October 5, 2012 VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Catholics who participate in events connected with the 2012-2013 Year of Faith can receive a special indulgence, the Vatican said.  

By Mark Pattison, Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — In the wake of the Republicans’ and Democrats’ national conventions bookending the Labor Day holiday, it seemed as if each campaign asked questions that ended with the words “better off.”  

October 5, 2012 Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — At the Synod of Bishops, which opens Oct. 7 with a papal Mass in St. Peter’s Square, some 250 prelates from around the world will meet for three weeks to talk and pray about the new evangelization.  

October 5, 2012 Catholic News Service SHANGHAI — Priests and nuns in the Shanghai Diocese were forced to attend compulsory “study classes,” which observers believe were imposed by Chinese authorities in response to the new Shanghai auxiliary’s renunciation of the Catholic Patriotic Association.  

October 5, 2012 Catholic News Service NEW ORLEANS — It has been more than 12 years since Blessed John Paul II promulgated Ex Corde Ecclesiae, an apostolic constitution that clarified the relationship between the diocesan bishop and the Catholic colleges and universities within his diocese.  

October 5, 2012 Catholic News Service BALTIMORE — Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori and other religious leaders Sept. 26 asked supporters of traditional marriage to join efforts to overturn Maryland’s new law legalizing same-sex marriage.  

October 3, 2012 Catholic News Service ST. LOUIS — A federal court ruling that rejected a Catholic St. Louis business owner’s challenge to the federal mandate that employee health insurance cover contraceptives will be appealed to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.  

October 1, 2012 Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — Lawmakers and those who serve justice must make decisions based on their strong faith and moral convictions, and not on popular cultural trends, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio said Sept. 30 at the 60th annual Red Mass in Washington.  

Read more Catholic entertainment stories HERE. WASHINGTON (CNS) – He doesn’t exactly advertise it, but the “king of Queens” is a Catholic family man.  

September 26, 2012 Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — The increase of restrictions on religion are up worldwide — and, for the first time, those restrictions increased markedly in the United States, according to a new Pew report.