Georgia Bulletin

Washington, DC

• Fifty years after Time cover story, rumors of God’s death still greatly exaggerated

  By MARK PATTISON, Catholic News Service
  Published March 17, 2016

  WASHINGTON (CNS)—It hit like the proverbial ton of bricks: the Time magazine cover story of April 8, 1966—Good Friday that year—asking, “Is God Dead?” The tenor of the times made it a plausible question. Less than three years earlier, the Supreme Court had ruled the mandatory recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in public schools unconstitutional. […] Full Story

• OLM alumna has White House experience

  Published March 17, 2016

  WASHINGTON—Our Lady of Mercy High School, Fayetteville, alumna Simone Cowan, class of 2015, spent March 8, International Women’s Day, at the White House with First Lady Michelle Obama, while celebrating the one-year anniversary of “Let Girls Learn.” In a Facebook post, Cowan reported traveling to the White House and receiving celebrity treatment. Afterward, there was […] Full Story

• Antonin Scalia, longest-serving justice on current Supreme Court, dies

  

  Published February 19, 2016

  WASHINGTON (CNS)—Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died of apparent natural causes Feb. 13 while in Texas on a hunting trip, once said in an interview that while he took his Catholic faith seriously, he never allowed it to influence his work on the high court. “I don’t think there’s any such thing as a […] Full Story

• Cardinal: Newborn in manger a positive sign of a culture of life

  By MARK PATTISON, Catholic News Service
  Published February 5, 2016

  WASHINGTON (CNS)—A baby in a manger is proof enough for Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York that Americans can express a culture of life. And it wasn’t the Christ child. Instead, it was a newborn infant left by his mother in the crib of a manger scene at a parish in the New York […] Full Story

• Our Lady of Guadalupe shouldn’t be viewed as just a Mexican tradition

  By CHAZ MUTH, Catholic News Service
  Published December 10, 2015

  WASHINGTON (CNS)—The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe has been a religious and cultural hallmark for Mexican Catholics for centuries, but the custom received little attention from Anglo Catholics in the U.S. before the last few decades. With the growing Latino population in the United States, the presence of Hispanics has steadily increased in Catholic […] Full Story

• Statements on pornography, politics take center stage at USCCB meeting

  

  By CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
  Published November 26, 2015

  BALTIMORE (CNS)—The U.S. bishops approved a formal statement on pornography and additions to their quadrennial statement on political responsibility at their Nov. 16-19 fall general meeting in Baltimore. The votes were made during the public portion of the meeting, which ran Nov. 16-17. The bishops met in executive session Nov. 18-19. ‘Faithful Citizenship’ document updated […] Full Story

• Cardinal, adviser to pope, sees rich, poor responsible to protect earth

  

  By DENNIS SADOWSKI, Catholic News Service
  Published November 26, 2015

  WASHINGTON (CNS)—People of developed nations share responsibility with the rest of the world to protect the earth from environmental destruction and assist poor communities in escaping poverty, a cardinal who is a chief adviser to the pope said. Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, coordinator of Pope Francis’ international nine-member Council of Cardinals, told reporters at […] Full Story

• Supreme Court will hear appeals in mandate cases for Catholic and other groups

  

  Published November 12, 2015

  WASHINGTON (CNS)—The U.S. Supreme Court justices said Nov. 6 they will hear seven pending appeals in lawsuits brought by several Catholic and other faith-based entities against the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate. The court will hear appeals from groups in Colorado, Maryland, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and the District of Columbia. Among the plaintiffs are […] Full Story

• At congressional hearing, stronger global response urged for Europe’s refugee crisis

  

  By CAROL ZIMMERMANN, Catholic News Service
  Published October 29, 2015

  WASHINGTON (CNS)—Lawmakers and witnesses in a congressional committee hearing room Oct. 20 were not shown pictures of the vast number of refugees crossing East European borders each day. But there is no shortage of images from daily news reports of the throngs of men, women and children walking along streets, open fields and train tracks […] Full Story

• Archbishop prays at Washington Red Mass that God guide those who administer justice

