The Vatican is reportedly preparing to issue new rules about Marian apparitions: Catholics who claim they have seen the Virgin Mary will be forced to remain silent about the apparitions until a team of psychologists, theologians, priests and exorcists have fully investigated their claims under new Vatican guidelines aimed at stamping out false claims of…

A popular inspirational series has now published a volume offering inspiration specifically for Catholics. The Catholic Review in Baltimore has the soup — er, scoop, from CNS: The “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series can now add Catholics to the more than 200 groups in its targeted audience. In mid-December, Simon & Schuster published “Chicken…

With a new team in charge in Washington, winds of change will inevitably be blowing — and the National Catholic Register looks at where those breezes may take us: The 111th Congress convened on Jan. 6 with strengthened Democratic majorities and increased political clout once Barack Obama becomes president. The new Congress also has a…

This just in: the president-elect has invited an outspoken Episcopalian cleric to give the invocation at a key inaugural event next weekend: An openly gay bishop will deliver a prayer for President-elect Barack Obama in an inauguration event on Sunday that could help defuse controversy over an anti-gay pastor who will give the main invocation.…

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