The singer, actor and talk show host has been discussing his faith a lot lately, and he talks about it more with Sean Salai, S.J. of America:  You’re a practicing Catholic from an old New Orleans family. What makes you feel at home in the Catholic Church? I guess the familiarity, for one. It’s something I’ve been around all of my life. When I go to Mass, or have any feelings at all about the Catholic Church, it’s an area... Read more

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From The Wall Street Journal:  When Jillian and Christian MacNamara found out in early 2015 that they were having twin boys, they were thrilled. But at 24 weeks, an ultrasound showed that one twin, whom they named Frank, had a severe heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome. A series of three open-heart surgeries offered a chance of keeping him alive, but there was no way to know how healthy or severely impaired he might be. Without treatment, he probably... Read more

Pope Francis has caused a stir once again, with comments that indicate he’s open to considering ordaining more married men to be priests in the Latin rite. (Of course, our Eastern Catholic siblings have had married clergy for centuries.) A lot of people have interpreted that as meaning he might make celibacy optional—but the Holy Father said no such thing. Indeed, quite the opposite. He indicated that optional celibacy is “not a solution.” So what is he getting at? The initial... Read more

This is an instant classic. Watch what happens when this professor was interviewed by the BBC—and he had some unexpected visitors. https://www.facebook.com/TELEGRAPH.CO.UK/videos/10155399140189749/?autoplay_reason=gatekeeper&video_container_type=0&video_creator_product_type=2&app_id=2392950137&live_video_guests=0 Read more

The press release from the Archdiocese of Newark: Clergy leaders with Faith in New Jersey, a member of PICO National Network, the largest grassroots and faith-based organizing network in the nation, will gather for a second time in support of Catalino Guerrero, an undocumented immigrant facing deportation under the new administration. Following his check-in on February 8, ICE officials told Guerrero to report to the immigration office again on March 10 and be prepared to surrender his passport. Guerrero, a... Read more

From RNS:  Kyriaki Karidoyanes FitzGerald was an 18-year-old theology student when a priest at Hellenic College Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School in Brookline, Mass., thrust a book into her hands. To her surprise, it was on ancient female deacons. “The priest told me, ‘You’re going to translate these (books),’” FitzGerald recalled of the volumes by a prominent Orthodox theologian who studied the history of ordained women. FitzGerald, now a professor at Holy Cross, has carved a niche studying the role of women... Read more

Details:  Influential groups representing hospitals and nurses came out on Wednesday against the Republican bill, joining doctors and AARP, the association of middle-aged and older Americans, to warn that it would lead to a rise in the uninsured. In a letter to lawmakers, major hospital groups wrote, “As organizations that take care of every individual who walks through our doors, both due to our mission and our obligations under federal law, we are committed to ensuring health care coverage is... Read more

Details:  One person was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of breaking into a landmark Jerusalem church and trying to set it on fire earlier in the day, police said, noting that the incident did not appear to have been a religiously motivated attack. A guard at the Russian Orthodox Church of the Ascension on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives reported that the building had been broken into and damaged, apparently by a fire. Police confirmed that the door to the church entrance... Read more

It happened last summer in Idaho, and the boy appeared on television Tuesday to tell his story:  An 8-year-old boy was honored Thursday for saving his father’s life after a car they were working on fell and crushed the man’s body. J.T. Parker, his 17-year-old brother, Mason, and their father, Stephen Parker, were in the backyard of their home in Sugar City — about five miles northeast of Rexburg — when the accident happened July 30. J.T. immediately started to... Read more