Peter Feuerherd

The Field Hospital: Santa Rosa Diocese responds to Northern California's fire crisis; San Diego parish welcomes gay Catholics; A parish in Cooperstown, New York, collects potatoes for the poor

Problems defining or tracking lay pastoral ministers mean it is too early to call the decline in participation in their training programs a trend, but the latest study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate does support the emergence of Latino influence in the church.

The Field Hospital: Indiana diocese takes part in pope-inspired effort to welcome refugees; Brooklyn bishop celebrates Mass for victims of Mexican earthquakes; Padre Pio relics in Utica, Chicago

The Field Hospital: Facing declines in numbers of priests and Catholics in the pews, the diocesan plan is "not just about reshuffling," but aims to go from "maintenance to mission."

A discussion that was part of the 100th anniversary of the New York Archdiocese's Catholic Charities focused on ways the agency's work can foster unity in a pluralistic society.

The Field Hospital: A handful of Catholic parishes and institutions across the country are offering sanctuary to immigrants threatened with deportation. There is no legal exemption for churches in immigration law, but federal agents have generally left church property alone.

The Field Hospital: Latino seminarians ready in Omaha; Catholics aren't the only ones who support child immigrants; dissatisfied parishioners might be uncounted

Fr. Roy Donovan of the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland said the church should wait on ordaining deacons pending a commission's study on women deacons, but American clerics and a Canadian deacon NCR contacted said the idea is unfair to deacons already on the path to ordination and misconstrues their role.

The Field Hospital: More than 50 residents at an Amityville retirement community ask Bishop John Barres to "make every effort to advance" the proposal to end obligatory priestly celibacy.

The Field Hospital: Parish closures continue; an AIDS memorial slated to go; renovations in Green Bay, Wisconsin; Pittsburgh appeals the Vatican to keep parishes open; Arise in Milwaukee gets the young adults

The Field Hospital: "Personal" parishes for every taste are on the increase; Montana reservations got predatory priests; church in a struggling Kansas town; South Carolina Catholics.

The Field Hospital: Participants from groups such as Catholic Church Reform International and Call to Action will be urging an increased role for the laity in the church. 

The Field Hospital: The "Midvale Diocese" shared an intense transition discussion meeting where leaders worked out mergers and other changes, so others could learn from the process.

The Field Hospital: Refugees welcomed in Toledo and St. Paul; religious sister presides at a wedding; Raleigh closes its overflowing cathedral; tragedy ends carnival rides.

The Field Hospital: Saturday vigil Masses at Our Lady of the Assumption in Charlotte are a sign of the wider church in the U.S.: an aging Anglo population, replenished by Latino immigrants making parishes their own.