Peter Feuerherd

The event, sponsored by the Catholic group Communion and Liberation, was aimed at millennials with programs on dating, space travel, art and music focused on where we all are in this universe and whether we are going there alone.

The Field Hospital: Envision a parish where people are inspired to transform the world, experience a preferential option for the poor and hold church far away from their parish buildings.

The Field Hospital: New Jersey's list of abusers gets detailed by media; one county in California seemed to end up with the abusing priests; got a rural ministry grant?

The state legislature approved changes in the Child Victims Act, allowing child sex abuse victims to sue and file charges until they reach age 55. Gov. Cuomo is expected to sign the bill.

The Field Hospital: Play about Fr. Tolton inspires young Catholics; Portland's archbishop wants chanted Masses; scammers target Omaha Catholics; should little kids be at Mass?

The document, created out of a Boston College seminar of a dozen religious educators, theologians and church ministers, argues that seminarians need skills in forming communities and working with all the baptized faithful, particularly women. 

The Field Hospital: Parishes need to use serial-coded bags and a three-person counting system to curtail theft, advises Michael Ryan. Others say such controls are already in place.

The Field Hospital: Church officials warn against hugging and handholding at Mass; parishioners welcome kidnapped girl's return; bishops talk to Catholics about abuse crisis.

Behind the iron gates of Sacred Heart Major Seminary, there is a cadre of faculty who take the pope to task, saying he is weak on enforcing doctrine and sows discord among believers.

The study that Pope Francis commissioned on the history of women deacons is complete and on the pontiff's desk. But members of the commission aren't making any promises. 

New pro-life groups offer an alternative for pro-life activists who reject traditional organizations that ally with or accept the Trump administration. The groups emphasize better access to health care and social supports to discourage abortion.

Ever since the 1970s, Jesuits have been formed by taking classes that include lay students; most older Jesuits were formed along the model of separation from the world, a reform in seminary education that developed after the Council of Trent.

The Field Hospital:Chicago Catholic identity shift; increasing number of Latino Catholics doesn't always mean an end to parish woes; former church is a hospice now; D.C. under church influence; the naming of annual fundraisers matters

John J. Hurley, the first lay president of Canisius College, has joined eight other prominent local Catholics and donors to form The Movement to Restore Trust Initiative, which seeks changes in the Diocese of Buffalo. 

The Field Hospital: Detroit Archdiocese criticized for what is perceived as a dodge on sex abuse litigation; it also apologized for a priest's questionable homily for a person who died by suicide; Eleanor Sauers is one of a handful of parish life coordinators who run church administration while priests celebrate sacraments; the places Spanish-language Mass are held in Cincinnati are in bad shape 

On Dec. 8, a commissioning ceremony was held here for 13 new Maryknoll missioners, who received their symbolic mission crosses before embarking early next year to Bolivia, China, El Salvador, Haiti, Kenya and Tanzania.

Beyond the intra-church skirmishing, much of the Church Militant operation acts like any other news operation, but it remains a counterweight to the widespread consensus that has emerged in much of the Christian world.

The Field Hospital: The Sacramento Diocese and Knights of Columbus aid fire recovery; parish closings in Philadelphia and Chicago; consolation ministers support the grieving.

Jeffrey Sachs, whom Time magazine once dubbed "the world's best known economist," can rattle off the names and impacts of papal social encyclicals as well as any Catholic theologian. The documents, he says, reinforced his early studies at Harvard.

"Measuring and Ranking Diocesan Online Financial Transparency" charted 177 dioceses across the United States, and discovered that most were not open about their financial statements.