Catholic World News

Coptic Orthodox Christians clashed with police in Alexandria following a January 1 church bombing that left 21 dead. Egyptian religious and civil authorities decried the violence. Pope Benedict...

Three former bishops of the Church of England-- John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton-- were received into the Catholic Church at Westminster Cathedral on January 1 during a Mass...

Tens of thousands of Spaniards attended an outdoor Mass and rally for the family in Madrid on January 2. Pope Benedict addressed the gathering via satellite. “Whenever the true worth of matrimony...

New York’s new governor and lieutenant governor, Andrew Cuomo and Bob Duffy, attended Sunday Mass at Albany’s cathedral, where Bishop Howard Hubbard preached that the work of government was an...

Roland Joffé, twice nominated for the Academy Award for best director, discusses his forthcoming film There Be Dragons, in which St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer (1902-75), the founder of Opus...

A former Miami archdiocesan priest whose television, radio, and newspaper outreach extended to outlets as varied as Telemundo and EWTN has denounced the Church in a new book. Alberto Cutié, whose...

Pope Benedict XVI has asked the world’s religious leaders to join him in Assisi in October 2011, in a joint prayer for peace. During his Angelus audience on Sunday, January 1, the Pope announced...

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sent Christmas greetings to Pope Benedict XVI. The Iranian leader—who has made several efforts to gain diplomatic support from the Holy See—offered his...

Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia, took aim at Catholic politicians who defy Church teachings during an interview with the Herald Sun. The cardinal said he found it "incongruous for...

In a message for the closing of the Holy Year at Santiago de Compostela, Pope Benedict XVI said that the pilgrims who have visited the famous Spanish shrine during the year should now take up the...

Spain’s abortion rate more than doubled from 1997 to 2007, despite a steep rise in the use of contraceptives, a new study shows. The authors of the study, puzzled by the results, conclude: “The...

Italy's ambassador to the Holy See has said that "Europe could do more" to protect Christians from religious violence. Speaking to the AGI news service after Pope Benedict XVI renewed his appeal...

An official inquiry into the handling of sex-abuse complaints in the Diocese of Cloyne, Ireland, has focused on the conduct of the Gardai (police), the Sunday Business Post reports. The newspaper...

A veteran attorney has warned a California court of rampant fraud in sex-abuse claims against Catholic priests. Donald Steier has submitted a statement to Los Angeles County Superior Court saying...

Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, has responded to criticism of Pope Benedict by the former grand mufti of Egypt. Following a January 1 church bombing of a Coptic...

Civil authorities in several European nations are providing police protection for Coptic Orthodox churches following threats by Islamists. A Coptic Orthodox priest in France described “threats made...

The three former Anglican bishops who were received into the Catholic Church on January 1 are spending 12 days as Catholic laymen. On January 13, John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton...

The president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue has condemned the New Year’s bombing of a Coptic Orthodox church in Egypt that left 21 dead. “This is a perversion of...

Cardinal Jaime Ortega has welcomed President Raul Castro’s proposals for a freer economy. During a January 1 Mass, the cardinal prayed publicly “for the successful implementation of this process of...

Bishop Joseph Pepe of Las Vegas and retired Bishop Philip Straling of Reno concelebrated a special Mass preceding the on January 3 inauguration of Brian Sandoval, a pro-abortion Catholic, as...

Pope Benedict XVI has named a Brazilian prelate, Archbishop Joao Braz de Aviz of Brasilia, to become the new prefect of the Congregation for Religious. Archbishop Braz de Aviz replaces Cardinal...

The beatification of Pope John Paul II could take place this year, according to the respected Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli of Il Giornale. Tornielli—who has been consistently accurate in...

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has announced plans to file for bankruptcy protection. In a public announcement released January 4, the archdiocese said that the bankruptcy filing is the...

Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia, has offered to meet with proponents of same-sex marriage, provided that they are willing to forego anti-Catholic rhetoric. Responding to a request from...

The Coptic Orthodox Church, which celebrates Christmas on January 7, is approaching the feast day this year with anxiety, after a wave of violence against Copts in Egypt. Pope Shenouda III, the...

There is a “clear religious motivation” behind recent attacks on Christians in Nigeria, Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama of Jos has told the Fides news service. Whereas previous violent...

Writing in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, columnist Michael O’Malley offers an analysis of the Vatican’s apostolic visitation of American women’s religious orders, from a perspective highly sympathetic...

