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When Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) was launched on Aug. 15, 1981, many felt there would be little demand for a Catholic network. In fact, when Mother M. Angelica, a cloistered nun, fulfilled a promise to our Lord in the early 1960s by founding Our Lady of Angels Monastery in Irondale, Ala., she had no idea she would one day found the largest religious media network in the world. Who could have imagined that a cloistered nun would found a global television network? Who could have predicted that a network funded entirely by donations from “people in the pews” instead of...

Along with the tradition of naming a new pope, there’s the symbolism. The name Francis is in reference to St. Francis of Assisi– who shares much in common with the new pope. Sister Alicia Torres from the Franciscans of the Eucharist spoke about the importance. VIDEO AT LINK.

Rome, Italy, Mar 7, 2013 / 04:12 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Blessed Maria Restituta, a Catholic nurse who was decapitated by the Nazis in March of 1943, was remembered for her courageous martyrdom during a recent Mass in Rome. Cardinal Christoph Shonborn recalled the 70th anniversary of Blessed Maria’s death during a celebration of the Liturgy of the Word on March 6. The Mass was held at the Basilica of St. Bartholomew, which was dedicated by Pope John Paul II to the memory of the martyrs of the 20th and 21st centuries. During the Mass, members of Blessed Maria’s religious...

Democrats broke into a battle of wills on Wednesday over the need to restore God to the party’s official platform. After much infighting, they eventually made a change that restored language that was in the 2008 platform.It now reads: "We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values and interests of working people and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential."Republicans had a field day with the godless platform. But was the change actually necessary?We asked Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of the Catholic social justice lobbying group NETWORK...

(RNS) Paul Ryan has been taking a lot of heat over the factual accuracy of claims he made in his prime time address at the Republican convention last week, but Wednesday night at the Democratic confab the GOP vice-presidential candidate – and practicing Catholic – was schooled by a popular nun on the moral shortcomings of his budget proposals. “Paul Ryan claims this budget reflects the principles of our shared faith,� Sister Simone Campbell, who became a celebrity of sorts this summer when she led the national “Nuns on the Bus� tour for social justice, told cheering Democratic delegates...

A former Catholic nun in Kerala, India has run into legal trouble after the ghostwriter of her autobiography disowned the book, describing it as a pack of lies, reports Ucanews. Mary Chandy, 68 (pictured), who claims to be a former nun of the Daughters of the Presentation of Mary, had written in her book that abortions and sexual harassment were rife within religious congregations in India. The book, Swasthy [Hail]: The Revelations of Sister Mary Chandy, was released in April and became a best seller in Malyalam, the south Indian state’s native language. But Jose Pazhookkaran, who assisted Chandy in...

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 10, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A senior Vatican prelate has fired a fresh salvo in the Vatican’s effort to reform the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, with a warning that the rogue organization could be shut down if they fail to implement the reforms demanded by the Vatican. “If it can’t be reformed, then it doesn’t have a right to continue,” Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect of the Vatican’s Apostolic Signatura, told EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo in a Thursday interview for The World Over. “How in the world can these consecrated religious who have professed to follow Christ more closely...

From Speed Skating to Religious Life Former Olympian on the Call to Join Franciscan Order By Ann SchneibleLONDON, JULY 27, 2012 (Zenit.org).- With the London summer Olympics commencing today, a former Olympian – now a sister with the Community of the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal in Leeds, England – shared with ZENIT her journey toward answering the call to the religious life.For CFR Sister Catherine Mary of the Holy Trinity the Olympics were a family affair. The Wisconsin native -- whose legal name is Kirstin Holum -- is the daughter of Dianne Holum, who gained international fame by becoming the first...

Does anyone remember the murder of a nun by a priest back in 1980?

Speaking at a Jesuit parish in Charlotte, the executive director of the social justice lobby Network disparaged Vatican officials and US bishops as “inexperienced” in pastoral work and revealed that she is uncomfortable describing herself as pro-life “because of my pride.” After speaking on the importance of civility in political discourse, Sister Simone Campbell dismissed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s efforts to reform the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) as a “Vatican kerfuffle” and, in the words of the Charlotte diocesan newspaper, “scorned the US bishops for their continued opposition to the health insurance law.” In...

Three respected Catholic publications are reporting that Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the controversial former Boston archbishop, played a key role in the Vatican's decision to tighten its grip on the largest association of Catholic nuns in the United States. The Vatican announced its initiative on April 18, naming three American prelates to ensure that US nuns conform to Church doctrine, which has grown more conservative under Pope John Paul II and his successor, Pope Benedict XVI. Earlier this week, a columnist for The Tablet, a British Catholic weekly, reported that the Vatican's initiative was sparked by William E. Lori, the...

