BARCELONA After kissing the relics of St James the Pope in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela has just finished a speech in which he recalled the proper meaning of pilgrimage and spoke of the inseparability of freedom and truth Both speak to concerns of the Spanish Church The popularity o

BARCELONA As I write the Pope is outside the wonderful 800-year-old cathedral at Santiago de Compostela the destination of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from across Europe -- and has donned a typical pilgrim s outfit complete with scallop shell Many history books have been written about th

BARCELONA Pope Benedict on the plane to Spain told journalists that there was a very strong clash between faith and modernity in Spain and he called for dialogue not confrontation PA here He spoke of the anticlericalism which erupted in Spain in the 1930s in the run-up to the Spanish Civil War

BARCELONA The Pope has landed at a foggy Lavacolla airport near Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain touching down punctually at 11 30 where he has been greeted by the heir apparent Prince Felipe of Asturias and Princess Letizia together with the Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela J

In the mid-1960s in response to conservative Catholics rsquo intense criticism of Dan Berrigan rsquo s outspoken opposition to the war in Vietnam his superiors sent him to Latin America Although his supporters saw it as an exile his three months in several Latin American countries had its posit

Keith Olbermann the liberal host of MSNBC s Countdown has been suspended without pay for violating NBC s code of ethics which bars employees from donating to political campaigns From the article I became aware of Keith s political contributions late last night Phil Griffin President

On Tuesday before succumbing to election fever I attended All Souls Day Mass One of my favorite holy days All Souls Day provides me the opportunity to think about and remember my friends and relatives who have passed on and to reflect on what the Catholic faith offers in terms of hope and

Culture news Tim Reidy our online editor nbsp gets right to it in his insightful review of the new Danny Boyle film 127 Hours What is that scene like nbsp Unless you yourself have been trapped in a crevasse you ll know the nbsp scene I m talking about in this very well reviewed new movie b

Hallelujah nbsp Last week the Opera Company of Philadelphia surprised holiday shoppers at Macy s in downtown Philadelphia which many old-time Philadelphians still nbsp refer to by the name nbsp of the original storied nbsp store on that site nbsp Wanamaker s with the Hallelujah Chorus from Hand

MADRID The weather -- this happened before when the Pope came to the UK -- is positively Spring-like here in the Spanish capital clear-skied and sunny But Pope Benedict won t be coming here he arrives tomorrow for a 32-hour visit to two iconic European cathedrals the imposing medieval cathed

Hear more from blogger Matt Malone S J in this special election podcast Matt s key insight Don t mistake mood for mandate Tim Reidy nbsp

This week we have been featuring videos on our home page from the Truth Commission on Conscience in War held in March in Riverside Church here in New York The Truth Commission was set up to provide greater protection for moral conscience in war for those in military service At the March event se

From the USCCB website Bishop Bishop Gerald F Kicanas of Tucson Arizona Vice-president of the U S Conference of Catholic Bishops testified before Congress on the ethical imperative for reform of the U S immigration system He spoke before the House Subcommittee on Immigration Citizenship Re

As part of his doctoral research in the education program at St Louis University in the 1990s Michael Maher studied the attitudes toward student homosexuality in Catholic high schools He was shocked by the silence about this topic When he met with four experienced Catholic school counselors wit

Today a 30-day online retreat that is one in which you can follow the suggestions for meditation by viewing a new web page each day begins nbsp nbsp It is sponsored by the Jesuit Refugee Service USA and follows the Spiritual Exercises nbsp of St Ignatius Loyola nbsp In his 19th Annotation

Polling of all sorts always contains a margin of error usually about 3 percent though it pays to check each poll Of course some pollsters can at times be just plain wrong or worse even biased This should make readers wary of their predictions Since some online comments in response to more th

It is 7 a m British time and the results of yesterday rsquo s U S election have reached London There were few surprises one of those rare moments in recent American politics when the polls and pundits got it right The question on everybody s mind of course is what the results mean When folks

At the funeral in Baghdad yesterday for the dozens of Christian hostages killed by Al-Qaeda gunmen on Sunday the Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly head of Iraq s largest Catholic church said the victims had been struck by the devil s hand Six young foreign-born Islamic militants burst into