WASHINGTON (CNA)—At a summit this past weekend in Washington, D.C., Cardinal Donald Wuerl encouraged theologians involved in re-evangelizing formerly Christian areas to be “rooted authentically in the Good News.”

“The saving message of the Gospel finds its home in the Church,” he said at a Sept. 17 Mass that concluded the symposium on the “Intellectual Tasks of the New Evangelization.”

The symposium, which was held Sept. 15-17 at the Washington Court Hotel, featured several episcopal and academic speakers who reflected on how to present the Gospel in a modern university setting. The gathering was designed for non-tenured theology and religious-studies professors who have received their...READ MORE

WASHINGTON — This fall, 459 low-income students enrolled at Catholic schools in Washington, D.C., courtesy of a program spearheaded by the Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner.

Last January, Boehner, R-Ohio, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, introduced legislation to restore the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which Democrats eliminated in 2009.

The Scholarship for Opportunity and Results Act (SOAR), which authorized scholarships of up to $8,000 a year for elementary-school students and up to $12,000 for high-school students, passed during a midnight vote this April.

With the start of the 2011-2012 academic year, four inner-city parochial...READ MORE

MANCHESTER, N.H. (EWTN News/CNA)—Catholics in New Hampshire received a new bishop from Pope Benedict XVI on Sept. 19. Auxiliary Bishop Peter Libasci of Rockville Centre, N.Y., will serve as the 10th bishop of Manchester, N.H.

“I am grateful to Almighty God who has brought me into being, to my parents who gave me life, and to my family, friends and my holy Catholic Church—all of who have sustained me to this very hour,” said Bishop Libasci on Sept. 19. 

“These include Bishop William Murphy, my diocesan bishop in Rockville Centre, my brother priests and deacons and all the lay faithful I was privileged to serve as priest and bishop in that diocese since my priestly ordination in 1978.”

Not Bigotry: Public Displays of Homosexual Affection Should be Illegal - Fr. Ryan Erlenbush, New Theological Movement

SSPX: “Copernican Revolution”? Not! - Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, What Does The Prayer Really Say?

What Marriage Radicals Really Think of “The People” – Jennifer Roback Morse, MercatorNet

Of Bishops and Holy Boldness - Diane M. Korzeniewski OCDS , Te Deum Laudamus!

Perpetuation of a Lie: “Same-Sex Marriage” – The Ordinary Catholic, Peter’s Barque

SSPX could be Offered Personal Prelature Status - David Kerr, CNA/EWTN News

Vatican Gives SSPX Doctrinal Statement to Sign - Cindy Wooden, Catholic Herald

Marriage & Shame - Brent Stubbs, VirtuousPla.net

Granite Gets Rock: Long...READ MORE

Sept. 14 was the 30th anniversary of Laborem Exercens (On Human Work) by Blessed John Paul II. The 1981 encyclical marked 90 years since Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, which started the Church’s modern social teaching. It was also a public sign of support for the Solidarity Movement in the Pope’s homeland of Poland.

Perhaps more importantly, though, the Holy Father offers a spirituality of labor along with a philosophical meditation on the meaning of work, a spirituality that unites the feast of the Triumph of the Cross on which it was promulgated with our own daily embrace of the personal cross.

With this teaching, Blessed Pope John Paul II gives all who labor for their bread a chance...READ MORE

CASTEL GANDOLFO (CNA/EWTN News)—Pope Benedict XVI called upon all Catholics Sept. 18 to participate in a New Evangelization of the world.

“Today’s liturgy reminds us that we are all called to work in the vineyard of the Lord,” he told pilgrims gathered to pray the midday Angelus at his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome.

“He has given us diverse gifts, has assigned diverse tasks and determined diverse times for their performance. However, if we assume the work of our life with full dedication, we can expect the same pay: the joy of eternal participation in the goodness of the Lord,” he said.

The Pope based his comments on the Gospel reading in which Jesus recounts the...READ MORE

BANGKOK — Weeks after the arrest and jailing of 12 Catholics in Vietnam for allegedly “attempting to overthrow the government,” it has emerged that American officials believe that Catholics who disagree with the communist regime are being “thrown under the popemobile.”

The colorful image headlined one of a tranche of recently leaked diplomatic cables from the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi. According to the same document, dated Nov. 25, 2009, then-Holy See under secretary for Relations With States Archbishop Pietro Parolin (now the Holy See representative in Venezuela) “sharply criticized” former Hanoi Archbishop Ngo Quang Kiet over his handling of land-rights disputes with city officials —...READ MORE

Catholic Orthodoxy is Not Bigotry: Response to Attacks on Catholic Blogger - Msgr. Charles Pope, Archdiocese of Washington

Arguments for Tolerance of Homosexuality Work Equally Well for Pedophilia - Michael Cook, MercatorNet

Homosexual Propaganda Against the Church - Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, What Does The Prayer Really Say?

Peter Kreeft on Seeing Pro-Life Bishops Tossed in Jail - Dr. Ed Peters, In the Light of the Law

What if Jesus Had Not Died on the Cross? - Carl Olson, Insight Scoop

The Sacraments - Peter Kreeft, Ignatius Insight

Le Chiese Delle Cittá: La Basilica Di Sant’Eustgachio - Nathaniel Gotcher, VirtuousPla.net

When “Having” is Pursued over “Being” - Deacon Mike Bickerstaff,...READ MORE