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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — After she made her First Communion as a little girl, Jennifer Haselberger was distraught to learn the Catholic church had no saint Jennifer, and she had no saint to call her own. So her mom opened up a book and pointed to Joan of Arc. "There. That's yours," she said. Years later, Haselberger is in a fight of her own after going public with claims that archdiocese leaders in St. Paul mishandled allegations of clergy sexual misconduct. Turns out, Haselberger may have borrowed a little bravery from the headstrong French heroine she has long admired....

The rights to explore Brazil's biggest oilfield have been won at an auction by a consortium led by Brazil's state-run Petrobras, backed by Total, Shell and Chinese firms. The group made the only bid in the auction, offering the minimum share of the surplus production. The Rio de Janeiro beachfront hotel, where the auction took place, was guarded by 1,100 security personnel. Earlier, striking oil workers opposed to the contest clashed with police. Eleven companies had expressed interest in the Libra oilfield, but the Spanish Repsol pulled out on Monday, leaving the five winners as the only ones to present...

The USCCB has announced the 10 candidates for presidency and vice presidency of the conference. The president is elected from these 10 nominees, and the vice president is elected from the remaining nine. Here are the candidates: - Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans - Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap., of Philadelphia - Bishop Blase Cupich of Spokane, Wash. - Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston - Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles - Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Ky. - Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore - Archbishop Dennis Schnurr of Cincinnati - Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit - Archbishop Thomas...

Big, small, short, tall, male and female, all mammals pee for an average of 21 seconds, according to researchers. In what is being called the "law of urination," researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology say that mammals empty their bladders at about the same rate as one another. How did they determine this? By watching endless videos of animals peeing - on YouTube. Though 21 seconds is the average time it takes an animal to pee, each mammal they studied/watched relieve themselves on YouTube had certain interesting characteristics. For instance, dogs hold about one liter (33 oz) of urine...

Trenton, N.J. - Jesus was the "divine immigrant" who lived his life "traveling from place to place," Bishop David O'Connell of Trenton told the congregation at a midday "Justice for Immigrants" Mass Oct. 11 at St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral. "Sacred Scripture tell us where he was from and what his ancestral lineage was," the bishop said in his homily. "But nowhere in the Bible do we find his permanent address, the location of his house, where he lived after beginning his public ministry. "He lived and worked as an immigrant, an itinerant preacher, on many levels," the bishop...

WASHINGTON,DC (Catholic Online) - Labels in politics and religion serve a purpose: There are discernible groups and coalitions within and between the worlds of the Church and government. Words used as labels serve the purpose of enabling us to distinguish between one group and the other. But I don't want to be called a "Conservative Catholic" anymore. In the last few months, I've read two headlines beginning with the phrase "Conservative Catholic" which contained comments that have effectively made the label, if not meaningless, represent a group of Catholics who are now spreading the virus of an identity crisis....

SHAKEN, if not humbled by the destruction of old Catholic churches in the provinces of Cebu and Bohol after a powerful 7.2 quake hit Central Visayas last Tuesday, Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle on Friday apologized for the sins of the Church against non-Catholics and even the poor. Tagle made his apology on the last day of the Philippine Conference on New Evangelization (PCNE) at the University of Santo Tomas, a 3-day event that sought to rekindle the Catholic faith. “In memory of Blessed Pope John Paul II and his collaborators before the year 2000, including Pope Emeritus Benedict...

There are believed to be as many as 1,000 armed opposition groups in Syria, commanding an estimated 100,000 fighters. Many of the groups are small and operate on a local level, but a number have emerged as powerful forces with affiliates across the country or formed alliances with other groups that share a similar agenda. The BBC News website looks at the most prominent. Big snip

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet Pope Francis and US Secretary of State John Kerry in Italy next week. Netanyahu will meet Francis in the Vatican Wednesday, ahead of the pontiff’s expected visit to Israel next year. In Rome, the prime minister will meet with Kerry to discuss the current nuclear negotiations between six world powers on Iran, and the peace process with the Palestinians, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. The first round of renewed nuclear negotiations between the so-called P5+1 powers and the Islamic Republic concluded Wednesday with cautious optimism from both sides....

A group of Syrian clerics have issued a ruling - or fatwa - allowing people living in besieged suburbs of Damascus to eat meat that is normally forbidden. In a video, the Muslim clerics said people could eat cats, dogs and donkeys to stave off hunger. The fatwa comes amid reports of starvation in the besieged, rebel-held Damascus suburb of Muadhamiya. Aid agencies have urged the government to allow humanitarian supplies to the area, where many residents are trapped. Hundreds of civilians, some carried on stretchers, were able to flee Muadhamiya at the weekend following a temporary ceasefire. 'Absurd situation'...