When Dolores Hart, 73, walks the red carpet at this year's Academy Awards as planned, no interviewer will need to ask who made her dress. She will be wearing her nun's habit from the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Conn., where she lives a life of contemplation and hospitality and is mother prioress. Mother Dolores, as she is now known, is the subject this year of an Oscar-nominated documentary short, "God Is the Bigger Elvis," which airs April 5 on HBO. The documentary chronicles her life as a nun after a Hollywood career that saw her co-star with...

Dolores Hart had it all. Billed as "the next Grace Kelly" for her beauty and acting talent, she had a seven-figure studio contract, roles opposite some of the industry's biggest names and was the envy of girls everywhere for giving Elvis Presley his first on-screen kiss. During a break 1963, aged 24, she told her bosses at MGM she was heading to see friends in the country. They sent a limousine to drop her off at the Abbey of Regina Laudis, in Bethlehem, Connecticut. It turned out to be a one-way journey. Next Sunday, nearly half a century after she...

MOUNT RAINIER, MARYLAND, February 15, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Valentine’s Day, a priest and a nun penned an op-ed in The Washington Post entitled, “A Catholic Case for Same-Sex Marriage.” Sister Jeannine Gramick and Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry in Mt. Rainier, Maryland, wrote, “Many Catholics…understand that lesbian and gay love is as natural as heterosexual love.” “As Catholics who are involved in lesbian and gay ministry and outreach, we are aware that many people, some of them Catholics, believe that Catholics cannot faithfully disobey the public policies of the church’s hierarchy. But this is not the case,” they...

Church leaders in Kerala have expressed shock and outrage over the killing yesterday of tribal rights campaigner Sister Valsa John. The 53-year-old nun from the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary was hacked to death at her home in the remote Pakur district of the east Indian state of Jharkhand. According to reports a mob of around 50 people gathered outside her home in the early hours of yesterday morning (local time) shortly before her death. Earlier reports had said the nun had been shot dead. Major Archbishop and head of the Syro-Malabar Church, George Alencherry, and Curia Bishop...

Anchorage, Alaska, Oct 16, 2011 / 01:16 pm (CNA).- As young girls, Anastasia Kenney and her little sister played Mass. They cloaked their heads in a white curtain, draped accordingly as a bridal veil or a nun’s habit, and served crackers and grape juice to each other as they pretended to receive Holy Communion.Some 30 years later, Kenney is moving into a convent and aspiring to wear a white habit in earnest.The religious vocation startled even her.“I was horrified! I was the least nunnish person I knew,” said Kenney, 35, of her initial inclination. “I thought the last group of...

A Broward County man on Tuesday filed suit against the Archdiocese of Miami and a Dominican nun, claiming he was fondled and groped while in the first grade at St. James Catholic School in North Miami. The man, now 38, claims Sister Joan Marie would approach him while standing in line with his classmates and pretend to tuck in his shirt. But the nun would reach down his pants and sexually abuse him, said his attorney, Jeffrey Herman. Only identified as John Doe 73 — representing the number of cases Herman has filed against the archdiocese for alleged sexual misconduct...

Sister Marie Thornton, former vice president of finance at Iona College in New York, has pled guilty to embezzling $850,000 from the college between 1999 and 2009. “She abused her access to cook the books and line her own pockets,” said US Attorney Preet Bharara. Prosecutors charged that Sister Thornton used much of the stolen money for gambling. Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

A MONK and two other people were arrested after digging up the body of a nun they believe to be a saint and trying to smuggle the remains into Cyprus. The 42-year-old Cypriot monk, a 54-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman were arrested at Athens International Airport as they attempted to board a flight to Cyprus with the body stuffed in a suitcase, the Cyprus Mail said. The Mail reported police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos as saying the trio "claim they took the remains of the woman, whom they consider a saint, to bury them in Cyprus". Mr Katsounotos said Eleni...

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France – A French nun says she felt new inner strength and vitality as her Parkinson's disease suddenly disappeared in 2005 — a recovery the Vatican attributes to the miraculous intercession of Pope John Paul II. Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, who works at a Paris maternity clinic, told reporters in a rare appearance Monday that she felt "reborn" on waking June 3, 2005 after she had prayed for healing to John Paul. "There was a new strength inside me, and my body was rediscovering its vitality and fluidity," Simon-Pierre, appearing in good health, told reporters in the southern French city...

