News - December 2023 RSS Feed

VATICAN CITY — A Catholic priest can bless a gay or other unmarried couple as long as it is not a formal liturgical blessing and does not give the impression that the Catholic Church is blessing the union as if it were a marriage, the Vatican doctrinal office said.

It is that time of year when many will write an article lamenting the crass commercialism of Christmas. In like fashion, it is also the time to dwell nostalgically on the days when Christmas was a more spiritual time than today.

A series that answers questions about a subject relevant to the Catholic Church, local or global. This week's topic: Miracles

I know it is still a few days away, but Merry Christmas ( a bit early)!  I am sure that we are all very busy with so many details.  Christmas is a joyful and wonderful season, but it is also a time of great stress for many.  There is so much shopping to do, both for the ingredients of our favorite Christmas treats and of course thoughtful gifts for loved ones.

A friend once asked me, “What are you GIVING this Christmas?” Honestly, the question caught me off guard. We are often asked what we want for Christmas, but focusing on what we are giving is a much better representation of the true meaning of Christmas. This simple twist on the usual question makes all the difference in how we exude a spirit of joyful giving. St. Paul reminds us that “…God loves a cheerful giver” -2 Corinthians 9:7.

MOBILE – McGill-Toolen Catholic High School Coach Kate Wood has helped set the “standard of excellence” for the Dirty Dozen volleyball team and her accomplishments have been recognized statewide.

After a few years of close calls and disappointments, 2023 proved to be Knight time. The Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School football team captured its first state football championship in program history, beating Cherokee County 35-0 on Dec. 8 in the Class 4A championship game at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. Montgomery Catholic had come up just short of a state title the past years.

With the God of the Bible having largely disappeared from public consciousness in Great Britain, the closest thing to a replacement deity is the British National Health Service. Created after World War II, the NHS was the object of intense affection for decades and, as recently as this year, 72 percent of Britons polled said that the NHS was “crucial” to their society. This obsessive and often mawkish devotion to a false god has made a wholesale reform of the NHS — or, better, its replacement — virtually impossible. And the NHS is desperately in need of reform or replacement. 

¿Qué se necesita para tener un matrimonio exitoso? Durante dos días, del 11 al 12 de noviembre, trece parejas reunidas en la Parroquia Católica San Columba en Dothan asistieron a un taller destinado a construir matrimonios fuertes y centrados en Cristo.