We’ve been hearing a lot lately about how Catholics are coming together over their opposition to the government mandate for contraceptive coverage in health care, with the tone generally implying just how unbelievable such a proposition sounds.

Hey, a dime doesn’t go as far as it used to.But when it comes to understanding the realities of global poverty, it can be hard to get a handle on just how poor the poorest countries around the world are. We know the richest one percent makes the same amount per year as the world's poorest 57 percent, but what does that mean in terms we can relate to?

The entire faculty and staff at a Los Angeles elementary school have been reassigned following the allegations that two male teachers engaged in sexual misconduct with students.Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent John Deasy said the reassignement of the entire faculty was necessary in order “to clear the school from a cloud of distrust and suspicion stemming from the arrest.” NPR re

Crete is thirty miles south of Chicago. I used to pass through it on the way to the Claretian’s high school seminary. It is a small, rather rural community, intent on maintaining its small town character as the Chicago megalopolis creeps south. Already it is joined into a congressional district represented by Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. of Chicago.