Catholic World News
Stories for October 2010
Released Monday, Oct. 4
A leading Nigerian prelate has denounced the latest violent attempt to destabilize Africa’s largest nation. On October 1, two bombs exploded in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, near the site of a military...
Staff of the FBI, the Deparment of Justice, and the National Center for Women and Policing joined with staff of the National Abortion Federation and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America to...
A new Franciscan community, formally approved by Bishop Kevin Rhoades in 2009, combines fidelity to the Pope, a daily horarium of prayer that begins at midnight, and radical poverty. A dozen men...
40 Days for Life, the pro-life apostolate characterized by prayer, fasting, and peaceful witness outside abortion facilities, has begun its largest campaign to date. Local campaigns, which will...
Alan Dershowitz, the famed Harvard Law School professor and civil liberties lawyer, has defended Pope Benedict’s handling of the abuse scandal in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting...
Two more women have died recently in the United States from RU-486, according to the New England Journal of Medicine,bringing the number of mothers killed by the abortifacient into the dozens-- in...
The Vatican bank is reportedly ready to ask an Italian court to release the $30 million in funds that were seized by Italian authorities investigating money-laundering complaints. The Vatican...
Pope Benedict XVI denounced organized crime, and praised the memory of a heroic priest who defied the Mafia, during a one-day visit to Sicily on October 3. "We must be ashamed of evil, of what...
All Christians have an obligation to spread the Gospel, Pope Benedict XVI said in an October 4 meeting with a group of visiting Brazilian bishops. The Holy Father praised the Brazilian...
Two separate groups of Church critics—representatives of abuse victims and a dissident organization of priests—have asked for an opportunity to participate in the apostolic visitation of the...
A priest who was fired from his teaching post at a Pennsylvania Catholic college and suspended from ministry may have been protecting the seal of confession, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette...
In editorial in England’s Catholic Herald says that in the wake of Pope Benedict’s visit, the prospect of Anglican-Catholic ordinariates can be seen in a more positive light. Whereas one these new...
President Benigno Aquino III and the Catholic bishops of the Philippines have agreed to tone down their dispute over plan for a government family-planning drive, at least until the bishops can...
Pope Benedict XVI spoke to priests, religious, and seminarians in the afternoon, then to young people early in the evening, on a busy one-day visit to Sicily on October 3. Flying into Palermo on...
The Vatican newspaper has chastised Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for his “deplorable” use of anti-Semitic and off-color jokes. Berlusconi’s blasphemous phrases and sexist...
An abortionist faces criminal charges after he allegedly waved a handgun at pro-life activists outside his clinic in South Carolina. Dr. Gary Boyle was arrested after the pro-lifers, who were...
In an editorial for Catholic World Report, George Neumayr argues that the visit by Pope Benedict to the United Kingdom makes it clear that the ultimate contest there is one between Catholicism and...
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced plans for a major increase in funding for programs designed to curb teen pregnancy. But the HHS spending plans show a decrease in...
Following a concert at the Vatican on Friday evening, October 2, Pope Benedict XVI remarked that faith can be aided by the arts, yet faith goes beyond the realm of artistry. “The word of faith has...
The controversial Dutch legislator Geert Wilders has gone on trial for public statements that allegedly incited hatred of Islam. Wilders, the flamboyant leader of the Freedom Party, could face a...
Released Tuesday, Oct. 5
Pope Benedict has named Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, as his envoy to celebrate the millennium of the founding of St. Peter’s Abbey in...
Preaching at the annual Red Mass in Washington before the beginning of the Supreme Court term, Archbishop J. Augustine DiNoia, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of...
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn lauded alleged Medjugorje seers Ivan Dragicevic and Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti as he welcomed them to St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna on September 23, according to an...
A bishop from southern Sudan is traveling to the United Kingdom to warn that the prospects of war there are increasing. “We have been witnesses of acts of unimaginable violence and contempt for...
An Italian Renaissance style parish church in Buffalo, built in 1911 and closed in 2008, will be moved to a suburb of Atlanta for $15 million, where it will serve as the new church of a rapidly...
The OSV Daily Take blog draws attention to the inspiring work of pro-life activists Chris and Joan Andrews Bell, whose New Jersey-based Good Counsel Homes have served 5,600 abandoned single mothers...
Vatican officials joined with leaders of the Madrid archdiocese in an October 5 press conference in Rome to outline plans for the World Youth Day celebration that will be held in the Spanish city in...
Pope Benedict XVI has completed a list of more than 200 bishops, 36 experts and 34 auditors who will participate in the Synod of Bishops on the Middle East, which opens in Rome next week. The...
The development agency administered by the Canadian Catholic bishops’ conference has obtained a court order to block the request of a Catholic news agency for information about the organization’s...
The Commission of Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) has launched an effort to support religious freedom, especially for Christians. “Violations of the right to freedom of...
The Nobel Prize awarded to Robert Edwards, the pioneer of in vitro fertilization, is “completely out of order,” a Vatican official argued. Bishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, the president of the...
A Catholic radio station in the Philippines has admitted that it improperly transcribed an interview with the president of the country’s episcopal conference, creating the impression that the bishop...
Released Wednesday, Oct. 6
Archbishop John Nienstedt denied Holy Communion to some two dozen gay activist students during a September 26 Mass at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. The students from St. John’s...
Speaking in Spain, and echoing language used by Venerable John Paul II, the Russian Orthodox Church’s leading ecumenical officer said on October 5 that this century will see a springtime of...
Mother Nadine Brown, the foundress of Intercessors of the Lamb, resigned on October 4 following an Omaha archdiocesan investigation into its governance, finances, and spiritual life. Archbishop...
A spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church has condemned the decision to award the Nobel Prize for Medicine to Robert Edwards, a pioneer in developing in-vitro fertilization. “An embryo is a...
In an address delivered on October 1 following a concert given in his honor, Pope Benedict paid tribute to two of the giants of classical music-- Franz Josef Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven-- and to...
The Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) is warning that a document produced at the UN’s World Youth Conference, held in August in León, Mexico, could influence UN action at the...
Pope Benedict XVI continued his series of weekly talks on influential Christian women of the Middle Ages, speaking about St. Gertrude at his public audience on October 6. Born in 1256, St....
Although the Russian Orthodox hierarchy has shown a very friendly attitude toward Pope Benedict XVI, the Moscow patriarchate remains loath to recognize any papal authority over the Eastern churches....
Ireland’s four archbishops, who have been called to Rome to help with planning for an apostolic visitation of the Church in Ireland, should reverse the direction of the inquiry and question the...
