virtue.
Read moreVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis advanced the sainthood cause of one of Princes William and Harry's 19th-century ancestors as well as the causes of three Italian nuns who died from the Ebola virus while ministering to patients in Congo.
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ROME (CNS) -- A month after reading an interview in the Vatican newspaper with Edith Bruck, an author and Holocaust survivor, Pope Francis decided to pay her a visit at her home in the center of Rome.
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis accepted the resignations of 75-year-old Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, and 77-year-old Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica and vicar for Vatican City State.
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