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Pope Benedict XVI, a little while back, said that: "Today we see in a truly terrifying way that the greatest persecution of the church does not come from outside enemies but is born of sin within the church." (See here). This truth is often downplayed by some when it is not forgotten altogether. In this week's Catholic Free Press, Father Daniel J. Becker (who to his credit acknowledges that "each one of us is a sinner, with particular faults and bad habits which darken our souls"), writes in an article entitled "Shine the light on evil": "The truth of today's...

In an editorial entitled, "Stop the erosion of religious liberty," The Catholic Free Press, official newspaper of the Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts, laments that, "The Obama administration has embarked on a systematic effort to erode religious liberty to the point of non-existenceby attempting to restrict it solely to freedom of worship. Through administrative policies and mandates, religious liberty and freedom of conscience in the United States is under attack, as witnessed by the most recent 'accommodation.'..The Obama administration has been chipping away at the right of religious institutions to abide by their beliefs when those beliefs oppose the secularist agenda,...

Bishop Armando X. Ochoa Fresno, Calif., Dec 1, 2011 / 01:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishop Armando X. Ochoa of El Paso, Texas was named today as the new bishop of Fresno, Calif. by Pope Benedict XVI.“I am humbled and deeply honored that the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, would offer me this new challenge at my age,” said Bishop Ochoa, who will fill a position left vacant by the death of Bishop John Steinbock in December 2010. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Vatican's recently appointed representative to the U.S., made the announcement in Washington D.C. on Dec. 1.Bishop Ochoa...

Featured Term (selected at random):INCARDINATION The canonical attachment of a cleric to a particular diocese, with correlative rights and duties under the local ordinary. At one time incardination took place when a seminarian for the diocesan priesthood received his first tonsure. Since the Second Vatican Council, with the elimination of minor orders and the subdiaconate, under Pope Paul VI, incardination takes place with the reception of the diaconate. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Bishop John D'Arcy has announced his retirement over the weekend. Bishop D'Arcy holds the priestly duties of the Fort Wayne/South Bend Diocese. At the Cathedral Of Immaculate Conception, parishioners will see the changing of the guard. The Bishop is retiring because of mandatory retirement age rules. He has served the diocese for 24 years as Bishop. John D'Arcy was born......

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has advised ethics officials to drop an investigation of whether a protest rally and other actions by the Diocese of Bridgeport constitutes lobbying, saying that the lobbying law is too broad and could violate freedom of religion in this instance. Blumenthal said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon that it's possible the church's activities fall under the lobby registration law — the diocese, for example, might have spent over the threshold of $2,000 booking buses to take parishioners to a rally at the Capitol in March to protest a bill that would have dramatically changed...

The State of the Catholic Church in America, Diocese by Diocese Feb/March, 2007 | Rev. Rodger Hunter-Hull and Steven Wagner

Print This E-mail Link Send Letter Send Correction Groton (AP) - Connecticut's Episcopal Diocese has filed a lawsuit against the leadership of the Bishop Seabury Church, demanding it turn over control of the church property after voting to leave the national church in a dispute over theology and the appointment of a gay bishop. The Rev. Ronald Gauss was suspended from Bishop Seabury on May 3, when the diocese appointed another priest, the Rev. David Cannon, to take over. Rev. Gauss and 12 former and current church leaders were served this week with the lawsuit, which was filed in Superior...

As the Catholic Diocese of Richmond sets out to develop its next five-year strategic plan, it faces the reality of more Catholics and fewer priests to serve them.This means some parishes could close or have to merge, said Beth Neu, director of pastoral planning. Clustering will become widespread in the future, she said."Nothing is off the table," she said.The number of priests in the diocese has declined 25 percent during the past 10 years, Neu said. And within the next five years, the diocese expects to lose 18 to 22 priests to retirement, diocesan spokesman Stephen Neill said.Those figures have...

Updated: 4/21/2007 9:16 PMBy: Web Staff The Catholic Diocese is facing hard times. Because of lack of resources, including money and clergy, Bishop James Moynihan said it's time for change. "We have to tailor our resources to fit what we do have, and at the same time, we want to meet the needs," Bishop Moynihan said.Discussion of how to address the problem began back in 1982. Now, a plan to close or merge churches across Central New York has been put in motion. On Saturday, Moynihan announced plans for the Eastern Region, which includes Oneida, Madison, and a small part...

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, New York, APRIL 5, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Bishop Emil Wcela, 75, and named Monsignor Peter Libasci to replace him as auxiliary bishop of Rockville Centre. Born Nov. 9, 1951, in Brooklyn, Peter Libasci earned a master's in divinity at St. Meinrad's Archabbey Seminary in Indiana. He was ordained for the Diocese of Rockville Centre in 1978. Father Libasci then earned a master's in theology and catechetics from St. John's University. Bishop Wcela had been appointed auxiliary bishop of Rockville Centre in 1988.