Israeli officials have arrested two Muslims on terrorism charges. One of those arrested, the imam of a mosque in Nazareth, demonstrated against Pope Benedict XVI during the papal visit there last...
Following the meetings the Irish bishops’ conference reported that the visitation will “give particular attention to victims of abuse and their families, but will also meet with and listen to a...
An Australian priest has sharply criticized the country’s ABC television network for citing him as the source of a report that Blessed Mary MacKillop, who will be canonized later this month, was...
The Catholic bishops of Vietnam discussed the criticism they have encountered among lay Catholics during a meeting of the episcopal conference this week. Bishop Joseph Nguyen Chi Linh, the vice...
More than 100 Church leaders from across India’s southern Karnataka state attended the second general assembly of the Karnataka United Christian Forum (KUCF) on October 5 at Bangalore, the state...
Pro-life blogger Jill Stanek tells a horrifying story about a woman raised by a mother who worked in an abortion clinic, and sacrificed her child's welfare to advance the cause of the abortion...
Archbishop Seraphim, the Canadian leader of the Orthodox Church in America, has stepped down from his post after being accused of sexual...
The cause for beatification of Cardinal Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan will open in Rome later this month with the commencement of a diocesan inquiry into his life and work. The Vietnamese...
Neighboring apartments will be redone to house exhibits documenting John Paul's entire life. The future pope was born Karol Wojtyla in Wadowice in May 1920. He died at the Vatican in April...
Italy’s law on assisted human reproduction faces a legal challenge in the country’s Constitutional Court. The Italian law, passed in 2003 with strong support from Catholic activists, forbids the...
The Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, which opens in Rome next week, will focus not on the region’s political problems but on the need for an active and apostolic Christian presence, according...
Released Thursday, Oct. 7
Saudi religious police stormed a private Mass taking place in a Riyadh hotel on October 1, arresting 12 Filipino organizers and a French priest, according to media reports. Approximately 150...
The rate of abortions per women of childbearing age peaked in 1982 in Italy, 1988 in India, and 2001 in Japan. Pro-abortion and pro-life commentators are debating the causes of the ensuing decline....
The US Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of a court decision upholding a New Jersey school district’s decision to ban the performance of Christmas carols at public concerts. “Religion...
The archbishop of Jos, Nigeria-- where Muslims killed hundreds of Christians earlier this year-- is mourning the loss of a local Muslim leader with whom he worked for peace. Emir Haruna Abdullahi of...
The Boniface Association-- an organization founded in 1849 to assist Catholics in predominantly Protestant areas of Germany-- has launched a campaign to restore devotion to St. Nicholas by calling...
In a National Marriage Day address delivered in Australia, Allan Carlson, founder of the World Congress of Families and president of the Howard Center, expressed optimism about the future of...
A musical based on the life of Blessed Mary MacKillop opened to a sellout audience in Sydney, Australia. The canonization of Australia’s first native saint, which will take place in Rome on October...
Using terms made popular by Pope John Paul II, Sarah Palin—the 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee, and a possible contender for the presidency in 2012—told a Texas crowd that this year’s...
The attorney general of Massachusetts has approved the sale of Boston’s Catholic health-care system to a private corporation that will convert the 6-hospital system into a for-profit...
Pope Benedict XVI expressed his sympathy for Chilean earthquake victims, and for the workers still trapped in a mine there, as he met on October 7 with a new ambassador from Chile to the Holy See....
"Catholic journalists must seek the truth with impassioned minds and hearts,” Pope Benedict XVI told a group of journalists at a private audience on October 7. Greeting the participants in a...
At an October 7 press conference in Rome, Vatican officials briefed reporters about a conference taking place this weekend, marking the 20th anniversary of the promulgation of a new Code of Canon...
Pope Benedict XVI has made two key appointments to the Roman Curia, naming Archbishop Mauro Piacenza as the new prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy and Archbishop Robert Sarah as president of...
Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, Australia, has released a statement opposing a move toward legal acceptance of euthanasia, saying that it is “the opposite of care.” The archbishop warned that...
A Dutch journalist has charged that prosecutors dropped cases against Catholic priests who had been accused of sexual abuse despite clear evidence. In his book Pious Sinners, Joep Dohmen says...
The Catholic bishops of Northern Ireland have issued a statement denouncing a conference on abortion practice, saying that the conference is “clearly designed to undermine the rights and welfare of...
The Archdiocese of New York will soon release a list of the Catholic schools that may be closed in a consolidation plan. Informed sources say that about 30 of the 216 parochial schools in the...
The Vatican bank, the Institute for Religious Works, has asked an Italian court to release the €23 million in funds that have been frozen by Italian banking authorities in connection with a...
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has thanked Pope Benedict XVI for denouncing an American fundamentalist pastor’s plan to burn the Qu’ran—although the Pope never made such a public statement. In...
Irish Church leaders sought to limit the scope of a Vatican investigation when they met this week with officials of the Holy See, according to a report in the Irish Catholic. Ireland’s leading...
Released Friday, Oct. 8
The Pope would no longer select most bishops in a vision of restored Christian unity outlined by the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation. The North American...
Catholics form a relatively low percentage of participants the Tea Party movement, have similar views to most Americans on abortion, and overwhelmingly support the legal recognition of homosexual...
In a lecture delivered October 6 and printed in L’Osservatore Romano, Father Uwe Michael Lang discussed the views of Popes Benedict XIV and Benedict XVI on sacred music. Lang, a consultor to the...
Advocates for religious freedom are increasingly concerned by the Obama administration’s record on the issue, including a shift in language from “freedom of religion” to “freedom of worship.” The...
A Ugandan prelate is criticizing the continued belief in witchcraft and fetishes in his area of the nation. Many residents, said Bishop Paul Ssemogerere of Kasana-Luweero, attribute disease to...
The Minneapolis Star Tribune has published a lengthy editorial criticizing Archbishop John Nienstedt’s actions in defense of marriage as the union of a man and a woman. At the same time, the...
Writing in the Irish Herald, Garry O’Sulivan, the editor of the Irish Catholic follows up on his earlier suggestion that the Irish bishops have sought to limit the scope of an apostolic visitation...
A Reuters correspondent finds it frustrating to speak with Peter Seewald, the German journalist whose lengthy interview with Pope Benedict XVI forms the basis for the forthcoming book, Light of the...
Pope Benedict XVI met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Vatican on October 8, for a 30-minute talk that touched on the peace process in the Middle East, religious freedom for Christians...
