Faith & Parish

WASHINGTON -- The Vatican supreme court has denied the appeals of parishioners trying to save 10 parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston from closing, according to a spokesman for a group fighting the closures.

Peter Borre, co-chairman of the Council of Parishes, which was formed to oppose the archdiocese's 2004 decision to close 64 churches, said he learned of the May 7 decision by the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature from a canon lawyer representing the group in Rome.

The decision from the Vatican's highest tribunal means that the archdiocesan process to close the parishes -- suppression in church parlance -- complied with canon law.

The decision also means that parishioners have no further recourse within the church to bring their concerns to church officials.

Parish representatives and the council will meet in early June after they receive the official documents from the court before deciding its next step, Borre told Catholic News Service. He did not rule out the possibility of a lawsuit to overturn the closings based on civil law violations.

NOTRE DAME, IND. -- “We are a historic church. Some of that history isn’t pretty, but we believe God will guide us to where he wants us to be,” began Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, Calif.

Soto, chairman of the U.S. bishop’s Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church, set the tone for the Catholic Cultural Diversity Network Convocation sponsored by the bishops' conference at the University of Notre Dame May 6-8. The U.S. bishops wanted participants to share their histories, but also wanted them to talk and pray about the future of an increasingly diverse American Catholic church.

The bishops' conference has made the recognition of cultural diversity in the church one of its five priorities. Nineteen bishops were among the hand-picked group of 305 church leaders at the convocation. Apostolic Nuncio to the United States Archbishop Pietro Sambi conveyed a blessing and words of encouragement from Pope Benedict XVI.

VATICAN CITY -- The rise of "new atheism" and the popularity of books that distort church doctrines call for a "new apologetics" to explain and defend the Christian faith, said U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada.

Proclaiming the good news always involves explaining and defending the faith, tailored to the sensibilities of particular times and places, said the cardinal, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The cardinal spoke April 29 at a conference on "a new apologetics" at the Legionaries of Christ-run Pontifical Regina Apostolorum University in Rome.