If Peter Lorenzi believed in omens, he stared one in the face May 11 at The Johns Hopkins Hospital as he read the admitting clerk’s nametag, “Destiny.” As Lorenzi faced a full day of medical tests to potentially donate a kidney to his best friend’s brother, he hadn’t yet realized that “destiny” was undeniably playing...Read More

WASHINGTON – After President Barack Obama signed the Budget Control Act Aug. 2 to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, a collective sigh of tentative relief was immediately followed by plenty of speculation and analysis of what the country should do next.Read More

VATICAN CITY – In the final stage of the apostolic visitation of U.S. women’s religious communities, the Vatican congregation overseeing the study not only is facing mountains of paper, but must try to rebuild a relationship of trust with the women, said the congregation’s secretary.Read More

WASHINGTON – There’s a lot of praying for rain going on in the drought-gripped Southwest, but those prayers have yet to be answered.Read More

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – In the wake of the revolution that toppled Egypt’s authoritarian government last winter, the country’s Christians remain fearful, yet hopeful, said Cardinal Antonios Naguib, patriarch of the Coptic Catholic Church.Read More

VATICAN CITY – Protests planned against Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Madrid Aug. 18-21 are “not worrying or surprising” to the Vatican, particularly because “there are hundreds of thousands of young people who will be happy to welcome the pope,” the Vatican spokesman said.Read More

VATICAN CITY – While the Catholic Church seeks to help earthlings reach their true home in heaven, too often it treats its younger members as if they were from another planet, a top Vatican official said.Read More

The ongoing drought and famine afflicting Somalia and other East African nations is “a humanitarian crisis that cries out for help to Christians throughout the world,” said the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the chairman of the board of Catholic Relief Services in a joint statement.Read More