By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
Writing from his prison cell in Turkey, Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, claims he renounced Islam and became a Catholic in 2007.
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by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The first 300,000 names of concerned Catholics and their bishops who signed a petition in protest of Notre Dame’s decision to honor President Barack Obama at this year’s commencement were delivered yesterday to University president Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., the Board of Trustees and the Board of Fellows. The names of the petitioners is being delivered in time for meetings scheduled to take place on Friday, May 1, at Notre Dame.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) told a recent gathering of priests that during his meeting in March with Barack Obama, the president insisted he was not pro-abortion.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
A panel of theological consultors has unanimously agreed that the inexplicable healing of an American man who was "bent double" by a severe spinal disorder came as a result of praying to Cardinal John Henry Newman for a miracle. The decision will allow Pope Benedict XVI to declare him "Blessed.”
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
While speaking to a group of Italian religion teachers, Pope Benedict XVI said that learning religion in school is not interference in one’s freedom, but an example of mutual respect.
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by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
Yesterday afternoon, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, a position that may allow her to inject her strident pro-abortion views into the nation’s health care system.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
New technology that allow parents to choose the genetic characteristics of their babies threatens to breed new forms of racism, the Vatican said during a United Nations conference on racism which was held recently in Geneva.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
Mary Ann Schoettly, a 66 year old divorcee and mother of three was automatically excommunicated when she was “ordained” a priest in a Jewish synagogue outside Philadelphia on Sunday. The “pseudo-ordination” was denounced by Philadelphia’s Cardinal Justin Rigali.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
A new survey has found that 10 percent of America’s estimated 230 million adults are former Catholics, while 2.6% of American adults are converts to Catholicism. Thus there are roughly 4 adult Americans who have left the faith for every 1 who has entered the Church.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Mary Ann Glendon, who was scheduled to receive an award at Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal at the school’s ill-fated commencement on May 17, has notified University president Fr. John Jenkins that she is declining the award and will not attend the ceremony.
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