Parish roundup: Posting the Ten Commandments; sanctuary push; save lobsters

Editor's note: The Field Hospital blog reports on parish and other grassroots efforts across the U.S. and Canada to accompany those on the margins. Pope Francis said he sees the church as a "field hospital" that labors "from the ground up" to "heal wounds."

Pushback in the New York Archdiocese: The pastoral council of an upstate Poughkeepsie church says it won't go along with a proposed merger.

Meanwhile, parishioners in the Archdiocese of Hartford file an appeal with the Vatican about their parish closure.

And closures in the Pittsburgh Diocese become the subject of a civil court hearing.

Also in the New York Archdiocese: Questions arise about the future of an AIDS memorial at a Greenwich Village church slated for closure.

From Guam to Boston, USA Today reports on the continued reverberations of sex abuse on parishes.

Stretching the bounds of forgiveness, a Virginia pastor is exposed as a former Ku Klux Klan member who terrorized a black family decades ago. Where was the vetting before he was ordained?

Parishes in the Washington Archdiocese are challenged by protesters to join the immigrant sanctuary movement.

Pennsylvania parishes post the Ten Commandments.

Arise Milwaukee offers an approach to youth and young adult ministry.

The cathedral in Green Bay, Wisconsin, will close for three months, part of a $2.7 million restoration project.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) asks churches not to provide lobsters for fundraisers.

[Peter Feuerherd is a correspondent for NCR's Field Hospital series on parish life and is a professor of journalism at St. John's University, New York.]

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