John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter is perceptive, as usual, in his analysis of the latest appointments by Pope Benedict to the Roman Curia. With the appointments announced on...
The Eastern Catholic churches will play a central role in the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, which opens in Rome on Sunday. Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, the secretary general of the Synod...
A Montana woman faces criminal charges after she used a crowbar to destroy a blasphemous exhibit at a gallery in Colorado. Kathleen Folden was arrested after she smashed an exhibit that depicted...
Acceptance of legal euthanasia could lead quickly to new threats on human life, an Australian bishop was warned. Bishop Anthony Fisher of Parramatta said that legislation allowing for euthanasia...
Brazilian President Luiz “Lula” da Silva has threatened to review the government’s agreements with the Church if Catholic leaders continue to question his likely successor’s stand on...
Released Monday, Oct. 11
The secretary general of the Sudanese bishops’ conference is expressing concern that the Church in the northern part of the nation will suffer persecution if the residents of southern Sudan opt for...
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church lauded Vladimir Putin on the occasion of the Russian prime minister’s 58th birthday. The former KGB agent served as the nation’s president from 1999 to...
The pastor of New York State’s oldest parish says that the controversy over the construction of a mosque near the site of the 9/11 terrorist attack is similar in some ways to the controversy over...
L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, has again paid tribute to the Irish rock band U2. Lauding the band’s performance before 75,000 in Rome on October 8, Giuseppe Fiorentino and Gaetano...
An estimated two thousand Catholics traveled to Canton, Ohio, this past weekend to pay tribute to 87-year-old Mother Angelica in her hometown. Bishop George Murry of Youngstown offered Mass, and the...
A 91-year-old Polish Franciscan priest who remains active in ministry in Massachusetts has recounted his days as a seminarian under St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe. Recalling the saint’s intelligence,...
Pope Benedict XVI opened the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East on October 11 with an address in which he said that a vigorous and apostolic Church in that region must combat the “false gods” such...
At his Angelus audience on October 11, Pope Benedict XVI asked for prayers for the success of the Middle East Synod, which he had formally opened with a Eucharistic liturgy that Sunday...
The Synod of Bishops for the Middle East began its deliberations on October 11, with a long report on the themes that have emerged from preparatory discussions. Pope Benedict XVI addressed the...
During the opening session of the Middle East Synod on October 11, two prelates criticized a new proposal by the government of Israel that would require new citizens to swear allegiance to a “Jewish...
Speaking last week at a Vatican conference on new modes of journalism organized by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, columnist Anna Arco of London’s Catholic Herald commented that...
A candidate’s reference to “dysfunctional homosexuals” sparked an angry exchange between the two leading candidates to be the next Governor of New York. Republican Carl Paladino criticized his...
A US federal appeals court has overturned a Vermont state law that prohibits motorists from choosing religious messages for their automobile license plates. About 38,000 Vermont car owners have...
The Australian government plans to set restrictions on the commercial use of the name of Blessed Mary MacKillop, responding to a rush of ventures hoping to exploit popular interest in Australia’s...
The Archbishop of Canterbury began a 2-week visit to Indian on October 9 by visiting the tomb of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Dr. Rowan Williams, the worldwide leader of the Anglican communion,...
A papal motu proprio formally establishing the new Pontifical Council for New Evangelization will be introduced on October 12, the Vatican press office has announced. The papal document, entitled...
The Eastern Catholic churches should protect and maintain their own distinctive traditions, Pope Benedict XVI said on October 9 during an audience with participants in a conference on the Code of...
Pope Benedict XVI met on October 11 with President Ivo Josipovic of Croatia. Their discussion focused on the status of the Croatian people in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as in their own...
A film recounting the murder of seven Cistercian monks in Algeria has claimed the top spot in French box-office revenues. Of Gods and Men, directed by Xavier Beauvois, tells the story of the...
The Catholic bishops of Minnesota, pursuing their energetic campaign to safeguard marriage, have released a statement saying that same-sex attraction does not create a legal “right” to same-sex...
Released Tuesday, Oct. 12
Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako of Khartoum survived an assassination attempt on October 10 while celebrating Mass, according to Sudan Catholic Radio. During the Mass, a man carrying a dagger ran...
Philippine President Benigno Aquino met with bishops on October 11 to discuss his controversial plan to provide funding for condoms and other contraceptives. “Both sides realized it would be...
While Christians in Egypt do not face the daily threat of death for their faith, they are suffering increased tolerance, according to Reuters. “In the streets, I do feel discrimination when a...
Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne of Lima and L’Osservatore Romano have praised the Nobel Prize committee’s decision to award the 2010 prize in literature to Peruvian writer Mario Vargas...
The American Civil Liberties Union has asked the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services to require religious hospitals to offer “emergency” abortions. Former Senator Rick Santorum’s recent...
In a wide-ranging Catholic World Report interview, Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix speaks about the extraordinary form of the Mass, the Arizona immigration law, the automatic excommunication of a...
With the October 12 promulgation of a motu proprio entitled Ubicumque et Semper, Pope Benedict XVI has established a Pontifical Council for New Evangelization. The new Vatican office is charged...
Belgium’s highest court has ruled that prosecutors should not have been required to return all the evidence that was seized during a June raid on the offices of the episcopal conference. Lower...
Sitting in on the press conference at which the new Pontifical Council for New Evangelization is announced, John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter asks some pointed questions about how the new...
The challenge of maintaining an active Christian presence in the Middle East, despite a increasingly assertive Muslim majority, emerged as a key theme during the first full day of discussions of the...
A new coat of arms for Pope Benedict XVI was introduced at the papal audience on Sunday, October 10. The new design incorporates the traditional triple crown of the papacy: the tiara or triregno,...
At the October 11 opening session of the Synod on the Middle East, Pope Benedict XVI spoke at some length without a text. Sandro Magister of L'Espresso has provided a full English-language...
In Scranton, Pennsylvania, when a Catholic health-care system that includes three hospitals was put up for sale, the chief executive said that the financial conditions prompting the sale were...
During the past several decades, most of the parishes in the Chicago archdiocese were served, at one time or another, by a priest who was the target of a credible sex-abuse complaint, according to a...
Released Wednesday, Oct. 13
The bishops of England and Wales are urging Catholics to witness to their faith on Halloween. “Halloween is now the biggest commercial festival after Christmas and Easter, and it is time we...
Speaking at the UN on October 11, Sudanese Christian leaders, including two Catholic bishops, urged the international community to prepare now for the humanitarian emergencies that may take early...
