Our Lady of Lourdes school celebrates ‘Vocation Day’
Students at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School celebrated Vocation Day Nov. 4 during National Vocations Awareness Week. The day involved an all-school Mass concelebrated by Archdiocese of Cincinnati Vocations Director Father Dan Schmitmeyer and Father Larry Zurek, Vocations Director for the Franciscan Friars of St. John the Baptist Province. …
500-mile pilgrimage to St. Junipero Serra missions leads to spiritual reawakening
By Dan Meloy DETROIT (CNS) — While everyone is called to walk in the footsteps of the saints, Anthony Petz took things a little more literally. The Detroit native and San Diego resident recently completed a 500-mile, 12-stop pilgrimage along the El Camino Real in California, touring the missionary outposts …
Little Sisters to Highest Court: ‘Protect Our Ministry’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Late Monday, the Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of Roman Catholic nuns who care for the elderly poor, urged the Supreme Court to protect them from $70 million dollars in government fines for refusing to violate their Catholic faith. This is the second time the Sisters have been forced to …
Away in a manger: Pope makes secret stop at Nativity scene’s birthplace
IMAGE: CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano, handout via EPA By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis made a surprise visit to the place where his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, created the world’s first Nativity scene. “He wanted to visit the sanctuary and places where St. Francis, on Christmas Eve …
Gifts of the Magi
Alisha’s world was shattered when her son was murdered last June at a friend’s apartment. Family and friends rallied around her to arrange for his burial, but she still owes the funeral home $1,000. While Alisha works more than 40 hours a week at a fast-food restaurant and a day …
Birthright of Greater Cincinnati continues to help women with pregnancy
On a recent Wednesday morning, a distraught woman arrived at the office of Birthright of Greater Cincinnati. After a rough start to the day that included a broken down car and missing credit card, the mother of five-month old twin boys found support and advice in the calming presence of …
Bishop says Mexican mayor’s murder was message from organized crime
IMAGE: CNS photo/Margarito Perez, Reuters By David Agren MEXICO CITY (CNS) — The assassination of a Mexican mayor the day after she assumed office was a message from organized crime and evidence of its influence in the area around the city of Cuernavaca, said the bishop who celebrated her funeral …
God’s mercy knows ‘no limits,’ frees people from despair, pope says
By Carol Glatz and Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — God’s ability to forgive “knows no limits” as his mercy frees people from bitterness and despair, Pope Francis said. “The church’s forgiveness must be every bit as broad as that offered by Jesus on the cross and by Mary …
What keeps me Catholic? The violence of love
Let’s be honest. It’s easy to be cynical and jaded about the state of the world today. From the front page news it seems that all there is out there is a daily, ongoing, endless stream of violence. Depressingly, rather than be an antidote to it, religion seems to further …
Archbishop Kurtz discusses work of bishops on issues of the family
The “fingerprints of Pope Francis” are on the recent Synod on the Family, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville said Dec. 9 at the James J. Gardner Lecture on Moral Theology. Archbishop Kurtz, who is president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and who was a delegate to the …