"In some ways, you can say we're not a dot on the map anymore," said Sister Linda Hogan, CSJ, of her experience with pastoral planning at St. Cecilia's Church in Warrensburg. "We have to connect the dots, to work together."After working together on a "consuming" five-year pastoral planning process that changed the face of a small North Country church, parishioners and planning teams at St. Cecilia's expect to use lessons culled from their own experience on a larger scale with the upcoming "Called to be Church" process."The whole thing was a miracle," said Sister Linda.Looking aheadOn the retirement of St....

National Catholic Reporter; 3/26/2004; Donovan, Gill While many families struggle to pay the rising cost of sending their children to Catholic schools, parishioners in one U.S. diocese don't worry about tuition--including the high cost of tuition for Catholic high schools. The children of active parishioners in the Wichita diocese attend Catholic schools tuition-free. A model of stewardship was initiated in Wichita diocese-wide in 1985 by Bishop Eugene Gerber (see "Wichita bishop took 'leap of faith' for stewardship." Parishioners embraced that model, which called for them to give generously of their time and their talents and to give as high a...

Perhaps nowhere in America has the transition from a church focused on social engagement and lay empowerment to one more concerned with Catholic identity and evangelization been more dramatic, or in some ways more wrenching, than in the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese since the appointment of Bishop Robert Finn.Finn has brought the diocese, for decades a model of the former category of church practice, to a screeching halt and sent it veering off in a new direction, leaving nationally heralded education programs and high-profile lay leaders and women religious with long experience abandoned and dismayed.The competing tensions in the...

Inland area Roman Catholic priests and churches will continue to serve undocumented immigrants even if federal laws require them to review a migrant's legal status before giving aid, Bishop Gerald Barnes said Monday. "I don't think we have a choice," said Barnes, leader of the million-member Inland diocese encompassing Riverside and San Bernardino counties. "What the gospel calls us to do is what we are going to have to do. And it calls us to be compassionate and to help those who are in the most need." Rancorous debate between federal lawmakers over immigration has spilled onto the streets in...

An Ecumenical Day focusing on justice for immigrants will draw U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback and local religious leaders from Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran and Presbyterian churches to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe on April 18. The large gathering that will begin at 9:30 a.m. and end at 4:30 p.m. will be open to the general public. Pre-registration is required by Monday. A Kansas Republican, Brownback joined Democrats as part of a bipartisan coalition on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voting recently to clear the way for 11 million illegal aliens to seek U.S. citizenship. The committee voted against...

Each time I walk into my parish church, I pass a plaque listing the names of all the families who donated money to help build the church. My parents’ names are on that plaque. To say they feel a sense of ownership and investment in the parish is putting it mildly.Perhaps that sense of ownership comes from our history. In colonial days, families did own churches. And in the 1800s, various ethnic groups were given control of parishes in order to ensure that their needs were being met. But times have changed, and, according to federal judges in the bankruptcy...

Who knows whether Cardinal Edward Egan is sleeping soundly these days. But as head of the New York archdiocese—as the top Roman Catholic prelate in the state—he'd have every reason to be restless after the recent advent of a little-noticed lawsuit. The suit, now pending in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, was filed on December 13 by Bob Hoatson—a 53-year-old New Jersey priest considered a stalwart ally among survivors of sexual abuse by clergy. Hoatson, the now-suspended chaplain for Catholic Charities in Newark, is suing Egan and nine other Catholic officials and institutions, claiming a pattern of "retaliation and harassment"...

According to a priest who does not identify himself as a Conservative, the formation program of the Diocese of Rockville Centre was in dire need of a deep overhaul.Every formation program in the diocese was handled for decades by the “Pastoral Formation Institute” or PFI, run until recently by Sister Lauren Hanley, CSJ, whose congregation has its Mother house at Brentwood, NY, in the same diocese. This is how our Priest, who has been a first-hand witness for years, describes the controversial program: “For years the PFI has been forming the laity of Rockville Centre in a mix of very liberal...

News from St. James Church FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE St. James ANGLICAN church, Newport Beach, withdraws lawsuit against episcopal diocese after court victory NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - January 26, 2006 - After a series of court victories ruling that the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and the national Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. had no right to confiscate its property, St. James Anglican Church, Newport Beach, today voluntarily withdrew a lawsuit it had filed against the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles in June 2005. The lawsuit alleged that the Diocese of Los Angeles breached a written promise made in 1991 that...