A US district judge in California has declared that the 1993 federal law on gays in the military-- popularly known as the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy-- is unconstitutional. The law bars those...
On October 17, Pope Benedict will canonize six religious, two of whom lived in the fifteenth century. Blessed Stanislaw Soltys Kazimierczyk (1433-89), a Krakow priest, entered the Canons Regular...
Speaking at a press conference on October 10, El Salvador’s leading prelate denounced prison conditions in the Latin American nation. “I maintain the belief that these prisoners need to be...
Tony Blair and famed atheist Christopher Hitchens will take part in a debate in Toronto next month over whether “religion is a force for good in the world.” Blair, who served as prime minister of...
Speaking from Rome, where they are participating in the Middle East Synod, the archbishops of Detroit and Toronto said that they would not object if the Eastern Catholic churches chose to ordain...
Political conflicts in the Middle East should not deter progress in relations between Christians and Jews, a Jewish representative said in his October 13 address to the Synod of Bishops for the...
The Christian presence in the Middle East is gravely endangered by political conflicts and by accelerated emigration, several prelates agreed in presentations to the Synod of Bishops on October 12...
Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, California, has voiced his opposition to a ballot measure that would delay implementation of some environmental rules. The California ballot question,...
New York’s City Council is weighing new regulations that would require crisis-pregnancy centers to advertise their pro-life stand, in response to abortionists’ complaints that the centers give...
The Archdiocese of Detroit has warned the faithful against participating in a conference organized by dissident Catholics, and directed parishes and Church institutions not to cooperate with the...
The Archdiocese of Zadar, Croatia, has handed over a relic of St. Simeon to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, in an ecumenical gesture that the Orthodox Archbishop Theofylactus said...
During the visit by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Lebanon, a bomb destroyed the car of an Islamic cleric in Beirut who is an ally of the Iranian leader. There were no casualties, but the...
The president of an Australian federation of small-business owners has asked Pope Benedict XVI to intervene against a government proposal to restrict the commercial use of the name of the country’s...
Writing in London's Catholic Herald about the dramatic rescue of trapped Chilean miners, William Oddie argues that the media have not given adequate attention to the miners' religious beliefs. "One...
After a meeting with President Benigno Aquino, the Catholic bishops of the Philippines have reiterated that they will not waver in their opposition to an aggressive national family-planning...
During his weekly public audience on October 13, Pope Benedict XVI continued his series of talks on influential Catholic women of the Middle Ages, speaking about Blessed Angela of Foligno. Born...
During his regular weekly public audience on October 13, Pope Benedict XVI revealed that he was praying steadily for the success of the rescue operation mounted to release 33 Chilean miners who had...
Released Thursday, Oct. 14
Violence against Christian girls is “unfortunately common” in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, according to Father Khalid Rashid Asi, vicar general of the Diocese of Faisalabad. Lubna Masih, 12,...
Four police officers are among the suspects in the robbery and murder of a Catholic near Moscow. According to Russian media reports, Akhmed Merizov was carrying $1,400 on Church-related business...
A study conducted by Iranian university researchers and published in Medical Oncology has found that women who have had an abortion face a 193% greater chance of breast cancer. The study is the...
Mass attendance in the Diocese of Green Bay increased 7.4% following the airing of commercials produced by Catholics Come Home, according to a diocesan survey. 53% of pastors reported an increase in...
Nigerian con artists have stolen a Chicago bishop’s identity and have gained perhaps tens of thousands of dollars in donations for a non-existent orphanage. Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry was...
On October 17, Pope Benedict will canonize six religious, two of whom founded religious institutes in historically Catholic nations. Beatified in 1996, Bl. Cándida María de Jesús Cipitria y...
The harsh life facing Christians as a religious minority in the Middle East and the absence of religious freedom in Islamic countries were prominent themes in the discussions of the Synod of Bishops...
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), the armed group that has waged a campaign of terror and human-rights violations beginning in northern Uganda and spreading through central Africa, has now set its...
Prosecutors in Denmark have completed a review of sex-abuse charges involving Catholic priests, and decided against pressing charges in any of the cases. Danish Church officials noted that the...
A magnificent crucifix designed by Giotto has been returned to display in All Saints church in Florence, Italy, after an arduous 5-year restoration effort. The 14th-century work had been severely...
French President Nicolas Sarkozy was asked by Vatican officials not to bring his wife Carla Bruni with him when he met with Pope Benedict XVI last week, according to a report in the Daily...
Setting a new precedent at the Vatican, two Muslim leaders addressed the Synod of Bishops on October 14. Representing the two main strands of Islam, the Sunni scholar Mohammad al Sammak of...
A Coptic Orthodox bishop faces criticism for traveling to Jerusalem, despite a ban by Coptic Pope Shenouda III on all travel to Israel. A spokesman for Bishop Theodosius of Giza, Egypt, said that...
Released Friday, Oct. 15
The National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB) has issued a remarkable rebuke to the bishops of the conference’s South Region 1, who have urged Catholics not to vote for candidate Dilma...
Citing the possibility of “censorship” and “forms of authoritarianism,” Bolivia’s bishops have issued a statement warning against possible applications of the nation’s new Law Against Racism and All...
In an address to a Human Life International conference, Archbishop Raymond Burke, prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, lamented the scandal brought about by dissenting bishops and politicians who...
The trustees of Ushaw College, northern England’s last remaining seminary, have announced a proposal to close the seminary in the spring. Cardinal William Allen founded Douai College in France...
Siding with pro-life advocates, a US district court judge has blocked enforcement of a Pittsburgh ordinance banning the placement of leaflets on windshields. “At issue is the right of pro-life...
On October 17, Pope Benedict will canonize six religious, the most famous of whom are Blessed Mary of the Cross MacKillop (1842-1909) and Blessed André Bessette (1845-1937). At the age of 24,...
The Vatican’s permanent observer at the United Nation called for greater efforts to combat malaria in Africa, and a concerted campaign against the use of children in armed combat, in two separate...
In a significant victory for freedom of expression, the Hong Kong diocese has won approval to hold a prayer vigil for religious liberty in China, despite strong resistance from government...
A bishop of the Church of England has announced his plan to resign before the end of this year, and join an Anglican ordinariate in the Catholic Church. Bishop John Broadhurst of Fulham is the...
The rights of Christian minorities in the Middle East, and especially in Iraq, were in focus as the Synod of Bishops continued its discussions in plenary sessions on October 14 and 15. “Churches...