As U.S. politicians of both political parties are still shuffling back and forth between the White House and the Capitol Hill without striking a viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world. Emerging from the bloodshed of the Second World War as the world's most powerful nation, the United States has since then been trying to build a global empire by imposing a postwar world order, fueling recovery in Europe, and encouraging regime-change in nations that it deems hardly...

A court in Malaysia ruled on Monday that a Catholic newspaper could not refer to God as "Allah," in a case that has spanned three years. The Herald argued in 2009 that the government ban on the use of "Allah" - the Arabic world for God - was unconstitutional. The challenge to the government's decree was upheld by a court that year and the ban was lifted pending a judicial review. The removal sparked a series of attacks on Christian places of worship in an unusual display of religious tension in the multi-faith country. The review, presided over by a...

In 2004, the Army decided to scrap the two traditional camouflage uniforms that had long been used by the military—one meant for woodland environments, another for the desert—and claimed to have come up with a universal pattern that could be worn anywhere and blend in with any environment. The $5 billion dollar experiment with the universal pattern is over as the Army is phasing out the uniform after less than a decade of use. But many soldiers and observers are wondering why it took this long and cost this much to replace an item that performed poorly from the start...

(Vatican Radio) Thousands of pilgrims were in Saint Peter’s Square Saturday evening to join Pope Francis in venerating the original statue of Our Lady of Fatima. The statue made its journey to Rome as the celebrations for the Feast of Our Lady Fatima, which is October 13. Pope Francis will preside over Mass on Sunday morning, and the recitation of the Rosary before the statue. He will then consecrate the world to Mary’s Immaculate Heart. During the evening’s event, the Pope welcomed the statue, which was processed through Saint Peter’s Square, and led the faithful in reciting the Seven Sorrows...

NOBLE Energy, operators of the Block 12 offshore licence, has reportedly renewed a proposal for piping gas from the Aphrodite well for the purpose of domestic electricity generation. Daily Politis writes that the Houston-based energy company has quoted a delivery price of $9 or $10 per million btus (mmbtu). That’s significantly lower than the price offered by Itera during the ‘interim gas’ tender procedure. Itera’s offer is understood to have been around $15.5 per mmbtu. Politis said the cost of electricity generation – and thus the price of electricity to end-consumers – could on paper drop by 15 to 20...

(Vatican Radio) The death of several hundred migrants off the Italian island of Lampedusa this month has focused international spotlight on the broader, complex questions of EU policies regarding immigration and integration. According to one American Muslim leader, the United States model of integration has much to teach European countries at the present time. Syrian-born Imam Mohamad Bashar Arafat is founder and president of the Civilizations Exchange and Cooperation Foundation, which is based in Baltimore, in the United States. The organisation works to promote cooperation, rather than confrontation, between young people of different religions, cultures and backgrounds. He spoke to...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis, like Islam's Sufi mystic theologians and poets, "is trying to do good for the sake of the Good One, motivated by love and compassion," said the president of the Islamic Affairs Council of Maryland. Mohamad Bashar Arafat, a Syrian who has lived in the United States for more than 20 years, was visiting the Vatican and speaking to groups in Rome in early October as a guest of the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See as part of the U.S. State Department's international speakers program. In an interview with Catholic News Service, Arafat said...

Bishop Andrej Glavan of Novo Mesto, the president of the Slovenian Bishops’ Conference, participated in the laying of the foundation stone for the nation’s first mosque on September 14, according to a statement from the conference. Bishop Glavan called the mosque a “symbol of the opening of the Slovenian society, but also a symbol of commitment to future generations to live in dialogue, mutual respect and friendship.” The bishop “also expressed the desire that Christians in the Muslim world could enjoy the same mode of religious liberty,” according to the conference. The nation’s bishops have found in Slovenia’s leading Muslim...

Never before in the history of Christian-Jewish relations have a Pope and a Rabbi celebrated their friendship by living in the Vatican together for several days, sharing all meals, including on two Jewish festivals and the Sabbath at which the Rabbi said prayers in Hebrew, and discussing what more they can do together to promote dialogue and peace in the world. That is what actually happened over the past four days at the Vatican guesthouse (Santa Marta) where Pope Francis lives and where his friend from Buenos Aires, Rabbi Abraham Skorka, has been his guest from September 25 to this...

(Vatican Radio) The following is a joint statement of the Bilateral Commission of the Holy See and the State of Palestine at the conclusion of their plenary meeting on 26th September 2013. "On 26 September 2013, the Bilateral Commission of the Holy See and the State of Palestine, which is working on a Global Agreement following on the Basic Agreement, which was signed on 15 February 2000, held a Plenary Session in the Vatican to acknowledge the work done at an informal level by the joint technical group following the last official meeting held in Ramallah at the Ministry of...