LASHA MORNINGSTAR

The bounty of Thanksgiving can be so easily missed. Plunked where it is, somewhere between the end of summer and onset of winter, Thanksgiving is for many of us just a long weekend with maybe a too-full meal.

Bishops today must be courageous in proclaiming the Gospel, encouraging others to grow in faith and working to ensure the unity of the church based on adherence to its teaching, Pope Benedict said.

Albanian Catholic leaders warned they would excommunicate anyone involved in the traditional gjakmarrja, or blood feud, after complaints of worsening violence.

Defending traditional marriage is not an expression of backward thinking, said Pope Benedict, but of values essential to the future of humanity.

The third volume of Pope Benedict’s book on Jesus of Nazareth should be published before Christmas, the Vatican said.

Pope Benedict said his three-day trip to Lebanon convinced him that now is the time for Christians and Muslims to bear witness together against violence and in favour of dialogue and peace.

A majority of white working-class Catholics – 56 per cent – think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a survey by the Public Religion Research Institute.

A vacation house at the South Jersey shore used by generations of elderly priests was sold at auction by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for $4.5 million Sept. 15.

The senior Vatican official with authority for investigating priests accused of sexual abuse said that, in such cases, “always and everywhere the most important concern is for those who have been the victims of this terrible abuse.”

The U.S. National Palliative Care Research Center estimates that 90 million Americans are living with serious or life-threatening illnesses and the number is expected to double over the next 25 years.