Staff Report Summer doesn’t officially start until June 21 this year, but the onset of church festival season is a sure sign summer is on the way. The first Catholic Church festivals of the season in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati open up this weekend (May 15-17) beginning Friday night.

CNS Reports God makes no one struggle with life’s challenges alone, pope says VATICAN CITY (CNS) — God is always by our side, never giving us more than we can handle, Pope Francis said. The countless women and men who stand tall through enormous difficulties, pain and especially persecution, are …

CNS Reports Appeals court stays Texas execution over claim of mental disability AUSTIN, Texas (CNS) — An execution scheduled for May 13 in Huntsville was stayed by a federal appeals court in New Orleans two hours before Robert James Campbell was set to be put to death.

Editor’s Note: Deacon Brian Phelps and Deacon James J. Riehle will be ordained priests for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati on May 17. Read the profile on Deacon Riehle here. By John Stegeman The Catholic Telegraph Sometimes priestly vocation stories begin with a major moment or experience wherein the man called to be …

By Malea Hargett Catholic News Service  LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas took center stage in the same-sex marriage debate May 9 when a state judge overturned a 10-year constitutional amendment that banned same-sex unions in the state.

Editor’s Note: Deacon James J. Riehle and Deacon Brian Phelps will be ordained priests for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati on May 17. Read the profile on Deacon Phelps here. By John Stegeman The Catholic Telegraph   The Holy Sprit started working on Deacon James J. Riehle’s vocation to the priesthood early. …

By Catholic News Service  WASHINGTON (CNS) – U.S. military chaplains around the world are receiving copies of new “Armed with the Faith” prayer books for Catholics in the armed forces.

By John Stegeman The Catholic Telegraph While it serves as the education center for seminarians of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, The Athenaeum of Ohio/Mount St. Mary’s Seminary forms priests for other dioceses too. Three of the five members of the seminary’s class of 2014 will serve somewhere other than the …

When last I left this column, I was still trying to recover from a break-in at the parish rectory. While it was a moment for me to reflect on the vulnerability that Christ faced in both becoming Incarnate and facing the trials of Holy Week, another (much more welcome) scenario …

By Francis X. Rocca Catholic News Service  VATICAN CITY — When Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople meets Pope Francis in Jerusalem May 25, one of their main discussion topics will be the “diminishing Christian minorities in the Middle East,” the patriarch told Catholic News Service.