Father Dwight Longenecker—himself a former Anglican—recalls that when Anglicans were received into the Catholic Church in the 1990s, the process was almost secretive. Catholic leaders deliberately...

Taseer had become the target of Islamic fundamentalists recently after he initiated an unsuccessful clemency bid for Aasia Bibi, the 45-year old Christian mother of five children, who was to death...

A “Jihadi Encyclopedia for the Destruction of the Cross,” developed by al-Qaeda and widely circulated on the Internet, likely influenced the perpetrators of the New Year’s bombing of a Coptic...

In an interview with the Vatican newspaper, Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, lamented indifference to violence against Christians...

Amid international concerns that bloodshed could follow southern Sudan’s January 9 referendum on independence, the nation’s bishops are continuing to pray for a peaceful outcome. Archbishop Paolino...

The Nassau County Department of Health is urging 1,300 people who attended two Christmas Day Masses at a Long Island parish to receive hepatitis A vaccines. A minister of Holy Communion at the...

Writing in The New York Times, Ross Douthat reflects on the paradox of rampant abortion in a society where so many who suffer from infertility desire children. “This is the paradox of America’s...

Monica Migliorino Miller, a theology professor at Madonna University in Michigan, has defended Catholic teaching on women’s ordination in response to a recent newspaper column by Father Victor...

At his first weekly public audience of 2011, Pope Benedict XVI reminded the faithful that the Church is still celebrating the Nativity, and urging them to “live this Christmas period with...

Representatives of sex-abuse victims are charging that the Milwaukee archdiocese chose to file for bankruptcy protection in order to avoid further disclosures of abuse by priests and cover-ups by...

Pope Benedict XVI has named 19 prelates to the newly created Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization. The Pope named 9 cardinals, 8 archbishops, and 2 bishops to join the Pontifical...

Pope Benedict XVI has declined an appeal from a group of Boston Catholics seeking to stop the closing of their parishes. In a December 15 letter to Peter Borre, the chairman of the Council of...

An Oregon man who won a $900,000 settlement from the Portland archdiocese in a sex-abuse case has complained that his lawyers claimed nearly all of the funds. The abuse victim, who has been...

Iranian authorities have arrested 70 evangelical Christians in recent weeks. “The leaders of this movement have been arrested in Tehran province and more will be arrested in the near future,”...

Vietnamese police attacked Christian Marchant, a US diplomat in Hanoi, as he was speaking with Father Nguyen Van Ly, a pro-democracy activist who was recently released from prison. There were...

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has named Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of Oakland chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense...

Three judges of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals have ruled that the Mount Soledad cross-- erected on public land in San Diego in 1954 to honor Korean War veterans-- is unconstitutional and must...

The Discovery Channel will air a series entitled “The Exorcist Files” that re-enacts exorcisms conducted by priests. The network claims that it secured the Vatican’s cooperation with the...

Writing in Al-Ahram-- a government-owned newspaper that is Egypt’s most popular-- Hani Shukrallah lamented the transformation of Egyptian society from a nation tolerant of Christians to an...

The universe reflects “the wisdom of the Creator, the inexhaustible creativity of God,” Pope Benedict XVI said in his homily as he celebrated Mass for the feast of the Epiphany, January...

The president of the Italian bishops’ conference spoke out against the recent worldwide wave of anti-Christian violence during his homily at a Mass for the feast of the Epiphany. Cardinal Angelo...

Representatives of sex-abuse victims in Canada have criticized a Russian Orthodox parish in Vancouver for helping to raise funds for the legal defense of an accused prelate. In December the Synod...

Pope Benedict XVI visited a Roman hospital on Wednesday evening, blessing a new ward and spending time with the children who are being treated there. The new ward in the Gemelli hospital will...

Belgian Catholics are generally dissatisfied with the country’s new Catholic primate, Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, according to a new public-opinion survey. The poll found that 77% of Flemish...

Mexican police have arrested the leader of the “Saint of Death” cult, which has gained popularity with drug traffickers by promising occult protection from rivals and from the police. David...

Anti-Christian violence in India’s southern Karnataka state has taken a new turn, with the January 5 arrest of a pastor who was under treatment in a hospital after being injured in Hindu...

A Catholic hospital in Virginia is reviewing the employment of a doctor who has reportedly performed abortions at a nearby clinic. Authorities at Bon Secours Depaul Medical Center in Norfolk...

George Weigel praises Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix for cutting ties with a hospital that would not conform to Catholic ethical standards. With that case, he observes, “an important marker has...

