Blessed Are the Persecuted:
Catechesis on Persecution
By the Successor of Peter
ROME, April 23, 2012 – Benedict XVI explains how to respond to the persecutions that are still hitting Christians today. In the same way as the apostles. Without fear, without revenge. With freedom, courage, prayer.

America Needs Religious Awakening,
Supreme Knight Says
WASHINGTON, DC, April 20, 2012  -- The leader of the Knights of Columbus called for strong Catholic witnesses to defend religious liberty before a gathering of roughly 1000 members of the faith in Washington, D.C.

US Bishops Say New Evangelization
Requires Lives of Witness
WASHINGTON, DC, April 17, 2012 -- In response to Blessed John Paul II's call to evangelize formerly Christian societies, the Church must build a “culture of witness,” said representatives of the U.S. bishops in a new document.

Bishops Launch
Religious Liberty Campaign
Prayer, Fasting and Public Action
Government Abuses Listed
WASHINGTON, DC, April 12, 2012 -- The U.S. bishops have issued a statement alerting American Catholics that they are obligated to disobey unjust laws that infringe upon their fundamental liberties by forcing them to violate the core of their beliefs.

JPII Friend Defends Cardinal Schönborn in
Homosexual Parish Council Flap
VIENNA, AUSTRIA, April 13, 2012 -- An Italian politician and papal consultant has defended Viennese Cardinal Christoph Schönborn's choice to reinstate an Austrian parish council member living in a homosexual partnership.

Conn. Catholic Conference
Praises Repeal of Death Penalty
HARTFORD, CT, April 13, 2012  -- The Connecticut legislature’s passage of a bill to abolish the death penalty is “a wonderful step in the right direction,” says Michael C. Culhane, director of the state's Catholic conference.

Benedict XVI's Message for Lent Calls us to Concern for Others
We Answer by Evangelizing the Culture
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, April 5, 2012 -- Pope Benedict XVI's Lenten message to the world offers us an important reflection toward the imperative of building a marriage culture. In Stand with Children, we are focusing on what we are for and why, rather than what we are against. He drew on Hebrews 10:24, "Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works."

Bishops Say New Mandate Proposals
Fail to Solve Problems
WASHINGTON, DC, April 4, 2012 -- The U.S. bishops said that the government’s latest recommendations on its federal contraception mandate fail to address religious freedom concerns.

We Cannot Give Scorpions
SAN FRANCISCO, April 3, 2012 -- From March 29 to 31 the Christus Medicus Foundation and the Life Legal Defense Fund presented Make Straight the Pathway: An Integrated and Unified Solution for Catholic Healthcare Reform. The conference was co-sponsored by the dioceses of Oakland and Santa Rosa and the archdiocese of San Francisco and was held at St. Mary’s Cathedral and the Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco.

UN Women's Commission
Rejects Expansion of 'Reproductive Rights'
NEW YORK, NY, April 3, 2012 -- Amid controversy over the “rights” to contraception and abortion, the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women concluded its 56th annual meeting without reaching the necessary agreement for a concluding document.

Religious Education for
The New Evangelization
LOS ANGELES, March 23, 2012 -- In anticipation of the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez offered an important teaching regarding religous education and catechesis for the New Evangelization. It is a helpful instruction as the laity continues to contemplate what is the New Evangelization and how are we called to evangelize.

Dawkins at 'Reason Rally'
Calls for Mockery of Catholics
WASHINGTON, DC, March 27, 2012  -- At the March 24 “Reason Rally” in Washington, D.C., an estimated 20,000 atheists and agnostics heard author and activist Richard Dawkins encourage mockery of Catholic beliefs and those of other religions.

Its the Person, Not Just the Principle
Response to HHS Mandate
"We Will Do No Harm!" 
HHS REGIONAL OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, March 23, 2012 – “The First Amendment is supposed to protect us from the tyranny of government forcing us to violate our consciences ... But it is important to remember, the reason we don’t want to violate our consciences is not just a matter of principle, but a matter of not wanting to do what we know will cause harm to other people,” said Catholics for the Common Good President William B. May speaking to the local Stand Up For Religious Freedom Rally.

Homily to the Papal Household:
Enter into the Mystery of the Trinity,
The Mystery of Love
VATICAN, March 15, 2012 -- In our days, it is particularly relevant to “revisit the Fathers of the Church, not only to understand the content of the Faith in its earliest form, but even more, to rediscover the vital unity between faith as it is professed, and faith as it is lived – between the thing itself, and its enunciation.”