CatholicTranscript.org ~ The Monthly Newspaper of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (CNA) – The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, have made waves across the nation for their rapid growth and their devout orthodoxy. Now, they are once again in the national spotlight, being featured on the popular Oprah Winfrey Show.

“They phoned us and asked if they could do a program on us with Oprah. That's all we know,” Dominican Sister Joseph Andrew Bogdanowicz, vocations director for the community, told CNA in an e-mail.

WASHINGTON, D.C.,  – In a Wednesday speech at Catholic University of America (CUA), Cardinal Christoph Schönborn lauded Christians’ freedom from "political correctness" and "the latest fashions."

Seeing hope for renewal in past monastic movements and in the contemporary United States, he discussed the relationship between Christianity and the modern West.

Deacon Thomas Dietsch and his wife, Dorne (Photo by Mary Chalupsky)

After the earthquake devastated Haiti Jan. 12, the first news reports to hit homes across the United States zeroed in on a deacon from Southbury’s Sacred Heart Parish and a co-worker.

Local and national media detailed the rescue efforts for Deacon Charles Dietsch, a management consultant who was trapped with a co-worker for 10 hours under the rubble of a mission house for the Norwich Diocese’s Haitian Ministries in a suburb of Port-au-Prince.

BLOOMFIELD – Though 1,600 miles away, the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake in the island nation of Haiti was felt throughout the Archdiocese of Hartford, from relatives worried about family members to individuals eager to help and to parishes and agencies that maintain ongoing humanitarian ministries for the "poorest of the poor."

BLOOMFIELD – While the media have paid much attention to the leaders of several American women’s congregations who are reluctant to cooperate with a Vatican inquiry into the state of religious life in this country today, relatively little has been said about the sisters who support it.

That’s, in part, because some sisters have been told not to talk about it, or feel intimidated enough by their leadership that they keep their thoughts to themselves, even within their own communities, said Ann Carey, who moderates a Web discussion group that helps such sisters find their voice.

Archbishop Henry J. Mansell, left, and Very Rev. Douglas Mosey coungratulate Msgr. David Q. Liptak after the announcement.

CROMWELL – Early last spring, Deacon Tom Davis had an inspiration. The once Christian-based field of bioethics was being hijacked and repurposed by secular interests. It was time to reclaim it, and so he set out to create an Internet-based resource library of bioethics materials.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the fight to defend the unborn, the voices of faith are winning, Archbishop Henry J. Mansell told hundreds of people preparing to participate in the 37th March for Life in the nation’s capital Jan. 22. Although mainstream media coverage of the march was all but lacking, organizer Nellie Gray said the number of marchers exceeded those of last year, which was estimated at more than 300,000.