Young Afghan mother, Catholic Charities volunteer killed by oncoming truck

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — A retired nurse who felt called to help Afghan refugees and the young Afghan mother she embraced as a mentor were killed after being hit by a truck while out taking a walk Feb. 15. Enedina “Dina” Fernandez, 75, had just finished giving an English lesson to 23-year-old Nabila Rasoul at […]

Scorecards tally House, Senate votes on voting rights, budget, life issues

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Teachers aren’t the only ones to hand out report cards. Any number of lobbies in Washington issue reports scoring lawmakers on how they voted on a host of issues near and dear to their respective organizations. One legislator may get a score close to zero by one organization, yet be judged as […]

More than a place to die: Sisters offer hospice care to patients in Kenya

THIGIO, Kenya — Michael Kamau Mathini is convinced that his father lived as long as he did because of the quality of care he received at Our Lady Hospice-Thigio, run by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent De Paul. Joffrey Mathini Kamau died in March 2021 at age 106, his son said, having entered […]

Pope Francis meets Christian movement of blind and visually impaired people

Pope Francis met with members of Voir Ensemble, a Christian movement of blind and visually impaired people on Feb. 19, 2022. / Vatican Media Vatican City, Feb 19, 2022 / 07:30 am (CNA). Pope Francis met Saturday with a Christian movement of blind and visually impaired people, who are on a pilgrimage in Rome. “Your […]

Celibacy not ‘divine law’ for priests, but promotes holiness, speakers say

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The requirement that most priests in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church be celibate has theological and spiritual foundations and not only practical motivations, said speakers at an international conference on priesthood. Jesus’ chastity, poverty and obedience were not “incidental or simply functional,” but expressed his total union with God […]

Viganò, Vatican II and the Catholic Liturgy

In his open message to priests, dated January 2, 2022, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò begins with the admission that he had served the “Holy Apostolic Mass” as a youth; that it was the Mass of his ordination in March, 1968; and that it soon became a distant memory. He admits that he had been away […]