Peter Feuerherd

After a ruling from the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy, Bishop Frank Dewane of the diocese of Venice, Florida, has imposed penalties on Fr. Christopher Senk. But members of the priest's Sanibel Island parish say he is being maligned. 

The Field Hospital: Former convict thanks parishioners for prison ministry; the questions of parish consolidations; Irish seminarians expected to spend more time in parishes.

Struggling Catholics who attended the "(Re)Imagining Catholic Vocation" event, sponsored by Call to Action, responded "that I didn't know this space existed," said the organizer.

St. André Bessette Catholic Church staff say, "We are not here to fix anyone. We're here to be compassionate." The parish offers something to the area's homeless nearly everyday.

The Field Hospital: Historic black church in Philadelphia to close; New Orleans Archdiocese fights porn epidemic; parish copes with priests' deaths; Christians persecuted around the world.

Ignatius Kaigama painted a picture of a country confronting strife between Christians and Muslims, with a church committed to upholding what he described as traditional values in the face of Western encroachment.

Seminaries — set apart from the secular world and seen by some as a breeding ground for clericalist attitudes that fostered the sex abuse crisis — have come in for criticism. Yet leaders of Catholic seminaries say that their priestly formation programs have already successfully implemented curricula that can check future sex abuse.

Parish Roundup:  Archdiocese launches mental health ministry; Portland Catholics combat homelessness; while some Catholics get to vote on parish mergers, another merger is complicated by history of racial segregation; the pivotal role of millennial Latino Catholics in the church's future.

The event, sponsored by the Catholic group Communion and Liberation, was aimed at millennials with programs on dating, space travel, art and music focused on where we all are in this universe and whether we are going there alone.

The Field Hospital: Envision a parish where people are inspired to transform the world, experience a preferential option for the poor and hold church far away from their parish buildings.

The Field Hospital: New Jersey's list of abusers gets detailed by media; one county in California seemed to end up with the abusing priests; got a rural ministry grant?

The state legislature approved changes in the Child Victims Act, allowing child sex abuse victims to sue and file charges until they reach age 55. Gov. Cuomo is expected to sign the bill.

The Field Hospital: Play about Fr. Tolton inspires young Catholics; Portland's archbishop wants chanted Masses; scammers target Omaha Catholics; should little kids be at Mass?

The document, created out of a Boston College seminar of a dozen religious educators, theologians and church ministers, argues that seminarians need skills in forming communities and working with all the baptized faithful, particularly women. 

The Field Hospital: Parishes need to use serial-coded bags and a three-person counting system to curtail theft, advises Michael Ryan. Others say such controls are already in place.

The Field Hospital: Church officials warn against hugging and handholding at Mass; parishioners welcome kidnapped girl's return; bishops talk to Catholics about abuse crisis.

Behind the iron gates of Sacred Heart Major Seminary, there is a cadre of faculty who take the pope to task, saying he is weak on enforcing doctrine and sows discord among believers.

The study that Pope Francis commissioned on the history of women deacons is complete and on the pontiff's desk. But members of the commission aren't making any promises. 

New pro-life groups offer an alternative for pro-life activists who reject traditional organizations that ally with or accept the Trump administration. The groups emphasize better access to health care and social supports to discourage abortion.

Ever since the 1970s, Jesuits have been formed by taking classes that include lay students; most older Jesuits were formed along the model of separation from the world, a reform in seminary education that developed after the Council of Trent.