Catholic schools in the United States are falling short in serving the growing number of Latino Catholics, according to a new report released this week. The Boston College report, “Catholic Schools in an Increasingly Hispanic Church,” looks at the disparity between the number of school-age children who are Hispanic – 12.4 million – and the Read more
Like many other halls of fame, the collection of Florence’s cathedral museum, the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, assembles such staggering luminary power that it’s hard not to walk through the building starstruck, with the aesthetic version of a brain freeze headache from consuming too much ice cream too quickly. Here, near the entry, are Lorenzo Read more
Survivors and supporters of church sex abuse victims are renewing calls for a Royal Commission into sex abuse throughout New Zealand. They say Australia is facing up to its past by having an inquiry, and New Zealand should too. Bill Kilgallon, who handles the Catholic Church’s sex abuse claims, says if we do have one Read more
Shops should be allowed to be open whenever they like, says Retail New Zealand which has presented its case on trading laws for Easter Sunday. Retail NZ supported the “liberalisation” the bill provided. It should be up to businesses to decide for themselves whether they wanted to open on any day of the year, spokesman Greg Read more
Pope Francis has prayed for those who lost their lives and livelihoods in Fiji after Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston. “I also wish to assure my closeness to the peoples of the Fiji Islands, harshly lashed by a devastating cyclone,” the Pope said last week after praying the midday Angelus with those in St. Peter’s Square. Read more
Catholics in Sri Lanka are asking the country’s president to make Good Friday a “mercantile holiday” so Christians working in the private sector can properly commemorate the day. “[Good Friday] is a public holiday but not a mercantile holiday which means Christians working in the private sector do not enjoy the right to fulfill our Read more
The US Supreme Court stepped into some contentious waters March 2 when it heard oral arguments on abortion for the first time in nearly a decade and almost 25 years since it issued a major ruling on abortion. But even though some time has gone by, the court’s 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey Read more
One of the Altoona-Johnstown, Pa., bishops singled out by a grand jury report for his “abysmal” record on sexually abusive priests responded in turn hours after its release, defending his handling of allegations as adhering to a strict review process and following advice of psychiatric experts. In a 10-page statement filed with the Allegheny County Read more