By Rachel Hoover OSV News Among Catholics, the sacrament of matrimony is in freefall. Over 50 years between 1969 and 2019, Catholic marriages declined 69% even as the Catholic population increased by nearly 20 million, according to Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. In 2021, as U.S. Catholics largely emerged from the […]
Abduction
Missionary sister says God told her to remain ‘peacefully patient’ during captivity in Burkina Faso By Peter Finney Jr. OSV News NEW ORLEANS — Around Christmas in 2021, Marianite Sister Suellen Tennyson, then supervising her congregation’s medical clinic in Yalgo, Burkina Faso, in West Africa, received a text message from her nephew, James Downing, who […]
Effie Caldarola: The integrity of our modern Catholic heroes
FEELING IT Somewhere in Nicaragua, a Catholic bishop languishes in prison because of his outspoken opposition to the policies of an unjust government. Bishop Rolando Álvarez, a handsome and youthful 56-year-old, has been accused of “treason” and “undermining national integrity” by the Ortega regime. Earlier, 222 political prisoners, including priests, were released to the […]
Laura Kelly Fanucci: In Lent, to be companions
FAITH AT HOME Ask any teenager anxious about where they’ll sit in the cafeteria for lunch. Ask any widow or widower learning to cook for one. Ask a grandparent planning a holiday feast, a parent volunteering to host the team banquet, or anyone taking a head count for how many friends are staying for […]
Jenna Marie Cooper: What are miracles? Why are they needed to declare someone a saint?
QUESTION CORNER Q: A two-point question: It is common to hear, “It’s a miracle,” for a sports comeback victory. Does the church actually have a definition of a miracle? When it comes to canonization, miracles are required, aren’t they? Does a miracle happen in other domains except health and medicine? (Cape Girardeau, Missouri) A: […]
Suspect in shooting death of LA bishop charged with murder
By Angelus Staff OSV News LOS ANGELES — The suspect in the shooting death of Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop David G. O’Connell was formally charged with murder Feb. 22 after admitting to killing him. Bishop O’Connell was found dead of at least one gunshot wound to his upper torso in his home in the Los […]
American Catholics stand with Ukraine, one year after invasion
By Gina Christian OSV News Catholics throughout the U.S. are standing in solidarity with Ukraine, as that nation marks the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion. In a Feb. 22 statement, Bishop David J. Malloy of Rockford, Illinois, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, urged the faithful […]
Family martyrdom
Parents and their seven children, murdered by Nazis along with eight Jews they sheltered, will be beatified By Paulina Guzik OSV News KRAKOW, Poland — Urszula Niemczak keeps a regular schedule. At least twice a week she carefully checks whether winter decorations or fresh flowers growing in the summer on a historical gravesite of Józef […]
U.S. Catholics urged to aid, pray for quake victims in Turkey, Syria
By OSV News WASHINGTON — Reacting to “heartbreaking scenes” of death and destruction in Turkey and Syria, the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ international policy committee urged U.S. Catholics and all people of goodwill to pray for the victims of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked the two countries Feb. 6 and to give generously […]
Nicaragua bishop sentenced to 26 years, 4 months
Bishop Rolando Álvarez refuses to leave country when the regime deports 222 political prisoners to U.S. By David Agren OSV News MEXICO CITY — Nicaragua has released more than 200 political prisoners, including Catholic priests, students, and opponents of the regime, who were taken from detention in deplorable conditions and sent to the United States. […]