Catholic World News

A French man committed suicide inside Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on May 21. Dominique Venner, a 78-year-old historian and activist with a long history of involvement in traditionalist and...

The Vatican was forced to deny that Pope Francis had performed an impromptu exorcism on Sunday, after reporters misinterpreted the Pontiff’s blessing of a sick man in St. Peter’s Square. After...

On May 15, Pope Francis sent a telegram to Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan as Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew traveled to the Italian city to commemorate the 1700th anniversary of the Edict of...

In recent weeks, Islamist rebels who assumed power in the Central African Republic in March have kidnapped the rector of the cathedral in the nation’s capital as well as the archdiocesan...

"The struggle for power in the Church nothing new," Pope Francis told his congregation at a Mass in Domus Sanctae Marthae on May 21, referring to the Gospel account of disputes among the apostles...

Questioning “the motive and the reasoning” behind support for regime change in Iraq, Egypt, Syria, and Libya, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church said that Islamic fundamentalist regimes are...

The Vatican Museums are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the completion of restoration work on Michelangelo’s Pieta. The Pieta, which stands in the nave of St. Peter’s basilica, was badly...

About 50 people demonstrated outside the grounds of Boston College on May 20 as the Jesuit institution conferred an honorary degree on Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny. Boston’s Cardinal Sean...

The forced closure of several convents in eastern Libya preceded the recent bombing a parish there, according to Bishop Giovanni Martinelli, the apostolic vicar of Tripoli. “In Cyrenaica [eastern...

Pope Francis offered a prayer for tornado victims in Oklahoma at his morning Mass on Tuesday, May 21. “Let us pray for the victims and those who are missing, especially children, affected by the...

Father Michael Fugee, the priest at the center of a scandal in the Newark, New Jersey archdiocese, faces a series of criminal charges for apparently violating a court order forbidding him from...

The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference has criticized “the deployment of the police flying squad and other elements of the security forces” and “the use of an air-force base by a...

The Vatican has introduced a ‘app’ for smartphones, providing a free news feed. The new app, called Missio, provides news headlines from Fides, the news service sponsored by the Congregation for...

An Italian man climbed out onto the dome of St. Peter’s basilica on Monday, May 20, in a dangerous political demonstration. Marcello Di Finizio unfurled a banner protesting new European Union...

A team of American seminarians has won the Clericus Cup, the annual soccer competition among Rome’s seminaries. The “North American Martyrs” took the championship for the 2nd consecutive year...

The Community of St. John has acknowledged that its founder, Father Marie-Dominique Philippe, had improper relations with women under his spiritual direction. Established by Father Philippe in...

Pro-family activists in Croatia have collected well over 200,000 signatures on a petition calling for a referendum to amend the country’s constitution and define marriage as a union between a man...

Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai has criticized the political leaders of Lebanon in unusually blunt terms, and said that they should address their own nation’s problems rather than “interfere in the...

Pope Francis recommended “courageous prayer” rather than “prayers of courtesy” in his homily at daily Mass on May 20. Commenting on the day’s Gospel, and the remark of Jesus that some demons can...

Father Adolfo Nicolas, the worldwide leader of the Jesuit order, has been named the president of the International Union of Superiors General (USIG), the umbrella group for representatives of men's...

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano called for a “firm and constant commitment” to battling prejudice against homosexuals, as Italy observed “Anti-Homopobia Day” on May 17. His statement was echoed...

Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, Australia, has admitted that Church leaders in the past did not respond adequately to sex-abuse complaints. The archbishop told a formal inquiry that “the...

A Catholic church was bombed in Benghazi, Libya, on May 17. Exploding in the nave of the church shortly before midnight, the bomb shattered several windows in the church itself and the adjacent...

Pope Francis met on May 18 with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for a discussion of European political, economic, and especially religious affairs. A brief Vatican statement released after the...

Egypt’s Christian minority suffered two more violent assaults during the past week, with bombings at Coptic Orthodox churches in two different towns. A mob of Muslim militants attacked the church...

Questioned about the keys to successful evangelization, Pope Francis suggested that ecclesial movements should focus on three words: Jesus, prayer, and witness. The Holy Father took questions...

“God always brings newness—and demands our complete trust,” Pope Francis said in his homily at a Pentecost Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square. More than 200,000 people attended the morning Mass, which concluded a pilgrimage organized for ecclesial movements as part of the Year of Faith. In his homily the Pontiff spoke particularly of new movements and new developments in the Church, as...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and three other Catholic organizations are asking Catholics to urge their senators “to support a Farm Bill that feeds hungry people, promotes...

At a conference commemorating the 1700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan, in which Emperor Constantine decreed the toleration of Christianity in the Roman Empire, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew...

The director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has praised the commitment of Pope Francis and the Church to ending hunger. “On a scale of 1 to 10, the Pope’s...

