La cultura popular y el secularismo de hoy han hecho que mucha gente creer que la Navidad se termina el 26 de diciembre cuando la familia echa fuera el árbol de Navidad y se preparan para la fiesta que viene en víspera de Año Nuevo.

Pop Culture and secularism today has made many people think that Christmas is over Dec. 26 when the exhausted family throws the tree out and gets ready for next bash at New Year’s Eve. For many Catholics, Christmas is not over until several important feasts in the life of Christ are observed; all done with dignity, love and a deeper understanding of the events of the Christmas season.

Catholic Daughters of the Americas Daughters of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Court 2584, celebrated their 5th anniversary Sunday, Dec. 11.

“Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism, we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission.”

When her husband Billy Joe passed away suddenly in the middle of the night, Ilene Biberstein was brought to her knees. After her husband’s funeral, she was baptized in her own swimming pool, beginning a long faith journey that eventually brought her home to the Catholic Church.

The Diocese of Corpus Christi, erected in 1912, originally consisted of the territory occupying the southern triangular point of Texas, comprising about 22,391 square miles, with miles of Gulf coast on the east and the Rio Grande on the south and west. This territory was the principal source of dispute and the explicit cause of the war between the United States and Mexico in 1846-1847.

Often, migrant farmworkers and their families, who are directly responsible for putting food on our table, don’t have enough food to nourish themselves. Behind every apple, every tomato, every cucumber, there is a human face. There are the sweat and tears of long, hard hours, poorly compensated labor and very hard living conditions.

On March 10, St. Joseph Abbey Seminary College will host its twelfth annual Abbey Youth Fest, which is a full day of contemporary Catholic music, inspiring keynote speakers and the celebration of the Mass. As the sun sets, we unite with the Benedictines in Vespers, the Evening Prayer of the Church, and we end the night with candlelight Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament—all underneath the stars.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A group of students had been hanging out at the Catholic campus ministry center at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., when an alert was issued midday Dec. 8 warning all students and faculty members to stay indoors. For the next few hours, the students stayed put, knowing a shooting had taken place on campus and initially that the shooter was on the loose, but not much more. After a campus police officer had been shot and killed that afternoon in his parked cruiser, police and SWAT teams searched the university for the gunman, calling to mind images of the 2007 shooting on campus that left 32 students and faculty, as well as the gunman, dead.

Blessed John Paul II High School will host its second annual Black and Gold Gala on Saturday, Jan. 28, beginning at 5:30 p.m. at L&F Distributors. After a steak dinner catered by Texas Roadhouse, the Spazmatics will take center stage with their dance routines and music. There will be live and silent auctions and a chance to win a new 2012 Nissan Frontier pick-up.

The Catholic Church in the United States will celebrate National Vocation Awareness Week, Jan. 9-14. The celebration heralds a week dedicated to promoting vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and consecrated life through prayer and education.

Corpus Christi, TEXAS – December 9, 2011 – Texas Health and Human Services Commission has announced a new health care option, CHRISTUS Health Plan. The plan will be available on March 1, 2012 to current Medicaid (STAR) and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) participants in the Nueces Service Area. CHRISTUS Health Plan provides assistance to uninsured families who are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP. Enrollment begins mid-December giving eligible residents access to a health plan they deserve in the communities where they live

The first week will be devoted to 'Feed the Hungry' and the agency benefiting from our collection is Gifts of Love. As most of you know, Gifts of Love is a local agency based in Avon that believes that the best way to help families is to have other families help them. They assist families experiencing a financial crisis in the Greater Hartford area. They are in need of cereal, canned vegetables and fruit, spaghetti sauce, soups and beans. PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS...

As they finalize federal spending priorities, Congress should find ways to assure continuation of Unemployment Insurance and Emergency Unemployment Compensation, said Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, California, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Nosotros los obispos hispanos/latinos de Estados Unidos abajo firmantes les hacemos saber a quienes se encuentran en nuestro país sin papeles que no están solos ni olvidados. Reconocemos que todo ser humano, documentado o no, es imagen de Dios y por lo tanto tiene un valor y dignidad infinitos. Les abrimos nuestros brazos y nuestro corazón y los recibimos como miembros de nuestra familia católica. Como pastores, les dirigimos estas palabras desde lo más profundo de nuestro corazón.

A disappointing salute to an often disappointing social event, "New Year's Eve" (Warner Bros.) wastes a talented ensemble cast on a painfully forced romantic comedy.

See a mobile phone become a tool for saving mothers’ and babies’ lives in India. Through innovation and strategic partnership, CRS is equipping community health workers to provide better care to women during pregnancy.

Bishop David D. Kagan ended his episcopal ordination and installation Mass Nov. 30 with an important message from a third-grader in his new Diocese of Bismarck. More than a dozen bishops from around the country, including his seminary classmate Bishop Wm. Michael Mulvey of the Diocese of Corpus Christi, attended the ordination and installation Mass

The International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima will visit Corpus Christi from Dec. 11-21.

Pope Benedict XVI has named 68-year-old Bishop Armando X. Ochoa of El Paso, Texas, as Bishop of Fresno, California. He succeeds Bishop John Steinbock, who died December 5, 2010.