A winning streak for religion at SCOTUS (The New York Times) “For many today, religious liberty is not a cherished freedom,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. told the Federalist Society, the conservative legal group, in November. “It pains me to say this, but, in certain quarters, religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right.” Those quarters do not include the Supreme Court, which has become far more likely to rule in favor of religious rights in recent years, according to a new study that considered 70 years of data. The study, to be published in The Supreme Court Review, documented a 35-percentage-point increase in the rate of rulings in favor of religion in orally argued cases, culminating in an 81 percent success rate in the court led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr…
Full text: Pope’s Urbi et Orbi Easter message (CNA) On Easter Sunday 2021, Pope Francis offered Mass at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica. Afterward, he gave the Urbi et Orbi message and blessing. The following is the full text of the pope’s Easter message…
Cardinal: “What is not essential must be reformed, must change” (CNS) Three days after the preacher of the papal household called on Catholics to repent for the ways they are dividing the church, the Vatican secretary of state said the divisions are real and they are harmful…
9/11 Museum acquires prayer bench used by Father Mychal Judge (AP) A prayer bench used by Father Mychal Judge, a Fire Department chaplain killed in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001, was driven to the New York area on Sunday to join the collection of the Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, museum officials said. The bench formerly belonged to Judge’s twin sister, Dympnia Jessich, and spent the last five years at an Episcopal monastery in Rising Sun, Maryland, according to Sister Teresa Irene, a Carmelite nun there…
Tampa Bay player credits success to Catholic upbringing (CNS) Mike Brosseau is pleased to have earned a career in the big leagues and credits his Catholic education for inspiring his faith and helping him with life skills. “I think a big thing that I learned throughout Catholic school was how to be disciplined,” Brosseau explained. “That carries through in time discipline, moral discipline and all those different avenues…”