The Court of Appeals of the State of Kansas has ruled that civil courts cannot interfere in ecclesiastical annulment cases. A man filed suit against his ex-wife after he alleged she falsely...

The Vatican official who is helping oversee the revision of the chapter of the Code of Canon Law that deals with canonical penalties said in an interview that the current code was drafted during “a...

Catholic leaders in Indonesia are protesting the decision of an American foundation to honor the country’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for his contributions to inter-religious...

An American missionary priest in Kenya who became embroiled in a legal dispute over the ownership of hospitals has been suspended from the priesthood. The Maryknoll Society suspended Father...

The Vatican has released the public schedule of liturgical ceremonies at which Pope Francis will preside during the months of May, June, and July 2013. During the remaining days of May, the Pope...

About 40 Church officials participated in a May 16 conference at the Vatican on the challenges posed by new sects. The conference participants, drawn from different Vatican offices and pontifical...

The Manchester, New Hampshire diocese has agreed to pay $2,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a couple who charged that a priest had asked their son inappropriate questions during a sacramental...

Pope Francis met on May 17 with directors of the Pontifical Missionary Works (POM), and urged them to “keep evangelization, the paradigm of every act of the Church, alive.” The Pope said that POM...

After New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan told a radio interviewer that he has talked directly with Governor Andrew Cuomo about the latter’s standing in the Church, a spokesman for the archdiocese...

Italian police have arrested four suspected members of the internet hackers’ collaborative known as “Anonymous,” who are believed to be responsible for attacks on the internet sites of the Italian...

Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has protested that a proposed change in Ireland’s ban on abortion could lead to the death of unborn children who are capable of independent survival outside the...

“The problem is not that we are sinners,” Pope Francis told the congregation at his morning Mass on May 17. “The problem is not repenting of sin, not being ashamed of what we have done.” In his...

Addressing a recent United Nations Security Council discussion of terrorism in Africa, the Holy See’s leading representative at the UN recalled the recent terrorist attack on a Catholic church in...

Archbishops Vincent Nichols of Westminster and Peter Smith of Southwark are urging members of the House of Commons not to alter the definition of marriage to include homosexual couples. “We urge...

Addressing a UN meeting on human trafficking, a leading Vatican diplomat called upon the international community to take “concrete actions on the ground” against human trafficking and to “address...

A Syrian Catholic prelate has told the Fides news agency that “tolls” levied by rebels have increased the price of food “almost tenfold” in some areas of the country. “The militias of the Free...

Amid escalating violence committed by the Islamist terrorist organization Boko Haram, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state of emergency in three states. Shortly after the...

As the Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople visits Milan to celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan, Pope Francis has sent a message of greeting, hailing “the historic...

The Diocese of Kansas City, Missouri, has agreed to pay $600,000 to settle a lawsuit stemming from child-pornography charges against a priest of the diocese. The family of a young girl whose...

A former accountant for the Archdiocese of St. Paul, Minnesota, has pleaded guilty to charges of embezzling $670,000 in archdiocesan funds. Scott Joseph Domeier, who worked for the archdiocese...

The Vatican’s representative at UN headquarters in New York has underlined “the grave concern with which the Holy See has been following the unceasing spiral of violence by which Syria has been...

Brazil’s top legal body has ruled that marriage licenses cannot be denied to same-sex couples. The ruling by the National Council of Justice makes Brazil the 3rd nation in Latin America to allow...

St. Paul exhibited a “healthy madness” that made him an effective evangelist, Pope Francis said in his homily at a Mass on May 16. "Paul is a nuisance,” the Pope told the congregation at the...

“We have started down the path of a disposable culture,” Pope Francis said in a May 16 address to four new ambassadors to the Holy See. In his remarks to the new envoys, the Pope spoke about injustice in the world economy, and especially in a socio-economic system in which “human beings themselves are nowadays considered as consumer goods which can be used and thrown away.” The Pope...

The chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities has issued a statement on the conviction of Kermit Gosnell, who had performed late-term abortions...

Following votes of 75-39 in the state house and 37-30 in the state senate, Gov. Mark Dayton of Minnesota has signed legislation altering the definition of marriage to include same-sex...

The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, in conjunction with the Council of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe (CCEE), is commemorating the 1700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan by hosting...

Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University have succeeded in cloning human embryos in order to obtain their stem cells, according to press reports. The researchers removed nuclei from...

Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Commission of the Holy See for Religious Relations with the Jews, has fielded questions on important issues in Jewish-Catholic relations, including the relation...

A federal judge in Missouri has ruled that the Diocese of Kansas City (Missouri) and Bishop Robert Finn cannot be held liable in a civil lawsuit against a priest who had lewd photos of the...

The truth “isn’t a possession,” Pope Francis told his weekly public audience on May 15. “It is an encounter with a Person.” “We are living in an age when we are rather skeptical regarding truth,”...