Pope Benedict XVI wrote the “everyone-- from individuals to the organizations of civil society, States and international institutions – needs to give priority to one of the most urgent goals for the...
Among the prominent “talking heads” who discuss current events on TV talk shows, few are religious and fewer still are experts on religion, notes Francis Beckwith. He observes: What seems to...
Blessed Mary MacKillop, who on Sunday will become the first native Australian canonized as a saint, is being hailed as the “patron of whistle-blowers” because of reports that she reported a priest...
The president of the Turkish bishops’ conference has charged that the June killing of Bishop Luigi Padovese was an act of “premeditate murder” arranged by “ultra-nationalists and religious...
Church officials in Honduras are doing their best to downplay the significance of a bullet fired into the office of Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, but admit that the cardinal might move his...
The cause for beatification of Pope John Paul II has cleared another hurdle, with the report that doctors have no scientific explanation for a cure attributed to his influence, according to reports...
Bishops participating in the Middle East Synod have expressed a strong interest in fixing a common date for Easter, to be celebrated at the same time by Catholics, Orthodox, and other Christians....
An Anglican represenative at the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East said that the United Kingdom should recognize its historical role in establishing the political structures that have caused...
Released Monday, Oct. 18
The bishops of Malta have issued a pastoral letter in defense of the indissolubility of marriage as the nation’s lawmakers consider the legalization of divorce. “At no point does Jesus specify...
Peter Robinson, Northern Ireland’s first minister, has denounced church schools as a “benign form of apartheid,” saying that “we cannot hope to move beyond our present community divisions while our...
Cardinal Ricardo Vidal of Cebu, who retired on October 15 at the age of 79, said on the eve of his retirement that he was willing to go to prison rather than accept the provisions in proposed...
Belgian lawmakers are condemning Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard of Malines-Brussels, the nation’s primate since February, for referring in a newly published book to the “inherent justice” of...
Caritas Internationalis, the consortium of Catholic charitable and development agencies, has issued an appeal for flood-ravaged Benin. “We haven’t really seen anything like this before,” says...
A priest of the Diocese of San Bernardino, in conjunction with a television production company, is seeking to become the subject of a reality television show. The show, at present entitled “Divine...
An Anglican congregation in Folkestone, England, has voted to leave the Church of England and seek incorporation in an ordinariate of the Catholic Church. Their pastor, Father Stephen Bould, expects...
The Synod of Bishops for the Middle East has concluded its general discussions, and moved on to begin work on a final message. On Saturday, October 16, the Synod participants heard the first...
Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on October 16. During their discussions on Church-state relations in Poland, and current affairs in Europe...
Pope Benedict XVI presided on October 17 at the canonization of six new saints for the universal Church, including the first Australian ever canonized and the first native Canadian male. In his...
Cardinal Joseph Zen met with several Church leaders on mainland China last week, but reports that he was not able to speak with leaders of the “underground” Church. Cardinal Zen—the retired...
At this Angelus audience on October 17, after presiding at the canonization of six new saints, Pope Benedict XVI remarked that saints are “the living image of God’s love.” The Pope spoke in...
In separate meetings on October 18 with new ambassadors from Colombia and El Salvador to the Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI reflected on the role of the Catholic Church in Latin America, saying that...
The Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium may drop its institutional affiliation with the Church. The Fleming-language University of Leuven—which until 1968 was joined with the French-speaking...
Citing “grave reasons,” Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha, Nebraska, has suppressed the Intercessors of the Lamb, an association of clerics and laity living in community. The canonical suppression...
Australian foreign minister Kevin Rudd, in Rome for the canonization of St. Mary MacKillop, defended the Catholic Church against critics during a press conference. Noting that the Church has...
Writing from Australia for Inside the Vatican, Andrew Rabel exposes the error of thinking that St. Mary MacKillop can be regarded as a model for rebellious women in the...
A cause for the beatification of Father Walter Ciszek, a Pennsylvania native who spent years as a prisoner of the Soviet regime, is moving forward at the Vatican. Msgr. Anthony Muntone, a...
The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, evidently determined to shed its reputation as stolid and sensible, has praised the television show The Simpsons as among the few TV programs for children...
Pope Benedict XVI has written a message to the world’s seminarians, assuring young men who have chosen to prepare for the priesthood, despite popular resentments against the Church, “you have done a...
Released Tuesday, Oct. 19
The Munich-based Klang Verwaltung Orchestra and the Neubeuern Choir, under the direction of Enoch zu Guttenberg, performed Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem on October 16 for Pope Benedict and the Synod of...
A largely Muslim nation with a tortured history of Church-state relations is “on the path of liberation from the shackles of slavery,” its leading prelate said in a pre-election message. After...
Describing his meeting with Pope Benedict last month as “a moment I shall never forget,” Great Britain’s chief rabbi said that “soul touched soul across the boundaries of faith, and there was a...
To the consternation of some Christian organizations, the Christian parents of a rape and murder victim have accepted one million Pakistani rupees ($11,636) in return for abandoning charges against...
Nearly two million people-- thousands of whom made the journey barefoot-- venerated the image of Our Lady of Zapopan during an annual procession in her honor on October 12. At the outdoor Mass...
The National Catholic Register has drawn attention to two apostolates that seek to assist those struggling with temptations to pornography. Matthew Fradd, who converted to Catholicism after...
At his regular weekly public audience tomorrow—October 20—Pope Benedict XVI will announce a consistory and name new members of the College of Cardinals, most journalists at the Vatican are...
A young Muslim man sparked outrage in Florence last week when he climbed onto the altar of the city’s most famous church and danced. The young man, who has been identified by police as an...
The leader of a self-styled group seeking to prevent parish closings in the Boston archdiocese has made a personal appeal to Pope Benedict. Peter Borre of the Council of Parishes delivered a...
The bishops of New York have issued an election-year statement urging Catholic voters to put moral principles ahead of selfish interests in choosing political candidates. The bishops’ statement...
An Australian obstetrician who helped introduce the abortifacient drug RU-486 in Queensland has hailed a court decision acquitting a couple who used the drug of criminal charges. "The decision in...
The Catholic bishops have denounced the use of in vitro fertilization, condemning the procedure as “the younger sister of eugenics.” Prime Minister Donal Tusk has promised to provide government...
The participants in the Synod of Bishops met on October 19 in small groups, arranged by language, to explore the themes that had arisen during their first week of discussions. The Synod is now...
Archbishop John Nienstedt of St. Paul, Minnesota, argues that the Catholic Church can remain a powerful influence on society despite a decline in numbers. In an interview with AP, Archbishop...
