By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Even though the ranks of the priesthood have been declining in many parts of the world, the number of permanent deacons has been expanding almost 30 times faster than the priesthood since the year 2000, resulting in an estimated 40 percent of U.S. parishes now being run by a deacon rather than an ordained priest.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A woman who was excommunicated last month after being ordained a “priest” has died and the Archdiocese of Chicago will not permit her to receive a Catholic burial.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A senior correspondent of a major daily political newspaper in Washington DC has retracted and apologized for a story it ran last week that accused the apostolic nuncio of verbally abusing a victim of clerical abuse.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Facing challenges on several fronts, the Vatican has launched its most detailed defense to date against claims that it should be held liable for U.S. bishops who did not report priests who abused minors, and that a 1962 Vatican document required bishops to remain silent about these cases.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Since the months-long scandal that surrounded the commencement address by President Barack Obama at the University of Notre Dame last spring, the number of controversial speakers at U.S. Catholic colleges and universities declined this year.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
During a press conference en route to Portugal yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the relevance of the third secret of Fatima.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
After praying before the famous Shroud of Turin on Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI described it as being an “icon written in blood” that wrapped the remains of a crucified man “in full correspondence with what the Gospels tell us of Jesus.”
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Only weeks before a crucial Anglican synod that will debate whether or not to ordain women as bishops, a group of key Traditional Anglican bishops revealed that they met last week with Vatican officials to begin the process of allowing priests to convert en masse to Catholicism.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The Vatican announced on Saturday that Pope Benedict XVI will appoint a special delegate to govern the Legionaries of Christ after its founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, was found guilty of molesting seminarians and fathering at least one child.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The latest edition of the Statistics Yearbook of the Church reveals that the Catholic presence in the world grew more than 11 percent during the period 2000-2008.
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