A couple of CNS stories are worth reading today before we close out for the week In the first Tommaso Di Ruzza desk officer at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace OK I m not sure what that means either I m picturing someone in a naval uniform attempts to dispel the continuing confus

The U S bishops appear to be weary of a consistent reactive posture in recent years to swift changes in the nation s political and cultural landscape Responding to what a U S C C B press release described the persisitent erosion of religious liberty the bishops announced the formation of a new

Embattled Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi marked his 75th birthday yesterday a milestone that makes all those stories nbsp about him even more bizarre but Public Radio International notes that the Catholic Church in Italy is in no mood to celebrate Listen to the report here exploring h

Healing prayer is reviving among Catholics nbsp A long time leader in the healing ministry ex Dominican Francis McNutt has recently published ldquo The Practice of Healing Prayer nbsp A How-to-Guide for Catholics rdquo nbsp He also reports that his Christian Healings Ministry center is exp

I suspect Father Jim Martin won t be writing about this guy anytime soon but in South Korea he is apparently held in high regard On October 26 1909 in Harbin northeastern China Thomas An Jung-geun assassinated Ito Hirobumi Japan rsquo s first prime minister and the first Japanese resident gen

Here rsquo s how his first biographer Thomas of Celano records the encounter of St Francis of Assisi with the crucifix now famous but then hanging forlorn in the crumbling Umbrian church of San Damiano He write that Francis was walking one day by the church of San Damiano which was aband