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The following excerpt is from the autobiography of Benedictine Rembert G. Weakland, former archbishop of Milwaukee. (Rembert G. Weakland, A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church, © 2009 Win. B. Eerdmans [...]

Sisters across North America are conducting energy audits of their buildings and renovating them using earth-friendly standards, purchasing recycled paper products and nontoxic cleaning products, choosing hybrid cars for their [...]

Each year the protest against the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation has grown. On Nov. 19, an estimated crowd of 22,000 people, many of them college-age, converged on the [...]

The transition from war to emerging peace in Iraq has been in some respects a disaster. Important parts of the country's heritage were plundered or destroyed in the chaos that [...]

In a move that caught many by surprise, the Vatican announced Jan. 30 that it would conduct a study of U.S. communities of women religious to determine their quality of [...]

WASHINGTON * With an executive order Jan. 23, President Barack Obama reversed an eight-year Bush administration policy, allowing tens of millions of U.S. foreign aid dollars to flow into nongovernmental [...]

In a gesture billed as an 'act of peace,' on Jan. 24 Pope Benedict XVI lifted the 20-year excommunication of four traditionalist bishops, including one who is a Holocaust denier, [...]

The nationwide disputes over parish closings reached a new level of acrimony earlier this month when Archbishop Alfred Hughes requested that New Orleans police clear two churches of protesting parishioners [...]

The two Dominican nuns had mixed it up with federal authorities before. For more than 30 years they've protested against U.S. militarism. They've each spent several years in prison for [...]

In a resounding confirmation that the Catholic church's pro-life concern extends to the brave new world of biotechnology, the Vatican issued a tough document Dec. 12 condemning the freezing of [...]

When Delany Dean enters her classroom at Avila University, she has more on her mind than the lecture she prepared for her psychology students. Like many who have gone before [...]

Two years ago, when Fr. Marek Bozek left his diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Mo., to follow his heart and conscience to a Polish parish in St. Louis, he says he [...]

Complex cases, jurists say, make bad law. Maybe that's why so much Catholic debate about end-of-life care, especially the morality of delivering food and water through a tube to keep [...]

First of two parts On a recent November morning, in between his administrative hospital rounds and amid various workers' strikes, continuing political uncertainty and growing worry that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict [...]

Three flags fly in front of the rectory at St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church here: the Polish flag, the Stars and Stripes, and the papal flag. But inside the rectory, [...]

The nature of the traditional American division between urban and rural is changing, and so is the nature of rural ministry. First the statistics. According to the Center for Applied [...]

Recent turmoil in Austria's Catholic church has made that nation a focal point for global reform efforts. This week a national assembly of Austrian Catholics, called the 'Dialogue for Austria,' [...]

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, proposed by Pope John Paul II as 'a special gift' and 'a sure norm for teaching the faith,' may turn out to be one [...]

The Vatican's acknowledgement of abuse of nuns by priests is a welcome development, an essential first step along the path of dealing with the problem and healing deep wounds. Our [...]

Ever since the guy from the chancery called years ago to ask where to bring the archbishop's throne and I declined, I have wondered whatever happened to the elaborate episcopal [...]

Mandatum requirement under Ex Corde rules still raising concerns A committee of the Catholic Theological Society of America has urged national review and appeal procedures if a U.S. bishop wants [...]

Some papal prerogatives are very recent indeed. The popes in the 19th century, for instance, appointed very few bishops worldwide. In 1801, Pope Pius VII signed a concordat with Napoleon [...]

Pope denounces progressive lay groups In blunt remarks before a group of German bishops visiting Rome, the pope Nov. 20 denounced lay Catholic groups seeking to pressure the church into [...]

Among Vatican-watchers, a synod of bishops generally matters less for its final results -- which, at least under this pontificate, often seem pre-determined -- than for the performances of its [...]

Until about a year ago, my interest in the validity of Anglican orders -- meaning whether or not the Catholic church considers priests ordained by the Anglican church 'valid' priests [...]

