OSV News

The Catholic community in Newtown gathered in-person and virtually Dec. 14 to remember the 20 students and six staff members killed eight years ago at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

The “gravity” of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and “the lack of availability of alternative vaccines,” are “sufficiently serious” reasons to accept the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the chairmen of the U.S. bishops’ doctrine and pro-life committees said Dec. 14.

The Vatican health service will begin vaccinating employees and Vatican citizens against COVID-19 using the Pfizer vaccine, the director of the Vatican health service told Vatican News.

Reflecting on crises still unfolding in Syria and Iraq, Pope Francis encouraged every effort, big or small, to help foster peace there and help Christians remain.

The newest employee at Christ the Teacher Catholic School is a boss’s dream. All he requires are a bed in his office, a few trips outside during the day, and some scratching behind the ears.

INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) — The pilgrims rode in a boat across choppy waves on the Sea of Galilee with wind gusting and rain blowing into their boat. A greater storm was churning in the hearts and minds of the pilgrims and the priest who was leading them in their journey of faith through the Holy Land in November 2019.

Msgr. Paul Koetter, at the time pastor of Holy Spirit Parish in Indianapolis, was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a degenerative nerve disorder commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Barring any obstacles caused by the global pandemic, Pope Francis is set to begin international travel again in 2021 by visiting Iraq in March, which would make him the first pope to visit this nation.