MASSACHUSETTS - The Family Rosary division of Holy Cross Family Ministries in Easton has gathered more than 80,000 pledges from people around the globe who said they would pray the Rosary daily during the 2012-13 Year of Faith. The pledges, which came in response to a program offering free rosaries, were gathered in a book and presented recently to Pope Benedict XVI by Holy Cross Father ...

By Peter Ajayi Dada LAGOS - Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie criticised oil pipeline vandalism that led to the death of more than two dozen youths, saying if they had had jobs, their deaths might have been avoided. The Cardinal, retired Archbishop of Lagos, urged the nation’s leaders to save the country from imminent collapse. Young people, fighting over who would get to siphon crude ...

Germany's Catholic bishops criticized the country's growing arms industry and urged greater commitment to settling the world's armed conflicts. The message was included in a 24-page bishops' conference brochure for the Jan. 1 World Day of Peace. "Peace isn't just a job for politicians," said the conference president, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg. "It must shake us awake ...

By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY - The Swiss finance lawyer hired to monitor the legality and transparency of Vatican financial activity said the Italian central bank’s concerns about the Vatican’s vulnerability to money laundering are not shared by other European countries or international agencies. Citing a supposed lack of Vatican controls to prevent money laundering, the Bank of Italy...

By Francis X. Rocca VATICAN CITY -- The Sistine Chapel sounded a bit like a nursery Jan. 13, as Pope Benedict XVI baptized 20 babies, whose crying provided a constant accompaniment to the two-hour Mass on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Referring to the day's reading from the Gospel St. Luke, which recounts the baptism of Jesus by St. John the Baptist, Pope Benedict said that in...

Some Christians – including Catholics – have treated Jews as if they were the enemy. Slight problem: Jesus is a Jew; so are Mary and Joseph. Treating Jews as the enemy is unacceptable, says Church spokesman.

By Cindy Wooden Politicians who want to act as if God did not exist and as if there was no such thing as objective moral truths are bound to fail in their efforts to promote the common good, said the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. "The politics we have today in Europe and North America without ethical foundations, without a reference to God, cannot resolve our...

One of the country's leading Catholics helped mediate between the Seleka rebel alliance and government leaders, resulting in a peace agreement to end fighting that left a Catholic journalist dead. Father Dieu-Beni Mbanga, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Bangui, confirmed that Archbishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga represented civil society and helped mediate at the talks in Libreville, Gabon....

By Mark Pattison A Catholic university in the US is spinning off its current economics and business curriculum from its School of Arts and Sciences and fashioning a new business school with the idea of infusing ethics into all course offerings. In 2014, graduates of the Catholic University of America will receive their degrees from the new School of Business and Economics, the univers...

Forget the feel good preening; peace and economic well-being are a real possibility, but they are demanding and presume a radical respect for life and its author, says Pope Benedict XVI in his World Day of Peace message.