National churches don't have delegates in Rome, officially nobody's ere to speak for American Catholicism. Informally, however, high-profile Americans in and around the Vatican pre sent faces of the Catholic [...]

Hillary Clinton has received mixed though generally favorable reviews, both internationally and domestically, during her first 100 days as secretary of state. Public opinion polls in the United States give [...]

Almost nine years ago I did a column titled 'The pope's new man in New York.' The title was taken from the front-page headline in the New York Post the [...]

Few dioceses in the world have ever needed a breath of fresh air quite like Boston in early 2003, after the embattled Cardinal Bernard Law finally resigned amid a melt-down [...]

The Web site of the Holy See, under the section on the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, carries information about a study week being planned on 'Transgenic Plants for Food Security [...]

By 8 a.m. it is standing room only at the CASA de Maryland workers' center in Rockville, Md., where nearly 80 people have gathered since the early morning in search [...]

This is an important year, and not just for the inauguration of a new president. It also marks the silver anniversary of the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between the [...]

Israel's attempt to wipe out Hamas is understandable, but dumb. No country is going to ignore the provocation of rockets being launched from a neighboring territory day after day. If [...]

In a move with implications for some of the most explosive issues in Catholic theology today, the Vatican has barred Jesuit Fr. Roger Haight from teaching and publishing while he [...]

After Israeli tank fire killed a U.N. worker purportedly during a ceasefire, the United Nations suspended its aid operations in Gaza Jan. 8 until the safety of its staff was [...]

CLEVELAND * A group of Cleveland pastors who tried to trigger a referendum to overturn the city's domestic-partner registry failed to submit the 11,000 signatures needed by Jan. 7 to [...]

As Barack Obama prepares to assume the office of the president, the nation and the world wait with hopes that far exceed anything that is humanly possible to fulfill. The [...]

A recent Vatican clampdown on a small but influential Catholic group in Latin America and Spain illustrates perhaps the most striking contrast between the papacies of John Paul II and [...]

Scientific research and medical applications arising from such research should be guided by a moral framework that both values human life and protects the dignity of individuals. Dignitas Personae, the [...]

Among the heavily censored documents that Sr. Ardeth Platte and Sr. Carol Gilbert received from the Maryland State Police is one that identifies their activities the week after the United [...]

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- A South Carolina Catholic priest was wrong to warn parishioners who voted for President-elect Barack Obama to confess their sin before receiving Communion, according to the head [...]

WILKES-BARRE, PA. -- State Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski doesn't like the position he's in as a faithful Catholic and member of St. Mary of the Maternity Parish. Pashinski is leading [...]

ESSAY Despite Pope Benedict XVI's repeated statements of regret for the clergy sex abuse scandals during his trips to the United States and Australia earlier this year, despite the expectations [...]

NEW ORLEANS -- Early this month parishioners continued to occupy two Catholic churches in defiance of closure orders from the archdiocese. Parishioners from St. Henry, Our Lady of Good Counsel [...]

The emergence of new lay Catholic voices this year has altered the quadrennial faith and politics debate that goes back to the legalization of abortion with Roe v. Wade in [...]

BOSTON -- The Catholic church's highest court has rejected appeals of the closures of eight Boston-area parishes, the Boston archdiocese confirmed June 10. Boston-area Catholics have vowed to continue their [...]

Hugo Chavez. Among U.S. government officials, the name itself inspires undifferentiated disdain. Because of his political relations with Fidel Castro and Iran, his characterization of President Bush as the devil [...]

Dispassionate discourse about the sexual abuse of children is an oxymoron. The subject touches our most primitive passions and fears, rendering rational thought and balanced reflection difficult to sustain. Pope [...]

The Taliban are back and stronger and more popular than ever. NATO and the United States will soon have no choice but to negotiate with them, six years after driving [...]

After specific memories of public events during Pope Benedict XVI's April 15-20 visit to Washington and New York fade--the huge public Masses in Nationals Park and Yankee Stadium, the elaborate [...]