At memorial Mass, CRS remembers four employees who died in plane crash
IMAGE: CNS photo/Kevin J. Parks, Catholic Review By Paul McMullen BALTIMORE (CNS) — Approximately 480 men and women work at the Baltimore headquarters of Catholic Relief Services, the overseas aid and development agency of U.S. Catholics. None were more affected than Yishak "Isaac" Affin and Atli Moges by the March …
Purcell Marian Students go to Ecuador for Spring Break

The term “Spring Break” takes us to beaches, a week of fun, or simply a week to chill. This year, students from Purcell Marian High School in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati went out of their comfort zone and traveled to Ecuador to help the community there in some difficult task …
Update: After attacks, New Zealand bishops tell Muslims: ‘We hold you in prayer’
IMAGE: CNS photo/Martin Hunter, Reuters By Michael Otto AUCKLAND, New Zealand (CNS) — New Zealand’s Catholic bishops have expressed horror and distress at a terrorist attack in two mosques in Christchurch that saw at least 49 people killed. The shootings took place at or near the Al Noor Mosque, where …
Researcher: Difference between ‘considering leaving’ and ‘leaving’ church
IMAGE: CNS photo/Ed Langlois, Catholic Sentinel By Carol Zimmermann WASHINGTON (CNS) — The headlines from a March 13 Gallup Poll about the growing number of U.S. Catholics who have thought about leaving the church because of the clergy abuse crisis did not faze one researcher of Catholic data too much. …
Head of African youth network: Listen to young people on ecology
IMAGE: CNS photo/Fredrick Nzwili By Fredrick Nzwili NAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) — The head of an African youth network urged the world’s religions to embrace the voices of young people, as the leaders explore ways to tackle the current global ecological crisis. Allen Ottaro, founder and executive director of the Catholic …
Update: Amid call for boycott of Lenten appeals, some see harm to poor, needy
IMAGE: CNS photo/Bob Roller By Jacob Comello WASHINGTON (CNS) — Lent is a penitent season — a time for sincere reflection on one’s mistakes and a time to make amends for one’s life before the joy of the Easter season. And some say that the Catholic bishops need to be …
South Carolina Catholic school given national award for ‘full inclusion’
IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy Nativity School on James Island By Theresa Stratford JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (CNS) — When Nativity School was approached with the idea of integrating a child with Down syndrome into a regular classroom setting, officials’ first reaction was "sure, let’s figure this out and make it work," said …
For Lent, Irish Catholics urged to abandon ‘weapons of mass distraction’
IMAGE: CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn By Nick Bramhill DUBLIN (CNS) — Alcohol, smoking and chocolates are some of the most well-known vices that people traditionally give up during Lent. But now Massgoers in Ireland are being urged to make what might be an even harder sacrifice throughout the penitential six-week period …
Catholic Thoughts: Sins of omission: For what I have failed to do

Do you ever mentally skip over the statement: “.. for what I have done and for what I have failed to do” in the Confiteor? We figure that reconciliation is all about those time we did something wrong like lying, cheating, losing our temper etc. What is missing is the …
Judge sentences Cardinal Pell to six years in prison on abuse charges
IMAGE: CNS photo/Erik Anderson, Reuters By MELBOURNE, Australia (CNS) — Cardinal George Pell, 77, was sentenced to six years in prison March 13, just over two weeks after a Melbourne court allowed the publication of news that he had been found guilty of sexually abusing two boys. Cardinal Pell, who …