CNA STAFF, Aug 1, 2010 / 05:11 am (CNA).- Both Roman and Eastern rite Catholics will soon celebrate the Church's feast of the Transfiguration on its traditional date for both calendars, August 6.

Vatican City, Jul 31, 2010 / 11:33 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The new president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, announced that his dicastery is preparing a document on the effects of abortion on women, often called post-abortion syndrome. The document will focus on the study of the "habit of abortion" and is expected to be published next year.

St. Alphonsus Liguori is a doctor of the Church, known for his contribution to moral theology and his great kindness. He was born in 1696 in Naples to a well-respected family. He was very intelligent and became a doctor of civil law at age 17. He resigned from a brilliant career as a lawyer in 1723, when he lost a case because he overlooked a small but important piece of evidence.   His resignation, however, proved profitable for the Church. He entered the seminary and was ordained three years later in 1726. He soon became a sought-after preacher and confessor in Naples. His sermons were simple and well organized that they appealed to all people. But his time as a diocesan priest was short-lived. In 1732, he went to Scala and founded the Redemptorists, a preaching order.   He was a great moral theologian and his famous book, “Moral Theology”, was published in 1748. Thirty years later, he was appointed bishop and retired in 1775. He died more than 10 years later in 1787 and was canonized in 1839.

2 Ecclesiastes said: Vanity of vanities! Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity!21 For when someone labors in wisdom, and doctrine, and prudence, he leaves behind what he has obtained to one who is idle. So this, too, is emptiness and a great burden. 22 For how can a man benefit from all his labor and affliction of spirit, by which he has been tormented under the sun? 23 All his days have been filled with sorrows and hardships; neither does he rest his mind, even in the night. And is this not emptiness?