The Jesuit Refugee Service in Rome confirms that on Monday afternoon its country director Alexis Prem Kumar S J was abducted by a group of unidentified men in western Afghanistan We are deeply shocked by Prem s abduction We are in contact with all the relevant authorities and doing everyth

50,000 pray for the once-skeptical Pope, sing and speak in tongues

White House expects 60,000 children to cross border this year.

Young people are helping lead a rebirth of the Catholic Church in Ireland, said the American-born papal nuncio serving in the country. Archbishop Charles J. Brown described the rebirth as the spring after 20 years of winter, saying he sees "green shoots.""You see a renewed enthusiasm

Journeys of hurt and healing on Broadway: 'Of Mice and Men' and 'The Cripple of Inishmaan'

In 1895 a young boy from the Italian village of Sotto il Monte sat down and began to write Nothing unusual about that mdash many youngsters get the inspiration to write about things they see They grab a pen or a pencil or in the cases of toddlers crayons and fill up reams of paper with the pro

After returning to Istanbul from his meeting with Pope Francis in Jerusalem Patriarch Bartholomew made the surprise announcement that the two of them had ldquo agreed to leave as a legacy to ourselves and to our successors to celebrate together a gathering in Nicea in 2025 after 17 centuries th

Ronald E. Powaski updates readers on the prospects of preventing a nuclear-armed Iran.

In early March Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 plunged into the ocean with 239 people aboard On April 9 16-year-old Alex Hribal injured 21 people during a stabbing rampage at his Pennsylvania High School On April 16 the terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped nearly 300 girls as part of an escalating c

On Thursday May 29 the U S Conference of Catholic Bishops U S C C B published a letter to Environmental Protection Agency E P A Administrator Gina McCarthy about the agency rsquo s carbon emission standards for existing power plants The letter highlights several principles of Catholic Socia

When you grow up Catholic you learn early on that Sunday Mass is non-negotiable Unless you are dying or certifiably contagious you go to Mass I was in school before I had a friend who was not Catholic and whose denominational road to salvation did not mandate Sunday attendance My first thought

On May 28 at the age of 86 Dr Maya Angelou renowned poet and writer died Hers was sometimes a tragic life but also one filled with wonder and surprises nbsp Born in St Louis in 1928 Angelou moved to Stamps Arkansas when she was three After being sexually assaulted at the age of eight t

Cambridge MA Last week I drew your attention to the 50th anniversary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and noted some key documents that mark the occasion Pope Francis rsquo Message sent on the occasion of the 50th anniversary Rev Fr Miguel ngel Ayuso Guixot 50 Years

The New York Times wonders Has Stanford replaced Harvard as the most acclaimed school in the country According to the Times Stanford University has become America rsquo s ldquo it rdquo school by measures that Harvard once dominated Stanford has had the nation rsquo s lowest undergraduate acce

The Catholic Church in the Central African Republic pleaded for firmer action by United Nations-backed peacekeepers after an attack on a Bangui church left the parish priest and at least 14 worshipers dead.The attack on Our Lady of Fatima Church on May 28 took place as worshipers prayed the rosary f

This is from our file on quot news that is generating a lot of speculation but we don 39 t know what to make of it mdash yet quot nbsp In an interview with AsiaNews nbsp the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople nbsp Bartholomew I nbsp nonchalantly noted nbsp that we meaning himself and Pope

U.S. Bishops Urge Action On Carbon Pollution To Stem Climate Change

The news out of the Central African Republic in recent days has been just awful Yesterday widespread disorder nbsp broke out in the capital Bangui barricades were thrown up around Chrisitan and Muslim quarters and two protestors were killed by African Union peacekeepers The demonstrations began i

Just in time for June a number of outlets and authors are offering suggestions for summer reading Even J P Morgan has a few ideas Click on the following links to review the titles For my next post on summer reading I 39 ll feature some Catholic and spiritual selections The Boston GlobeThe Los

Bishops celebrate Mass, lobby on Capitol Hill