Carlos Martinelly-Montano was Scheduled for Deportation but Was Set Free by Feds; Homeland Security Refuses to Release Results of Internal Investigation Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it filed a lawsuit on December 2, 2010, against the Obama Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to obtain documents related to an internal DHS investigation of Carlos Martinelly-Montano, an illegal alien who struck and killed a Virginia nun in a drunk driving accident on August 1, 2010. Montano had been arrested on two prior drunk driving charges. He was placed in the custody of...

Don’t tell Mary Anne Marks the Catholic Church is an oppressive, misogynistic disaster. She knows better. And she’s got a Harvard degree, too. Miss Marks, a native of Queens, N.Y., graduated from Harvard University this past semester with an undergraduate degree in classics and English, delivering her commencement address in Latin. This fall, she begins a new life, discerning her future consecrated to Christ as a Catholic religious sister with the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, in Ann Arbor, Mich. She and I are alumnae of the same high school, Dominican Academy, in Manhattan. Before heading to...

Callous treatment of a skilled drug-addicted nun-surgeon by her peer group in the Catholic Medical Missionary Order caused me, a dedicated nun, to become disillusioned. Within every person lies a marvelous adventure story of his life. Here is my story and the three torturous, separate paths I took on my journey toward peace and reconciliation with God. My first path was that of religion as a Medical Missionary Nun for thirteen years. Then I searched in vain for fulfillment as a United States Air Force nurse for six and a half years. Finally, on the third path as a married...

Illegal immigrant charged in fatal crash that kills nun! "The religious order that was home to three nuns whose car was hit Sunday morning by an alleged drunk driver in Northern Virginia said it is upset at what it views as the politicization of the incident." How about ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, shall we do something about it NOW?

...snip... Two of the nuns -- Sister Charlotte Lange and Sister Connie Ruth Lupton -- remained in critical but stable condition last night; a third -- Sister Denise Mosier -- died at the crash site. ...snip... Saint Gertrude's website reported last night that Sister Charlotte "had some intestine removed and has some internal bleeding" and that Sister Connie "fractured her leg, ankle and wrist," had part of a thumb amputated and suffered internal injuries. Funeral arrangements were incomplete last night for Sister Denise.

The man suspected of drunken driving and killing a Catholic nun in Prince William County this weekend is an illegal immigrant who was awaiting deportation and who federal immigration authorities had released pending further proceedings, police said Monday. The man, Carlos Montano, a county resident, had been arrested by police twice before on drunk-driving charges, and on at least one of those occasions county police reported him to federal authorities. "We have determined that he is in the country illegally. He has been arrested by Prince William County Police in the past," said Officer Jonathan Perok, a police spokesman, who...

There was horror in Harlem on Tuesday when an 83-year-old nun was killed and four others were injured in police chase that turned into a mangled mess on Lenox Avenue. It was a horrendous, near head-on collision that happened around 9:30 a.m and killed Sister Mary Celine Graham. Police, investigating an armed robbery, had stopped a blue mini-van at 141st Street and Lenox Avenue. As they questioned the driver outside the vehicle, a passenger jumped behind the wheel and took off – and the police followed.

Today on Fox News, Neil Cavuto interviewed a Catholic Nun who said she supports the new Government health care bill because she thinks it is what Jesus would do and would have her do. ... she said "I speak for the 50 million people in the United States that don't have access and the 45 thousand people that die every year because they can't get healthcare." Sister Campbell went on to talk about a man who died of prostate cancer "because he didn't get care for his cancer early enough ... that's wrong, in the richest country on earth, we...

David Gibson Posted: 03/13/10 The head of the national association of Catholic hospitals, which holds great sway in the health care debate, threw her support Saturday behind the contested Senate reform bill in a move that could give a major boost to the legislation's prospects. But the endorsement of Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, could also put the nun and her organization at odds with the Catholic hierarchy, which continues to oppose the bill due to its provision on abortion coverage. As Politics Daily has reported, the Senate bill does not appear to allow for abortion...

One of Sister Mary's friends came to her defense today, saying the Lake County nun only wanted to protect the child she is accused of taking from her parents six months ago. Laura Maria Caballero, also known as Sister Mary, of Eustis thought the parents of the 2-year-old girl were not taking the best possible care of the child, the friend told the Orlando Sentinel. "Her whole life is giving," Hendrick said. "She's always in court fighting some battle for some kid." He has met the child she is accused of taking and said that Sister Mary would take her...

Three workmen rescued a nun moments before an Amtrak train hit and destroyed her car Monday in Lemont. Jason Wojdyla, 25, his dad John, and coworker Ryan Dimenza were installing air conditioning on a rooftop in downtown Lemont at 1 p.m. Monday when they spotted the nun crash her white Chevy Malibu. “She hit a fire hydrant and got stuck on the tracks,” Jason Wojdyla said. “We knew we had to do something.” The threesome ran downstairs to help. Though the nun, who Wojdyla estimated was in her 60s, was unhurt, they had to convince her to abandon her car...

