By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The founder of the Little Sisters of the Poor, Blessed Jeanne Jugan, will be canonized in a ceremony at the Vatican on Oct. 11. This saint-to-be, who devoted her life to helping the elderly poor, is especially significant to the American faithful as we debate health care policies aimed at rationing care for seniors.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
In a statement to mark Respect Life Sunday, October 4, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia called attention to those who are most vulnerable in recent debates on health care reform – the unborn, the poor, the elderly and the immigrant – and called upon Catholics to “examine how well we, as a nation and individually, are living up to our obligation to protect the rights of those who, due to age, dependency, poverty or other circumstances, are at risk of their very lives."
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by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Researchers have found that being overweight at age 50 can cut a woman’s chance of being healthy in her golden years by almost 80 percent.
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by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The controversy surrounding the prosecution of 88 pro-life demonstrators who were arrested on the campus of Notre Dame (ND) last spring intensified when it was discovered that the judge assigned to the case is married to a prominent pro-abortion ND professor.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
In answer to criticism about the Church’s handling of the sex abuse scandal, the Vatican’s UN Observer, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, said the scandal involves homosexuality much more than pedophilia and that similar abuse is going on in other denominations at a much higher rate than in the Catholic Church.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
British health officials have called a temporary halt to a national vaccination program after a 14 year-old collapsed and died a few hours after receiving the controversial cervical cancer vaccine, Cervarix.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
At long last, the White House finally contacted a prominent pro-life Democrat who has been trying to speak with the president about stripping abortion funding from health care reform.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A secular humanist organization is sponsoring the first annual International Blasphemy Day on Sept. 30 as a “free speech event” in which participants are encouraged to blaspheme God and mock religion.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
A day before making an impassioned plea for families at the shrine of the Infant of Prague in Czechoslovakia, the Pope discussed the modern crisis of divorce, saying legal divorce seemed “bent on demolishing” the family.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
President Barack Obama’s declaration of Family Day for 2009 included an historic reference. For the first time in the nation’s history, it recognized same-sex parents.
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