MEXICO CITY — The Vatican's culture minister says Mexico's folk Death Saint is a blasphemous symbol that shouldn't be part of any religion. Car...
By David Gibson Religion News Service (RNS) Reports this week that the late Pope John Paul II may be on the verge of sainthood after a second mir...
The confluence of theological concerns, religious competition, new Latin American influence at the Vatican and media coverage have resulted in Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi's condemnation of the cult of Santa Muerte as the embodiment of Latin America's "culture of death."
A top Salvadoran church official says the elevation of Cardinal José Maria Bergoglio to Pope Francis could advance the plodding campaign for sainthood for Msgr. Oscar Arnulfo Romero, an outspoken peace advocate and possibly the country's most revered figure, assassinated for his views on March 24, 1980.
Clare, Lady Poverty has found a home in your simplicity. May you be held and protected in your golden silence. May your meditation touch the world. Mother Church needs you!
Although he did not specifically say so, the assumption is that the new pope chose this name in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, who was renowned for his austere life, his love of nature and his fierce dedication to the poor. It is possible, however, that another Francis was the model he had in mind.
Amid the fanfare and elation on this Saint Patrick's Day, we would be wise to honor the patron saint of Ireland by also adhering to his moral teachings and by personifying his exemplary character.
As the good Pope exits the world stage, we hope he finds peace and we pray that the cardinals listen to "The Woman" Director and do whatever Jesus tells them. Stay tuned for the next act.
From animal attacks to anorexia, magic spells to mental illness, insomnia to insecurity, obsession to oversleeping, slander to sexual temptation, the saints have got your back, and are always there for you to talk to.
Today, imperially minded politicians, egged on by religious conservatives, are denying American citizens their basic right to marriage. Although claiming to be informed by God, they are simply using God as a patsy to support their own agenda of discrimination and prejudice.
It is ironic that one of the more popular holidays in America is named for a saint about whom very little is known -- who, in fact, is of questionable historical provenance.
Let's hope that as the cult of the controversial skeleton saint continues to grow on this side of the border, we uphold our own cherished tradition of religious freedom.
Despite his worldwide fame and popularity among children of all ages, Saint Nicholas is one of history's more elusive characters.
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Paul VI, who guided the Catholic Church through a tumultuous period of change in the 1960s and 70s, took a crucial first step ...
Leader of the Catholic Worker movement, Dorothy Day was a realist and she knew that people reflexively regard saints as plaster-cast paragons of perfection. But Dorothy Day also loved the saints, venerated the saints, and wrote more than once that "we are all called to be saints."
Indeed, the more you know about the actual lives of the saints, the more it strikes you as bizarre that so many statues, paintings and mosaics of the saints show them as unsmiling men and women.
New Yorkers may seem hardened and cynical, but they can still take notice of miracles within their borders. Hence, their pride in having two new saints to their claim.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (RNS) Sister Kateri Mitchell was born and raised on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation along the St. Lawrence River. She grew up hearing ...
The Catholic Church offers a patron saint for every conceivable cause: for alcoholics, and archeologists; for protection against breast cancer or mice. But why, given the array of mothers who have been declared saints, is the patron saint of pregnant women a man and a virgin?
The current anti-woman pope has declared Hildegard, a nature-based mystic and a fighter for justice inside and outside the church, a herald of the Divine Feminine to a patriarchal world and church, a Doctor of the Church. Do we have the courage to listen to her?
KALAUPAPA, Hawaii (RNS) At 81, Barbara Marks is among the last 17 leprosy patients Hawaii banished to the remote peninsula of Kalaupapa. Over more tha...
(RNS) Fifty years after Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council that revolutionized the Catholic Church, will the jolly man known as the "...
ASSISI, Italy (RNS) When some 550 religious and humanitarian leaders gathered in this Umbrian hill town last month to promote the causes of love and f...
(RNS) On September 5, 1997, the world mourned when Mother Teresa, whose work with the poorest of the poor made her a global icon, died of a heart ailm...
Saints are supposed to have names like Aloysius, Xavier and Francis. They're supposed to be engraved in stone, depicted in colorful stained-glass. But during her lifetime, Pauli Murray never really cared about the way things were "supposed" to be.
