BALTIMORE. The U.S. bishops Nov. 12 adopted the sixth edition of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Program of Priestly Formation for U.S. dioceses and religious orders.

The ongoing growth of the Diocese of Nashville has revealed both needs and opportunities for expanded ministries.

The Diocese of Nashville’s Tribunal staff has started an initiative to go out to parishes to guide people through what diocesan Vicar General and Judicial Vicar Father John Hammond called a difficult, largely misunderstood, sometimes scary, and always painful process – a marriage annulment.

Daniel Tillias, a Haitian with a big heart and a long-time ally of the Parish Twinning Program of the Americas, was recently named one of CNN’s Heroes of the Year, honoring “everyday people doing extraordinary things to change the world.”

Father Wil Steinbacher, a Glenmary priest who has served in the Diocese of Nashville for 20 years as a missionary, retreat leader, prison minister and environmental advocate, is, at age 84, finally ready to slow down.

Christians are impoverished if they don’t know the Church Fathers of the Early Church, the bishops, theologians and evangelists who recorded and passed on to later generations the traditions, the liturgies and the teachings of the Early Church, said Mike Aquilina, an author and speaker who led off the Office of Faith Formation’s fall speaker series on Monday, Nov. 4.

David Wright is a scientist who loves to grow roses. When he and his family moved to Nashville in 2001, he could grow plants in an optimal “zone 6.”

Catholic artists, poets, authors and musicians are called to use their faith to elevate popular entertainment and the culture. The Nashville-based Catholics United For the Arts was founded to help Catholics do just that.