Daily News Channel
The wall heading down to the basement in my parents’ house is covered with framed photos of friends and family members. Yet hanging right there in the midst of them, next to graduation portraits and vacation snapshots, is a photo of Bobby Kennedy. In that reverential treatment of the Kennedy clan, my parents were far from alone
Pope Benedict XVI’s trip this week to the United States will include high-profile visits to the White House, United Nations and Ground Zero. But no matter what political issues or media angles may be buzzing before take-off, the Vatican tends to stress the pastoral aspect of any papal journey. The six-day itinerary is above all stacked with church services, baseball stadium masses and Catholic institutional encounters to allow the pontiff to tend to his flock, and to the priests and bishops who do the ministering when he’s back in Rome
Religious groups in India have warned they will oppose any move to legalize homosexuality as the federal government prepares to hold talks on a law that classifies same-sex acts as crimes. India’s Hindu nationalist main opposition has in the meantime called for a national debate on the legislation that law minister M. Veerappa Moily last week said would come up for a discussion within the government.
The British government said Saturday was a "historic day" after two loyalist paramilitary groups announced they had completed the process of decommissioning their weapons. The Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando made the announcement Saturday, the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) said. A third loyalist group, the Ulster Defense Association, announced it had begun the process of decommissioning, according to the NIO, which is the British government department responsible for Northern Ireland affairs
Father Alberto Cutie, an internationally known Catholic priest who admitted having a romantic affair and breaking his vow of celibacy, was married this week in Miami, Florida. Cutie, 40, announced last month that he was leaving the Catholic Church and joining the Episcopal Church
As Supreme Court hopeful Sonia Sotomayor breaks ground for Hispanics, she is poised to add an exclamation point to another historic demographic shift: the move to a Catholic court. Sotomayor was raised Catholic and if she is confirmed, six out of nine, or two-thirds of the justices on the court will be from the faith. Catholics make up about one-quarter of the U.S
University of Notre Dame senior Emily Toates, like many in the Catholic faith, is angry over her school’s decision to give President Obama an honorary degree at this weekend’s commencement. She’s doing something about it: skipping the event. “I do not feel comfortable going and celebrating him as the university hands him an honorary degree — in a sense honoring his policies,” Toates said.
President Obama on Wednesday turned a flap over his commencement speech at Arizona State University into a joke — then a lesson about never being satisfied with one’s accomplishments. The university said last month that it would not be awarding Obama an honorary degree at the ceremony, saying that “his body of work is yet to come.” Saying he wanted to address “the little controversy everyone was talking about a few weeks back,” Obama said, “we all learned an important lesson.” “I learned to never again pick another team over the Sun Devils in my NCAA bracket,” he said, referring to the school’s basketball team. “It won’t happen again.” “President [Michael] Crow and the board of regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS,” he joked.
Three years ago, the film based on Dan Brown’s novel "The Da Vinci Code" was the focus of protest and controversy, with a Vatican archbishop calling for a boycott and Catholics at many levels refuting plot points. But when it comes to the new film based on a Brown novel, “Angels & Demons,” star Tom Hanks says talk of controversy is much ado about nothing
An internationally known Catholic priest who was shown in photographs last week embracing a bathing-suit-clad woman on a Florida beach has admitted they had a two-year affair.