This may be the most disturbing thing you read all day.A Catholic nun said that the defeat in the Senate of the pro-life Nelson amendment on the feast of the Immaculate Conception was "providential" and that Mary was the first woman in the bible to express "choice."As you have probably heard by now the Nelson amendment to the health-care bill, which would have restricted federal funds from being used to fund abortions, has been defeated 54-45. This should be a sad day for all Catholics, but it is not. In fact, one Catholic nun is downright giddy over the defeat....

My Life of Drink and One-Night Stands Left Me Feeling Hollow, Now I've Found The Answer: I'm Going To Be A Nun KATIE COLBRAN 05th November 2009 New order: In a few weeks, Katie Colbran will become a trainee nun For the past four years, I've led the kind of glamorous life some people only dream about. Regularly jetting off to exotic destinations such as Rome, Istanbul and Marrakech, I've been fortunate enough to stay in some of the most exclusive hotels and see some amazing sights. I've made dozens of friends, partied until the early hours in some of...

The slaying of a 64-year-old Catholic nun in her convent over the weekend has stunned and saddened a small Navajo Nation community about 30 miles northwest of Gallup. The FBI is looking for suspects in the death of Sister Marguerite Bartz, a 10-year resident of the community of Navajo, who was killed on church property at St. Berard Mission Church. The FBI would not release details about the manner of death or other aspects of the investigation. They confirmed they are looking for a suspect or suspects who may be armed and dangerous, as well as the vehicle Bartz had...

Holladay » Barbara Whipperman was a pious teenager, a defender of the faith. When her parents bought a can of coffee, before they even could brew a pot, she saved them from themselves. "I tossed the whole can," the 76-year-old recalls, laughing raucously. "I was a good little Mormon girl. Oh, they were mad!" How that good little Mormon girl from Sugar House came to be Sister Mary Joseph, a Catholic -- and a nun, no less -- is a story she tells with relish. A member of the Carmel of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a cloistered monastery that...

Nun becomes top-selling Polish cookbook writer By VANESSA GERA, Associated Press Writer Saturday, July 18, 2009 Emerging from the quiet of her convent, Sister Anastazja Pustelnik was confronted by a jarring image — her smiling face on posters plastered around town to hawk the cookbooks that have made the 59-year-old nun one of Poland's best-selling authors. It's fame Sister Anastazja never bargained for when she left the material world as a young woman, expecting to toil in obscurity for God. But her ability to create easy-to-follow recipes for delectable cakes and traditional home cooking has resulted in five cookbooks since...

Sister Emmanuelle, France's answer to Mother Teresa, who has died aged 99 was an unorthodox nun who spent 20 years helping the poor in a Cairo slum before returning to France to defend the homeless. The diminutive Roman Catholic nun, whose real name was Madeleine Cinquin, was best known in France for her frequent appearances on television to campaign passionately for the poor and homeless. She came to media attention with her work with some of the world's poorest people, the residents of the Ezbet El-Nakhl slum in Cairo who eke out their living by scavenging in the garbage produced...

Cleveland nun to close one night of Democratic convention with prayer By Dennis Sadowski Catholic News Service WASHINGTON – St. Joseph Sister Catherine Pinkerton of Cleveland is not usually one to seek the spotlight, but she will take center stage at the Democratic National Convention Aug. 27 when she gives the benediction to close the party’s third day of business. Sister Catherine, 86, a lobbyist for Network, a national Catholic social justice lobby, will close the convention on the night that Sen. Barack Obama is expected to formally become the party’s nominee for president. The invitation to lead the prayer...

A young nun who was ticketed by San Jose police on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe for selling little statues of the Blessed Virgin to raise money for a soup kitchen wants the charges against her expunged, the San Jose Mercury News reported yesterday. [[DACarr081508.jpg]]In a column by writer Scott Herhold, the Mercury News recounted the story of Notre Dame Sister Marie Linie Marot, 28, who wants Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr to issue a "finding of factual innocence" regarding charges lodged against her as a result of a Dec. 12, 2007 incident outside Our Lady...

Sister Ruth Lautt works from a single room on the 19th floor of the God Box. Such is the nickname for the Interchurch Center, the office building on Riverside Drive in Manhattan that is the closest thing to a Vatican for America’s mainline Protestant denominations. Indeed, Sister Ruth’s fellow tenants include agencies of the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Wearing the tapered suits left over from an earlier career in law and the crucifix of her more recent life as a Roman Catholic nun, Sister Ruth cuts an inconspicuous figure at the...

