As more employers across the country are mandating that their workers be vaccinated against COVID-19, more employees are seeking an exemption to the requirement on religious grounds. In a new essay for Our Sunday Visitor, professor and lawyer Kenneth Craycraft responds to
Ashley Noronha, an American speaker and journalist who lives in Rome, says that while the outbreak of the coronavirus in Italy remains serious and the government-mandated quarantine is ongoing, Romans are doing their best to make the most of a bad situation,
Beyond the obvious challenges we all face in dealing with the pandemic, many households are experiencing real shock as the activities that used to fill our days suddenly come to a grinding halt. Schools are closed. People are working from home. Life
On March 19, the feast of St. Joseph, a 5-foot-tall monstrance stood on an altar outside the doors of St. Andrew Apostle School in Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside of Washington. That night, nearly 150 cars filled with people took part in
In response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Pope Francis said he will give an extraordinary blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world) at 6 p.m. Rome time March 27. The formal blessing -- usually given only immediately after a
Lent in the time of COVID-19 is connected to the suffering of Jesus Christ. It forces us to reexamine the practices we committed ourselves to, asking ourselves how these practices enable us to unite ourselves to the suffering of Our Lord and
While conferences and meetings can be postponed for months because of the coronavirus pandemic, the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter cannot, with the exception of the chrism Mass, said the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments. "By the mandate of
Teresa Tomeo writes about Pope Francis’s message that Lent is a time to disconnect from the cell phones and connect to the Gospel and how families can use this time during the coronavirus pandemic to reconnect and turn from the “verbal violence.”
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, pastors at parishes across the United States are facing the financial stress of having Masses canceled, which means regular collections have stopped. Without the Sunday collection basket, their parishes will soon not have enough money to pay the
In places particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic and with severe limits on people leaving their homes, conditions may exist to grant general absolution to the faithful without them personally confessing their sins first, the Vatican said. The Apostolic Penitentiary, a
The world is experiencing a historic challenge in the face of the global pandemic. Not only are people concerned both for their own health and the health of their loved ones, but the restrictions on normal activities and the economic repercussions of