Free Republic

The parents of Eliza O’Neill, the little girl with an incurable and deadly brain disorder, are making one final desperate push to raise funds for the clinical trial that will test a gene therapy for the disease—and perhaps offer hope for Eliza. The O’Neills have already raised $1.3 million through a viral video and hope that by Eliza’s fifth birthday on Sunday they’ll hit their $1.8 million goal. While there is no guarantee that Eliza will be among those chosen to participate in the trial, which could start sometime in the middle of 2015, its organizers say that at this...

Three key officials of the Diocese of Phoenix, all confidants of Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien, will be replaced July 1, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted announced Tuesday. The departure of Monsignors Dale Fushek and Richard Moyer, and chancellor Sister Mary Ann Winters marks an almost complete change of administration from O'Brien's time as bishop. . . . O'Brien resigned in June after his arrest in connection with a hit-and-run accident. "I wanted to choose priests who are well known for their pastoral zeal, their prudential judgment, their sound doctrine, their ability to work collaboratively with a variety of persons, and their...