  

  By MAUREEN BOYLE, Catholic News Service
  Published October 7, 2015

  WASHINGTON (CNS)—The archbishop of Atlanta called on worshippers to invoke the Holy Spirit for guidance and support of people in the legal profession so that they may “reach greater wisdom” in administering justice. Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, speaking at the 63rd annual Red Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew in Washington Oct. 4, told […] Full Story

• Pope’s words strike Georgians as call to shake off apathy, take Gospel to heart

  By NICHOLE GOLDEN AND GRETCHEN KEISER, Staff Writers
  Published October 2, 2015

  ATLANTA—A Georgetown University student from metro Atlanta and those whose work for the archdiocese drew them to Washington to witness the historic papal events were thoughtful and hopeful about what they heard. Frank Mulcahy, executive director of the Georgia Catholic Conference, saw Pope Francis at the White House Sept. 23, where he was welcomed in […] Full Story

• Serrans’ prayers answered in missionary’s canonization

  By GRETCHEN KEISER, Staff Writer
  Published October 2, 2015

  WASHINGTON—Pat DeJarnett, who prayed for years that Padre Junipero Serra would be declared a saint, witnessed that canonization Sept. 23 among 25,000 people on the lawn around the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. “We have prayed so long for this, and it finally came. It was just incredible,” said DeJarnett, who leads the Office […] Full Story

• Bishop Hartmayer impacted by pope’s history lesson

  By ANDREW NELSON, Staff Writer
  Published October 2, 2015

  WASHINGTON—Savannah Bishop Gregory Hartmayer, OFM Conv., watched Pope Francis speak from the House of Representatives visitors’ gallery, to the left of the podium. He was given the ticket to the historic Sept. 24 address by his congressman, U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter. “As an American citizen and as an American bishop, I was extremely proud to […] Full Story

• Pope to Congress: Stop bickering, world needs your help

  

  By CINDY WOODEN, Catholic News Service
  Published September 24, 2015

  WASHINGTON (CNS)—The past, the promise and the potential of the United States must not be smothered by bickering and even hatred at a time when the U.S. people and indeed the world need a helping hand, Pope Francis told the U.S. Congress. Making history by being the first pope ever to address a joint meeting […] Full Story

• Pope canonizes Junipero Serra, says faith is alive only when shared

  

  By CINDY WOODEN, Catholic News Service
  Published September 24, 2015

  WASHINGTON (CNS) — Canonizing the 18th-century Spanish missionary, Blessed Junipero Serra, Pope Francis insisted a person’s faith is alive only when it is shared. Celebrating a late afternoon Mass outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Sept. 23, the pope declared the holiness of St. Junipero, founder of a string of […] Full Story

• For Latinos, shared parishes offer chance to shape church’s future

  

  By TOM TRACY, Catholic News Service
  Published September 4, 2015

  WASHINGTON (CNS)—In September, Latino Catholics from the Smoky Mountain towns of western North Carolina will descend on downtown Charlotte for a eucharistic procession of Catholic associations, ethnic traditions, Marian statues and prayer. There, on Sept. 12, the Smoky Mountain delegation will join thousands of other Catholics from North Carolina and South Carolina walking a morning […] Full Story

• Observers expect pope to affirm and challenge politicians during visit

  

  By TOM TRACY, Catholic News Service
  Published September 4, 2015

  WASHINGTON (CNS)—Flanked by Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker John Boehner—two high-profile Catholic politicians—the visual of Pope Francis’ Sept. 24 address to Congress will signal an evolving narrative. The improbability of a pope standing before a joint meeting of Congress comes in an era of wider acceptance of the Catholic faith as it intersects […] Full Story

• Cardinal urges senators to back measure to defund Planned Parenthood

  

  By Catholic News Service
  Published August 7, 2015

  WASHINGTON (CNS)—The head of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee Aug. 3 urged U.S. senators to take the federal money that goes to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and instead fund women’s health care providers that do not promote abortion. “It has long been troubling to many Americans that the nation’s largest abortion network, performing […] Full Story