Released Wednesday, Oct. 20
The world’s tallest statue of Christ is nearing completion in Swiebodzin, a western Polish city of 22,000. Begun in 2008 and over 100 feet tall, the statue was designed by Father Sylwester Zawadzki,...
“Not so long ago, we were warned that rising global population would inevitably bring world famine,” writes Phillip Longman in the November 2010 issue of Foreign Policy. “Because of the continuing...
Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York has again criticized The New York Times for “the common, casual way [it] offends Catholic sensitivity, something they would never think of doing — rightly so —...
Missy Smith, the Republican candidate for the District of Columbia’s congressional delegate position, has launched a television ad campaign that includes graphic images of aborted fetuses. The...
Feminists Choosing Life of New York has filed suit to stop the taxpayer-funded purchase of human eggs for research into human cloning. “New York State has gone over an ethical barrier,” says Jean...
Meeting recently at a conference sponsored by the Council for Secular Humanism, 370 American atheists explored the topic “How publicly scornful of religion should we be?” The conference attendees,...
At his regular weekly public audience on October 20, Pope Benedict XVI announced his plan to elevate 24 new members to the College of Cardinals. Confirming the expectations of Vatican...
The leaders of the Synod of Bishops—the relator general and the prelates designated to report from each of the small discussion groups—have begun formulating a series of propositions for the...
In his catechetical talk for his regular weekly audience on October 20—before revealing the names of the 24 new cardinals he will elevate at a consistory in November—Pope Benedict XVI spoke about...
An Italian court has denied a plea from the Vatican bank to release the €23 million ($31.7 million) that were frozen in connection with a money-laundering investigation. The Vatican bank,...
The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that Anglican leaders should be involved in the planning for ordinariates that are established to accommodate the pastoral needs of Anglicans entering the...
Christine O'Donnell, the controversial candidate for a Delaware Senate seat, was raised a Catholic. After some youthful experimentation she returned to the Church; she identifies herself as a...
Released Thursday, Oct. 21
German bishops are denouncing a decision by Gunther von Hagens, who created the Body Worlds exhibit, to sell his plastinated corpses online. “This is not about new discoveries for science and...
Officials in the western Russian city Smolensk, a city near the Polish border, have agreed to return a historic Catholic parish building to the Church. Since the Stalin regime, the parish has been...
The Archdiocese of Washington has announced that it will open a new seminary for college seminarians and seminarians engaged in pre-theology studies. “At a time when the teachings of the Catholic...
Father Joseph Langford, who, together with Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, founded the Missionaries of Charity Fathers, has died in Tijuana following a yearlong struggle with cancer. He was 59. In...
In preparation for World Mission Sunday, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples’ Fides news agency is offering a statistical picture of the Church, with a breakdown of statistics by...
A priest of the Diocese of Cleveland has been ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution following his conviction for embezzlement. Father Sam Ciccolini, who embezzled funds from a drug...
During the Pope's visit to England, the master of ceremonies for papal liturgies, Msgr. Guido Marini, intervened personally to ensure that the altar would be arranged according to the Pope's wishes...
Cardinal Joseph Zen has charged that "malicious" comments about his visit to China earlier this month have been designed to convey the wrong impression about his trip and his motives. A Chinese...
A transport-workers union in Spain has announced plans to go on strike on the day when Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Barcelona. The CGT union says that the 1-day strike is a protest against the...
The author of a much-discussed article in the Vatican newspaper about The Simpsons has complained that his words have been misinterpreted. Father Francesco Occhetta, who wrote in L’Osservatore...
A Washington pro-life activist challenged the head of a liberal Catholic organization in a heated exchange on public funding for abortion during a press conference on October 20. The group known...
A representative of Egypt’s largest Christian church, invited to address the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, said that the meeting may come too late to stem the exodus of Christians from the...
A tradition-minded group within the Church of England has expressed regret at the announcement that Anglican Bishops John Broadhurst will enter the Catholic Church. The “Catholic Group” within...
Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute to the energy and initiative that had fueled “remarkable economic growth” in Korea, but cautioned that the country must be mindful of those who are in need, as he met...
Pope Benedict XVI prodded the government of Romania to ensure equal justice for all religions, during an October 21 meeting with the nation’s new ambassador to the Holy See, Bogdan...
The Synod of Bishops met on October 21 in a plenary session, to hear a list of propositions that had been developed by the relator general as a proposed summary of the Synod discussions. The Synod...
Released Friday, Oct. 22
All 33 of the miners who were rescued from the San Jose mine will attend an ecumenical thanksgiving service on October 25 at the national shrine in Maipu. Bishop Alejandro Goic, the president of the...
Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh has criticized a leading government official in Northern Ireland for suggesting that Catholic schools create “a benign form of apartheid.” Peter Robinson, the First...
Government and the Church should cooperate in serving the common good, Pope Benedict XVI said as he met on October 22 with three new ambassadors to the Holy See: from Slovenia, Portugal, and...
Actor F. Murray Abraham, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Antonio Salieri in the film Amadeus, will portray Blessed John Henry Newman in a new film biography. Italian director Liana Marabini...
The Synod of Bishops for the Middle East is nearing its conclusion, with votes scheduled tomorrow—Saturday, October 23—on the final propositions to be presented to Pope Benedict XVI. The Synod’s...
Americans strongly favor embryonic stem-cell research, according to a new public-opinion poll. Catholics favor the research by a margin barely lower than that for the general population. The...
Bioethicist Peter Singer argued that a human baby “has no moral status because he is not self-aware,” during a debate on abortion at Princeton University. Singer’s debate opponent, Oxford...
The Vatican’s representative at UN headquarters in New York has argued poverty can be eliminated if nations find the political will for the task. Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, speaking at a UN...
The prelate appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to supervise the reform of the Legionaries of Christ reports that the troubled religious order is entering a time of “reconstruction and renewal.”...
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has announced plans to make the Dead Sea Scrolls available online. With support for major donors and in cooperation with Google, the IAA will make...
Two Lebanese Catholic prelates questioned the feasibility of dialogue with Islam during discussions on October 21 at the Synod of Bishops. Commenting on propositions advocating inter-religious...
Archbishop Hector Aguer of La Plata, Argentina has charged that the UN and its affiliates are engaged in a campaign to undermine the traditional bases of Latin American culture. “Where do these...
The California Catholic Conference has raised serious questions about Proposition 19, a state ballot initiative that would legalize the use of marijuana. The measure “could have severe unintended...
