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From The Catholic Herald: The Dominican sister who gave a presentation on sexuality to students at Charlotte Catholic High School that sparked controversy among students and parents last month is taking a sabbatical from teaching and canceling her other speaking engagements.The presentation March 21 by Dominican Sister Jane Dominic Laurel of Nashville, Tenn., entitled “Masculinity and Femininity: Difference and Gift,” drew the ire of hundreds of students and parents over the past two weeks, and their emotions boiled over during a parents meeting with school and diocesan leaders Wednesday night.Sister Jane has a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical...

Nearly 1,000 parents gathered at Charlotte Catholic High School on Wednesday night to air complaints about a recent speech to students by a nun who made what many considered inflammatory comments about gays and lesbians, divorce and single parenthood. So many parents lined up to speak that the meeting with high school officials, the school’s chaplain and the Diocese of Charlotte’s vicar of education lasted more than an hour longer than scheduled. Though the gathering was closed to the media, texts and tweets from parents inside the school gym cast the meeting as often heated, with emotions running high on...

Move over Pope Francis, there's a new spiritual sensation in town. An Italian nun has become a national star after she wowed judges on her country's version of "The Voice." Sister Cristina, from Sicily, saw all four chairs turn around during her blind audition of Alicia Keys' "No One." The 25-year-old then told the quartet: "I have a gift and I'm giving it to you." Broadcast on Wednesday night, the clip has already racked up more than 30,000 views. It shows the Catholic Sister confidently walking out onto the stage and belting out her version of the hit song. Fellow...

Madrid, January 30, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a recent interview with the Spanish feminist magazine Pikara, a Benedictine sister, Teresa Forcades, said her position towards the proposed restrictions on abortion by the Spanish conservative government was that of “criticism and upfront rejection.” “I’m in favor of allowing abortion when the fetus isn’t viable,” said the Sister. The proposed law will eliminate a provision passed in 2010 by the previous socialist government allowing abortion on demand until 14 weeks gestation, and will remove fetal malformation as a reason for the mother to abort. “There can be a mother,” she continued, “to...

This is the first picture of nun and new mother Roxana Rodriguez. The 33-year-old woman, a nun with the order of the Little Disciples of Jesus, stunned her mother superior and local church chiefs after giving birth last week to a baby boy which she has called Francis, in honour of the current Pope. Sister Roxana initially claimed to have no idea that she was pregnant and thought her labour pains were 'stomach cramps' when an ambulance rushed her to hospital in severe pain after being called by fellow nuns when she collapsed at her nunnery.

Authorities near Pittsburgh have arrested an 18-year-old man who admitted to the brutal rape a nun in the parking lot behind the church where she serves Friday morning. The suspect, Andrew Bullock, faces at least 10 charges in the viscous attack. According to authorities, the victim was walking in the parking lot behind the Titus Church on Franklin Avenue in Aliquippa - about 20 miles northwest of Pittsburgh - when the suspect approached her and asked if she needed help. [Snip] 'The first thing you notice when you look up up where this horrific act occurred, is the statue of...

EAVER COUNTY (KDKA) – An 18-year-old has been charged in the brutal rape and beating of an elderly nun in Aliquippa. Andrew Bullock, of Orchard Street, faces at least 10 charges in the Friday morning attack. The nun serves at St. Titus Church on Franklin Avenue. She was walking in a parking lot behind the church when she was approached by a man who choked her, punched her, then threw her to the ground where she was assaulted and raped.

A mob marched nuns through the battle-torn streets of Cairo ‘like prisoners of war’ in the latest outrage against Egypt’s Christian minority. Sister Manal, principal of a Franciscan school in suburban Cairo, watched for six hours as a mob looted the building, knocked the cross off the gate and replaced it with a black banner resembling the flag of Al Qaeda. The classrooms were then burned to the ground and the women taken away, attracting a crowd of abusive onlookers. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2396764/Egypt-crisis-Islamist-mob-parades-nuns-Cairo-prisoners-war.html#ixzz2cTNGBxc6 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

When I was asked during my grade school years, “What are you going to be when you grow up?” my standard answer would be, “Either an opera singer or a Sister!” That was quite a range. It is easy to tell which one became a reality. Franciscan-Sister-RenitaOn a hot Sunday morning in August, I was born in Manitowoc, Wisconsin to Anita Broecker Tadych and Zenon Tadych. I have two younger sisters, Dorothy and Caroline (Kitty). My mother died when I was three years old. Some years later my father remarried, and we were blessed with Lillian, “our Mom,” and LaVerne,...

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...