From The Washington Post: Finn Laursen believes millions of American children are no longer learning right from wrong, in part because public schools have been stripped of religion. To repair that frayed moral fabric, Laursen and his colleagues want to bring the light of Jesus Christ into public school classrooms across the country — and they are training teachers to do just that. The Christian Educators Association International, an organization that sees the nation’s public schools as “the largest single... Read more

Heartbreaking:  Fr. Virgilio Elizondo, one of San Antonio’s most accomplished and beloved Catholic priests whose work brought him recognition in Latin America and Europe and an esteemed faculty position at the University of Notre Dame, reportedly died of a self-inflicted gunshot at his home Monday afternoon, according to sources in the Catholic community. Friends spoke of being devastated and in disbelief as the news made its way through Elizondo’s large circle in the city. Elizondo, 80, a Westside native and... Read more

Details:  Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a nun who dedicated her life to helping the poor, will be made a saint of the Roman Catholic Church at a ceremony on Sept. 4, Pope Francis announced on Tuesday. Last December, he cleared the way for sainthood for the Nobel peace laureate, who died in 1997 at the age of 87 and was known as “saint of the gutters”. Teresa, who was born Agnese Gonxha Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents in 1910 in what... Read more

From the Catholic Herald in the U.K.: Over the weekend, my attention was drawn to a news item from two years ago: a 2014 LifeSiteNews interview with Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth. In it, he suggested that “people [who] are not in communion with the Catholic Church” on core teachings – he specifically cites here politicians voting in favour of abortion or same-sex marriage – “shouldn’t be receiving Holy Communion”. In such cases, moreover, actively denying Communion would be “an... Read more

My take:  Those of us who are devoted followers of “The Walking Dead” couldn’t help but be struck by a powerful image and plot device in Sunday’s episode: a rosary, clutched in the fingers of Carol, who must surely have felt the end was near and who really did have a lot to pray about. I won’t go in to the circumstances surrounding this sudden influx of prayer on the show—but it’s certainly not the first time (and I suspect it won’t... Read more

From Vatican Radio:  Pope Francis offered lunch to the friends of a homeless man, following his funeral Mass celebrated at the Roman church of Santa Maria in Traspontina, just down the street from St. Peter’s Square on the Via della Conciliazione. The luncheon was held at the Jesuit-run “Gift of Mercy” house in the nearby Via dei Penitenzieri. The Director of the Press Office of the Holy See identified the deceased as a  57 year-old named Boris, who was of Polish... Read more

From Vatican Radio: The Archdiocese of Kampala in Uganda has announced the institution of Munyonyo Martyrs Shrine as a full Catholic parish in honour of Pope Francis’ visit last year. Pope Francis visited Munyonyo, the location where the Uganda martyrs started their journey towards the place of execution at Namugongo. When he visited Munyonyo, Pope Francis blessed the cornerstone for a new Church. He also met catechists and teachers of the country. The creation of Munyonyo as a parish was... Read more