Israel’s deputy foreign minister has issued an apology to the Coptic Orthodox Church after a Coptic priest was beaten by police during Holy Saturday observances at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre...

Pope Francis remarked on May 15 that he hopes to visit the shrine of Our Lady of Bonaria, on the island of Sardinia, in September. As he greeted some of the groups present for his regular weekly...

The Vatican is organizing a prayer vigil on Saturday evening, May 18, for members of ecclesial movements, in preparation for Pentecost. The vigil will end with the Pentecost Sunday Mass celebrated...

Charges of sexual abuse by Catholic priests sat on the desk of a top-ranking Australian police official for months, a government investigating panel has been told. A regional police director said...

The Vatican has confirmed that the Vatican Bank, the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), will begin making a public disclosure of its accounts. By the end of this year, the Vatican said, the IOR...

The Vatican has confirmed that Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who resigned in February from his post as Archbishop of Edinburgh, Scotland, will leave that country “for several months for the purpose of...

Halki seminary, opened by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1844 and closed by the Turkish government in 1971, remains closed despite calls by President Barack Obama, former Secretary...

In a message to Buddhists on the occasion of the 2,557th anniversary of Buddha’s birth, South Korea’s leading prelate paid tribute to Buddhism’s “spirituality of love and sharing.” “Our society...

Amid increasing violence, including the brutal murders of suspected sorcerers, Papua New Guinea is considering restoring the use of the death penalty, which is legal but has not been used since...

As part of the Year of Faith, the Vatican is hosting a “Day Celebrating the Evangelium Vitae [Gospel of life]” on June 15 and 16. The day’s events, which include a pilgrimage to the tomb of St....

The head of a Vatican dicastery said at a May 14 press conference that his pontifical council “holds contemporary art at the heart of its interests.” The Holy See is joining six dozen other...

The Vatican will host a pavilion at an art festival in Venice this year, with a display on the Genesis account of Creation. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of the Pontifical Council for...

Drunk-driving charges against Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester, Massachusetts, will be dismissed, after the bishop pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, his lawyer has said. Bishop McManus agreed...

US embassies abroad are preparing to celebrate Gay Pride Month in June, even in countries where homosexual behavior is outlawed. Author Robert Reilly notes that in many countries, the American...

A lesbian teacher who lost her job at a Catholic school in Ohio after revealing her lesbian partnership will not be receiving support from the local teachers' union. Carla Hall, who is seeking...

At the request of Pope Francis, Cardinal José da Cruz Policarpo of Lisbon dedicated this pontificate to Our Lady of Fatima, in a ceremony on May 13—the feast of Our Lady of Fatima—at the Marian...

Pope Francis spoke of “poverty as an ideology,” and contrasted that ideology with genuine Christian charity, during his homily at daily Mass on May 14. The Holy Father cited the Gospel account of...

During a visit to China, Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has been urging government officials to approve the Russian Orthodox Church as a “recognized religion.” The Beijing government...

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna told an English audience that special "signs" from the Holy Spirit guided the cardinal-electors to choose Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio in the March 2013...

The Vatican bank will make its balance sheets public this year. Ernst von Freyberg, the new president of the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), told reporters on May 14 that the bank would...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of Government Relations has announced its position on 15 proposed amendments to the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration...

Islamists who recently marched on the nation’s capital wish to “topple the government” and “trigger chaos by means of violence,” the nation’s leading prelate told Aid to the Church in...

The prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples told 150 national directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies that “it is necessary to review the methods of evangelization, to...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has announced that the second annual Fortnight for Freedom on behalf of religious liberty will take place from June 21 to July 4. “The...

Cardinal Peter Turkson, the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, told Vatican Radio that the council’s controversial 2011 document, “Towards Reforming the International...

Correcting a report that appeared in some Catholic news outlets (including CWN) last month, a spokesman for the Catholic bishops of Great Britain has said that Church leaders did not tell lawmakers...

A Pennsylvania jury has convicted abortionist Kermit Gosnell on three counts of 1st-degree murder. Gosnell, who had performed late-term abortions under appalling unsanitary conditions in a...

Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s public statement denouncing Boston College for honoring Irish prime minister Enda Kenny was a violation of an informal agreement with the Irish government leader and the...

The world’s Catholic population rose by 1.5% in 2011—the last year for which accurate figures are available—according to the Vatican’s latest statistics. On May 13, Pope Francis received the first official copies of the 2013 Annuario Pontificio, the annual Vatican directory, along with the statistical yearbook, the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae. The statistics show the world’s Catholic...

Pope Francis called for continued negotiations to bring about reconciliation after Colombia’s long struggle with rebel factions, as he met on May 13 with the country’s leader, President Juan Manuel...

Pope Francis gave his strong support to a March for Life in Rome on May 12, and also to a campaign for an end to destructive research on human embryos. At his midday audience on Sunday the Pope...