Sister Cristina Angelini has been called the heart and soul of Shreveport's Renzi Center, an early child development center run by the Catholic church. But the federal government might be getting ready to tear that heart out. In a country where there are millions of illegal aliens -- and a shortage of Catholic sisters -- the feds are threatening to make her leave and return to her native Italy. Exactly why, the government couldn't tell KTBS News today. It might be a bureaucratic mixup. Sister Cristina got a letter from the government last week, telling her she must leave the...

God and global warming: Religion and science unite on climate change by Paul Dailing Feb 06, 2008 Professor Mary Frohlich wears trim business suits, teaches global climate change and talks about historical links between the oppression of the earth and the oppression of women. She is a Roman Catholic nun. “People who know about nuns are not surprised,” Frohlich said, laughing. While some religious and scientific groups might be at odds over issues such as evolution and stem-cell research, over the last few years they have found common ground on global warming and climate change. “I would say that it’s...

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- A 79-year-old nun was sentenced Friday to one year in a county jail for sexually abusing two teens when she was their principal four decades ago. Sister Norma Giannini avoided a trial by pleading no-contest in November to two felony counts of indecent behavior with a child. "I ask forgiveness from the bottom of my heart," she told Circuit Judge M. Joseph Donald at her sentencing. One of Giannini's accusers, James St. Patrick, 55, asked Donald to impose a longer sentence. After the hearing, he said he was angry. "When are we going to start dealing with...

The nuns began studying the martial arts as a form of exercise. Several of them workout regularly. Though they would never use the arts to hurt someone, a number of them have become quite good. Sister Mary, who is just over five feet tall, is the most serious.

Pro-Life Groups Asks Bishop to Stop Sister Helen Prejean's Fundraising for ACLU By John-Henry Westen BOISE, September 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Idaho Choose Life (ICL) has issued a public call for Idaho's Catholic Bishop, Mike Driscoll "to intervene quickly and forcefully in the brewing scandal involving Sister Helen Prejean." Sister Prejean is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at an event to raise money for the Idaho ACLU on Friday, September 28th.  (see ACLU website announcement: http://www.acluidaho.org/ ) Speaking of ACLU, ICL Executive Director David Ripley said "This nefarious organization has played a pivotal role in undermining Christian morality and...

Hijabbed security guard frisks nun (thanks to all who sent this in). Of course there should be random searches, and no one should be exempt -- if any group is exempt, its dress will soon be adopted by the terrorists. But there is an absurdity to this photo. And a hint that maybe we would do better devoting our resources to searching those who are more likely to be threats -- were that not so politically incorrect.

On February 3,1994, Mother Teresa came to Washington and gave a speech that left the entire audience dazzled and part of it dismayed, including a United States senator who turned to his wife after Mother Teresa concluded and said, “Is my jaw up yet?” It was the annual National Prayer Breakfast at the Hilton Hotel and three thousand people were there, including most of official Washington. The breakfast is always an interesting and unusual gathering in the capital in that it is informed by an unspoken goodwill and because famous people, usually political figures, are invited to talk about what...

The waist-length pigtails are gone, replaced by a layer of dusty blonde hair so short it doesn't need a brush. Those '80s tennis skirts are history, too. In their place, a black nun's habit belted with a band of white rope that her dogs like to chew. One constant: Sister Andrea Jaeger isn't quite who everyone might think she is. Even when she was a teenage tennis star — all backhands and braces — she knew she wouldn't last long in that world, though hers was not a typical tale of burnout or overbearing parents. She succumbed to an injury...

A PRIEST was jailed for 14 years yesterday for killing a nun by crucifixion during an exorcism. Maricica Irina Cornici, 23, died after five days hanging on a cross with no food or water and gagged with a towel. Father Petru Corogeanu, 31, told the court: "She was acting as if she had supernatural powers and I realised she was possessed by a demon." The monk blamed paramedics for giving Cornici too much adrenaline when they tried to resuscitate her. Corogeanu was convicted of depriving the nun of her freedom. Four nuns were also jailed for their part in the...

Young nuns from the Sisters of Life Convent play volleyball near the water on the SUNY Maritime Campus in the Bronx, September 2006 ...Over the past five years, Roman Catholic communities around the country have experienced a curious phenomenon: more women, most in their 20s and 30s, are trying on that veil. Convents in Nashville, Tenn.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; and New York City all admitted at least 15 entrants over the past year and fielded hundreds of inquiries. One convent is hurriedly raising funds for a new building to house the inflow, and at another a rush of new blood...