Mark Pattison - Catholic News Service

A new joint declaration calls terrorism and violent extremism “perversions of authentic religious belief.”

It turns out that for most, location is more important than the quality of homilies.

“All residents of countries where laws or social norms encourage the death penalty for blasphemy are vulnerable to attacks.”

According to a report issued June 28 by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an estimated 18 million Americans are at risk of drinking lead-tainted water yet not know it.

For content providers—the bishops among them—the decision should mean that they won’t be forced into a “pay for play” situation in which they have to fork over money just to get the same treatment as anybody else’s websites.

This year’s audit results “continue to demonstrate the progress that has been made in ensuring safe environments for children in the church.”

“Regrettably, things have not improved, and in some places, things have gotten worse.”

“People who are highly religious are more engaged with their extended families, more likely to volunteer, more involved in their communities and generally happier.”

“Because a lot of our people aren’t documented, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. They weren’t giving people water because they didn’t have driver’s licenses.”

“Thank God that someone finally has the courage to close the loopholes in our pitiful gun control laws to reduce the number of mass shootings, suicides and killings that have become a plague in our country,” said Bishop Kevin J. Farrell of Dallas in a Jan. 5 entry titled “The Cowboy Mentality” on his blog.