By John Stegeman The Catholic Telegraph  While certainly not a holy day and technically not even a holiday, Opening Day for the Cincinnati Reds is a big deal to the city of Cincinnati. Just as historic as the Reds and the games themselves is the Findlay Market Opening Day Parade, …

  By Francis X. Rocca Catholic News Service  VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis received U.S. President Barack Obama at the Vatican March 27. In what was their first encounter, the two leaders spoke in private for more than 50 minutes, an extraordinarily long time for such a meeting.

By Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — Oral arguments in two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court March 25 focused on whether for-profit corporations have religious grounds to object to the new health care law’s requirement that most employers provide contraceptive coverage in their employee health plans.

By John Stegeman The Catholic Telegraph  While 213 parishes were open for confession Tuesday, March 18, an exact count of penitents taking advantage of The Light is ON For You was not available. Still, many parishes reported long lines and many priests reported hearing from penitents who hadn’t been to …

By Francis X. Rocca Catholic News Service  VATICAN CITY — As leader of the universal church, a pope must direct his ministry in both of the ways traditionally described by the Latin terms “ad intra” and “ad extra”: inwardly to the church itself, and outwardly to the rest of the …

By John Stegeman The Catholic Telegraph One catechetical joke asks the question, “What is the difference between a sinner and a saint? The answer — confession. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “after having attained the age of discretion, each of the faithful is bound by an obligation …

By Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — In his first year as the 265th successor of Peter, Pope Francis “has brought to light new dimensions of the Petrine ministry and added new life to the office he holds,” the U.S. bishops’ Administrative Committee said March 11. He has done this in …

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service  ROME — Lent is meant to wake up Christians and help them see that God can give them the strength to change their lives and their surroundings, Pope Francis said. Before receiving and distributing ashes at an evening Mass March 5, Ash Wednesday, Pope …

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — When Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran walked onto the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, telling the crowds in Latin: “I announce to you a great joy. We have a pope!” not many people recognized the name of then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos …

Staff Report The 2014 Fish Fry guide, presented by The Catholic Telegraph is now available online HERE. Nearly 4,000 people visited the Fish Fry calendar in 2013, making it the third-most popular feature on www.thecatholictelegraph.com behind the Festival Guide and Mass Time Calendar.