NEWS

Growing up Protestant, Lent just was not much of a thing in my home. I saw banners for the Friday Fish Fry at the local Catholic Church, and McDonald’s would advertise their fish sandwiches, but since I didn’t enjoy seafood it was easy for Lent to pass me by.

After hearing hours of testimony March 17 from hundreds of people opposed to a measure that would make Colorado "the most radical abortion state in the country," as many said, the Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee OK'd the bill in a 3-2 party line vote just after midnight.

Pope Francis has asked bishops around the world to join him March 25 in consecrating Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, something bishops in every part of the globe had started announcing the minute they heard what the pope had planned.

St. Peter gained the upper hand on St. Patrick's Day when the underdog team of the small Jesuit school, Saint Peter's University of Jersey City, New Jersey, upset the mighty University of Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix is pleased to announce that it has named Brett Meister its new Director of Communications. He joins the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix after nearly three decades leading communications and goodwill outreach for global sports organizations, including most recently the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters.

Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary during a penitential prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica March 25, the Vatican said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin did not invade Ukraine out of concern that NATO would encroach on his borders, but concern about "the disease of democracy that could spread like a virus, and that's deadly for oligarchies and authoritarian rulers," said the archbishop who serves as a "foreign minister" for the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

Anyone who ever wanted to know how vital a deacon is to the life of the Church need look no further than the Book of Acts. In Chapter 6, we read the Apostles gathered other disciples of Christ to explain the need for appointing men of unquestioned repute to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of the young but steadily growing followers of Jesus.

In a March 11 ruling, the Texas Supreme Court ended a challenge by abortion clinics to a state law that bans most abortions in Texas.

The power of prayer plus the aid of technology united two families thousands of miles apart in an international rescue operation. And it was all at the instigation of two 12-year-old girls.