A British Airways worker has asked the European Court of Human Rights to weigh her discrimination case, which she began when she was ordered not to wear a cross around her neck while she was on the...
The Shi’ite Islamic leader who addressed the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East has said that Muslims in Iran are free to embrace the Christian faith, despite strict Islamic law that prescribes...
Poland’s bishops are apparently divided on the appropriate disciplinary treatment for Catholic lawmakers who support a bill that would provide government support for in vitro...
Released Monday, Oct. 25
Rabbi David Rosen of the American Jewish Committee, who had addressed the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, offered strong criticism of comments made near the synod’s conclusion by Archbishop...
Contributions to the University of Notre Dame fell by over $120 million during the fiscal year in which President Barack Obama was awarded an honorary degree. Several dozen bishops criticized the...
Bishop David Monroe of Kamloops (British Columbia) is in serious condition after a man brutally beat him in the cathedral rectory on the evening of October 22. The suspect had escaped from a...
Four years after the San Francisco board of supervisors condemned Catholic teaching on homosexuality and urged Archbishop George Niederauer to defy Catholic teaching on adoption by homosexual...
A group of 20 Muslims has illegally occupied a Presbyterian chapel in the northern Pakstani city of Rawalpindi, according to the Fides news agency. Local Christians responded with a nonviolent...
Auxiliary Bishop Oscar Cantú of San Antonio, who is temporarily administering the archdiocese, has ended a weekly parish Mass sponsored by Dignity, a gay and lesbian organization at odds with...
Pope Benedict XVI formally closed the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East with a Mass in St. Peter’s basilica on Sunday, October 24. In his homily the Holy Father called for solidarity among the...
The topic for the next meeting of the Synod of Bishops will be the “new evangelization,” Pope Benedict XVI has announced. During his homily at that Mass concluding the Middle East Synod on...
The Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, in a final message on October 22, issued an urgent call for renewal and for peace in the region. “We are now at a turning point in our history,” the...
The chairman of the Vatican bank has charged that a money-laundering investigation is part of a “fierce attack on the Church’s credibility.” Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the chairman of the Institute...
A Catholic church in Lucerne, Switzerland, plans to distribute 3,000 condoms in an AIDS-awareness campaign. Neither the Diocese of Basel (in which Lucerne is located) nor the Swiss bishops’...
Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the head of the US military ordinariate, emphasized that there is no “right” to serve in the armed forces, during an interview with the Catholic News...
The Diocese of San Diego, California, has released thousands of pages of priest-personnel files, after losing a long court battle to maintain their confidentiality. A California court ordered the...
William Oddie of the Catholic Herald-- himself a former Anglican—warns against efforts by the Church of England to dissuade conservative Anglicans from entering an ordinariate in the Catholic...
Pope Benedict XVI has called for a “fair and mutually agreed-upon solution” to a strike that has blocked collection of refuse in Naples. The strike has had a painful effect on the Italian city,...
Joseph Bottum that the voting patterns of Catholics as a group—barely distinguishable from those of their non-Catholic neighbors—raise questions about the existence of a “Catholic vote” that could...
The deliberations of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East concluded on Saturday, October 23, with the approval of 44 propositions that will be presented to Pope Benedict XVI. These 44...
At his Angelus audience on October 24, Pope Benedict XVI noted that the day marked both the formal close of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, and the worldwide observance of Mission...
Pope Benedict XVI met on October 25 with President James Alix Michel of the Seychelles. Their conversation, the Vatican later reported, focused on Church-state relations and on a shared desire to...
An AP story profiles some of the controversial Catholic bloggers, mostly conservative, who are raising the hackles of diocesan officials by scrutinizing local Church policies and demanding more...
Released Tuesday, Oct. 26
Three Brazilian bishops-- Bishop Luiz Gonzaga Bergonzini of Guarulhos, Bishop Benedito Beni Dos Santos of Lorena, and Bishop Nelson Westrupp of Santo André-- have received anonymous death threats...
In a recent interview, the leading Franciscan in the Holy Land lamented the discrimination that Christians face in Israel and the Palestinian territories. In the latter, “there is a Muslim...
Some 700 Catholic and Protestant churches have been attacked in Indonesia over the past decade, according to the Indonesian Christian Communication Forum. Between October 12 and October 17, a...
A new national seminary will open in Cuba in early November-- the first new religious construction permitted in the Communist nation in five decades. Cuba currently has 87 seminarians, according to...
The members of Mount Calvary Episcopal Parish in Baltimore voted on October 24 to seek entry into the Catholic Church as an Anglican Use parish. “I am saddened that members of this small...
The state central committee of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party is distributing an ad described by a National Catholic Register blogger as “the most anti-Catholic political ad you’ll ever...
The president of the Vietnamese bishops’ conference has strongly protested the government’s prosecution of Catholic activists who protested the seizure of parish property at Con Dau. The Catholic...
A Protestant man in Uzbekistan has been slapped with a heavy fine for owning a film about Jesus, Murat Jalalov faces a fine of 3.1 million Soms—a sum that represents more than 7 years’ income at...
A Holy Cross brother was assaulted and severely beaten by a mob of Hindu activists in a suburb of Bangalore, while television cameras recorded the assault. Police only reluctantly took note of the...
In an age of globalization, all people should be recognized as members of “one human family,” Pope Benedict XVI said in his message for the World Day for Migrants and Refugees. The Pope’s message...
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has announced “stronger policies and clearer mechanisms” to ensure that grants from the bishops’ anti-poverty agency do not support causes inimical...
Tarik Aziz, the deputy prime minister of Iraq under the regime led by Saddam Hussein, has been sentenced to death for participating in a violent purge of Shi’ite Muslims. Aziz, a Chaldean...
Released Wednesday, Oct. 27
Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, has distanced the Vatican from comments on Israel made by Melkite Archbishop Cyrille Bustros at a press conference on October 23, the...
One of the nation’s most thriving religious communities has signed an agreement to purchase the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington. The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the...
Bishop Kevin Farrell of Dallas has issued a statement criticizing an upcoming lecture by Father Charles Curran, a priest of the Diocese of Rochester and leading dissenter from Catholic moral...
In a brief lecture delivered October 25 at the United States Air Force Academy, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver praised military service as a potentially ennobling vocation and called for a new...
Xishiku Cathedral in Beijing, constructed in 1887 and once the seat of a cardinal, has been restored to its original splendor at the cost of 30 million yuan ($4.48 million), according to the Fides...
In an interview with Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review Online, Mother Mary Clare Millea offers an update on the apostolic visitation of active women religious in the United States. “My task as...
