Catholic Church

The day after her mother died, with the house surreally silent, Mary Lou Quinlan reached to the highest shelf of her mom’s Fort Myers, Fla., bedroom closet and discovered the “God boxes.”

LAYTON — City leaders have agreed to buy back property near Layton High School that was sold to the Roman Catholic Church in 1968 to build a structure for religious education.

In action taken Thursday, the city council voted unanimously to exercise a buy-back option on property at 448 North Constitution Way next to the city’s Common Park and located just to the north of the seminary building of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The purchase price for the land and building is $2,500.

SANTIAGO, Cuba -- Pope Benedict XVI spent the night in a brand-new home built just for him near the sanctuary of Cuba's Virgin of Charity icon, where he will kneel in quiet prayer early Tuesday before heading to the capital for political meetings.

OGDEN -- Like the 40-day fast in which Jesus Christ went without food or water as he prepared for his earthly mission, Christians who celebrate Lent are giving up some of their earthly desires from now until Easter.

The Lenten season, which officially began with Ash Wednesday this week, is designed to bring believers to a better knowledge of Christ and enhance their journey with him.

"This year, we are concentrating on the Lenten journey to Easter joy," said Sister Stephanie Mongeon, a nun at Mount Benedict Monastery in South Ogden. "We are stressing those things that are barriers to Christ's love."

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Thousands of children suffered sexual abuse in Dutch Catholic institutions, and church officials failed to adequately address the abuse or help the victims, according to a long-awaited investigation released Friday.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI insisted on Saturday that all of society’s institutions and not just the Catholic church must be held to “exacting” standards in their response to sex abuse of children, and defended the church’s efforts to confront the problem.

At the Catholic bishops' annual meeting here, hallways have buzzed with talk about Penn State University's child sex abuse scandal.

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the bishops conference, said he hopes that Penn State and other institutions learn from both the bishops' failings and their reforms.