By Catholic News Service WASHINGTON  — Two years after he was elected pope, Pope Francis’ popularity rating among U.S. Catholics is at 90 percent, surpassing Pope Benedict XVI’s best-ever popularity, and rivaling that of St. John Paul II. Pope Francis, who is scheduled to visit Washington, New York and Philadelphia …

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY  — Catholics need to reach out to “baptized non-Christians,” those who have forgotten or walked away from their faith, Pope Francis said. The pope met March 6 with about 7,000 members of the Neocatechumenal Way, which guides members in an itinerary of …

By Laura Ieraci Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY  — “Joy” is not a word people usually associate with strict fasting and penance — unless they are Eastern-rite Catholics. In the Eastern church, the penitential period that prepares believers to celebrate Easter, is called “Great Lent,” and its prayers invite the …

By Catholic News Service NEW YORK — Cardinal Edward M. Egan, who retired as archbishop of New York in 2009, died March 5. The cause of death was cardiac arrest. He was 82. After collapsing at his residence that afternoon, he was taken to NYU Langone Medical Center, where doctors …

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — When people trust in the world more than in God, their heart becomes numb and their eyes blind to those in need, Pope Francis said. “Worldliness transforms souls, it makes (people) lose touch with reality: They live in a fake world …

By Chaz Muth Catholic News Service NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Ryan Leahy of Chicago walked up to an employee on the snow-covered campus of the University of Notre Dame March 3 and asked her to take a photo of him and his family members in front of the school’s iconic …

Staff Report In the late 1950s, just as today, it wasn’t common to see a bishop in full clerical garb riding atop a bulldozer,  but it happened once. Pictured in today’s Throwback Thursday is Archbishop Karl J. Alter. On Jan. 4, 1959 he mounted a bulldozer for a photo op …

  By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is expected to canonize Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, during the world Synod of Bishops on the family in October. Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, leading …

Press release   With 2015 decreed as the Year of Consecrated Life by Pope Francis, University of Dayton Libraries is honoring the priests, sisters and brothers — the vowed religious — who devote their lives to serving God and humanity.   “Charism, Character and Calling,” on display through March 31 …

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Seeing the elderly only as a burden “is ugly. It’s a sin,” Pope Francis said at his weekly general audience. “We must reawaken our collective sense of gratitude, appreciation and hospitality, helping the elderly know they are a living part of …