John Allen makes several good points about the remarks by Archbishop Cyrille Bustros, which have provoked some angry reactions from Israeli officials and American Jewish leaders: The Synod of...
At his weekly public audience on October 27, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about St. Bridget of Sweden (1303- 1373), continuing his series on the role of women in the Church. St. Bridget’s life could...
A group of Holocaust survivors from Yugoslavia and Ukraine have asked European Union authorities to investigate whether the Vatican bank played a role in transferring assets stolen from...
James MacMillan, a Scottish composer who wrote the music for the Mass at which Pope Benedict XVI beatified Cardinal John Henry Newman, discloses that liturgists tried to prevent the performance of...
A court in Ohio has ordered prosecutors to hand over all relevant files to a priest who was convicted in the killing of a nun. Lawyers for Father Gerald Robinson say that they are anxious to see...
Six Vietnamese Catholic activists were convicted and sentenced for “disturbing public order, disorderly conduct, and attacking state security officers” after a quick trial in which defendants were...
Massive floods have driven at least 200,000 people from their homes in Benin, and triggered an epidemic of disease, prompting urgent calls for help from relief agencies. Caritas Benin, the...
At the conclusion of his regular weekly public audience on October 27, Pope Benedict XVI issued two appeals for help: for victims of natural disasters in Indonesia and in Benin. In Indonesia, a...
Released Thursday, Oct. 28
In his 2009 year-end address to the Roman Curia, Pope Benedict reflected on the role of the ‘Court of the Gentiles’ at the temple in Jerusalem: it was “a free space for the Gentiles who wished to...
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone paid tribute to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s theology of the liturgy at the October 27 release of the Italian translation of first volume of the...
The Second Catholic-Orthodox Forum, organized by the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE) and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, took place in Rhodes (Greece) earlier this...
The Minneapolis Star Tribune has published a profile of Archbishop John Nienstedt, whose orthodoxy, defense of marriage, and decision to close parishes have caused controversy in the Archdiocese of...
Muslim students attending a Catholic primary school in Malawi tore up New Testaments that were being distributed by the Gideons International organization, which promotes the distribution of...
The bishops of Colombia are criticizing a new law that provides for free tubal ligations and vascectomies at hospitals. Such practices are “mutilations of the body, and the body must be respected,”...
In a unique fundraising effort, the School Sisters of Notre Dame will auction off a Honus Wagner baseball card on November 4, expecting to raise about $100,000. The Honus Wagner card, which is...
An editorial in the Washington Times approvingly cites the words of Archbishop Raymond Burke to underline the duty of Catholics to vote to protect human life. The recent announcement that Archbishop...
In an annual message to the world’s Hindus, the Vatican has suggested that Christians and Hindus should work “together to become artisans of peace.” The message from the Pontifical Council for...
Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard of Brussels has asked for a balanced approach to the punishment of priests who have been guilty of abuse, warning against “a sort of vengeance.” Questioned as to...
A new survey shows that political candidates in Queensland, Australia will lose public support if they favor a proposal to decriminalize abortion. While voters were split on the question of...
The value of science in the 21st century will be measured by “the scientist’s ability to search for truth and apply discoveries in a way that goes hand in hand with the search for what is just and...
Church leaders “have a grave duty to pronounce moral judgments" on political issues, Pope Benedict XVI told a group of visiting Brazilian bishops on October 28. The Pope told the Brazilian...
The Intercessors of the Lamb—the civil corporation affiliated with the group that was formally suppressed by Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha, Nebraska earlier this month—has issued a message...
Catholic voters have a “very serious” moral duty to use their ballots to defend the natural law, says Archbishop Raymund Burke. In an interview with Catholic Action, conducted shortly after the...
The head of the Franciscan Custody in the Holy Land has rejected complaints that the Synod of Bishops harbored a prejudice against Israel. In an interview with the Italian daily Il Foglio, Father...
Released Friday, Oct. 29
Pope Benedict has paid tribute to Erik Peterson (1890-1960), a theologian who specialized in early Christianity and converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism in Rome in 1930. Unable to secure a...
Catholic villages were the ones “hardest hit” by the tsunami that has killed over 400 in Indonesia, according to Bishop Martinus Situmorang of Padang. “As a diocese, we rented a boat that will...
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and four Reformed ecclesial communities-- the Christian Reformed Church in North America, the Presbyterian Church-USA, the Reformed Church in...
Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committee on migration, praised the Trafficking Victims Protection Act on its tenth anniversary...
Citing “the ability to make medical decisions, with your doctor, without interference from the government,” Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union have sued the State of Montana,...
Mark Dayton, a former US senator who is now the Democratic (DFL) gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota, has distanced himself from a campaign ad that has been criticized inside and outside the state...
The Holy See has reaffirmed its commitment to bring the operations of the Vatican bank, the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), into line with European regulations. A spokesman for the European...
Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute to Romano Guardini, in an address to participants in a conference on the work of the 20th-century theologian. The Holy Father—who studied under Guardini in his...
Italian Catholics are taking the lead in a campaign against the adoption of pagan symbols and practices in the celebration of Halloween. “We are faced with a sort of revival of neopaganism,”...
Francis Beckwith, the noted Evangelical scholar who returned to the Catholic Church in 2007, notes that even during his days as a Protestant he had only a “modest” enthusiasm for the celebration of...
A Brazilian Catholic priest was shot and killed by an unknown assailant. Father Josenir Morais Santana was killed by a gunshot through his back, which penetrated his heart. Authorities have no...
Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard of Brussels, who has been dogged by criticism because of recent public statements, says that he will not make any further public pronouncements until after Christmas....
Pope Benedict XVI will travel to Croatia in 2011, authorities in that nation have disclosed. In their October 29 announcement, Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and Cardinal Josip Bozanic, the...
“Since the beginning of the most recent round of the crisis, which erupted in Ireland and then spread across Europe, critics have wondered why Pope Benedict XVI has not imposed a uniform global...
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has been severely criticized in Catholic publications because of frequent flirtations with young women, has announced that he has no plans to adopt a...
Influential figures around the Vatican are expressing starkly different views on the nation’s demographic future, notes Sandro Magister in L’Espresso. The chairman of the Vatican bank, Ettore Gotti...
Looking forward to the visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Spain next week, the Vatican has released a set of statistics about the Church in that country. About 92.5% of Spain’s 46 million people are...
The Vatican has released the prayer intentions of Pope Benedict XVI for November 2010. The Pope’s general intention is: "That victims of drugs or of other dependence may, thanks to the support of...
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