John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter sees the newly appointed prefect of the Congregation for Religious, Archbishop João Bráz de Aviz, as a "centrist" who comes to his new responsibilities...

Amid tight security-- 70,000 policemen were stationed at Coptic churches throughout Egypt, and cars were banned from parking in front of churches-- the nation’s Coptic Christians commemorated...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has announced it has canonically approved the publication of New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE). The first edition of the New American...

In three recent letters and statements, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has condemned recent attacks on Christians around the world. Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York,...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is asking Catholics in the United States to pray a novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe for Haiti. The novena begins on January 12-- the anniversary of...

Public Radio International recently profiled the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal’s apostolate in Moyross, a suburb of Limerick that is one of Ireland’ poorest communities. Unemployment in Moyross...

Describing the abortion rate in New York City as “downright chilling,” Archbishop Timothy Dolan headlined a January 6 news conference in which religious leaders called for action to curtail the...

A former priest who fled the US after being accused of sexual abuse has been reported dead in Martinique, where he had lived in hiding to escape prosecution. Laurence Brett, who had been accused...

Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople met on January 6 with the deputy prime minister of Turkey. It was the first meeting between the Ecumenical Patriarch and a Turkish government...

Jerusalem will be later than elsewhere in the world, so as not to conflict with the liturgical calendar of the Armenian Orthodox Church, which marks the feast of Epiphany according to the old Julian...

Diplomatic relations between the US and the Vatican have not been severely damaged by the unauthorized release of Wikileaks documents, according to the US ambassador to the Holy See. In an...

Roughly 20% of all the British women of child-bearing age used the morning-after pill last year, according to a stunning new Co-Operative Pharmacy study. The survey of women between the ages of...

As 50,000 Muslims took to the streets in Pakistan’s largest city to defend the nation’s law against blasphemy, a bishop cautioned Christians against taking part in opposing public protests. The...

The Vatican Secretariat of State has overruled the Japanese bishops’ decision to suspend the activities of the Neocatechumenal Way in the nation for five years. A group of Japanese prelates met...

The director of the Holy See Press Office has denied a recent claim by the Discovery Channel that the Vatican collaborated in the production of a forthcoming television series on exorcism. “I...

In a wide-ranging interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras discussed his discernment of his priestly vocation, the Honduran people’s devotion...

Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, apostolic nuncio to Egypt, has issued a statement defending Pope Benedict against charges by the imam of al-Azhar Mosque that the Pontiff is interfering in the...

In an interview with Religion Dispatches, Nancy Marie Brown, author of The Abacus and the Cross: The Story of the Pope Who Brought the Light of Science to the Dark Ages, discusses the achievements...

The Vatican has scheduled a commemorative Mass on January 12 to mark the anniversary of the earthquake that devastated Haiti last year. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone will be the principal celebrant...

Faith is “the most precious thing in life: the most authentic and most beautiful reason to live,” Pope Benedict XVI said as he baptized 21 infants in a January 9 ceremony in the Sistine...

Pope Benedict XVI signaled that the defense of religious freedom will be the centerpiece of the Holy See’s foreign policy, in a January 10 addressing to the Vatican diplomatic corps. The Holy...

The Mexico City archdiocese is urging people to abandon the “Saint of Death” cult, following the January 6 arrest of the cult’s leader on kidnapping charges. Msgr. Hugo Valdemar, the public...

Minnesota attorney Jeffrey Anderson, who has gained international prominence representing sex-abuse victims in lawsuits against the Catholic Church, has opened a new legal office in London to expand...

An estimated 500,000 people attended the closing ceremonies of Jubilee Year for the Vietnamese Catholic Church, braving heavy rain and official discouragement by the government to participate in the...

The premier of the Australian state of New South Wales has charged that Cardinal George Pell is being “condemnatory and threatening” in his call for politicians to oppose legal recognition of...

Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island has rebuked the state’s Governor Lincoln Chafee for claiming that an inaugural prayer service would violate the separation of Church and state. In...

The Bavarian Academy of Science has revived a long-neglected effort to find a definitive text of the Qu’ran, searching through ancient manuscripts to uncover and resolve discrepancies in the...

Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana has introduced legislation in Congress that would deny US federal funding for Planned Parenthood and other institutions that promote abortion. "Last year, Planned...

The Foreign Minister of Lithuania, Audronius Azubalis, due to be sworn in on January 12, as the new president of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), has appointed an...

Hindu militants have protested admissions policies at a Catholic school in Ujjain, India, claiming that the school discriminates on the basis of religion. “The school management insulted our...

Two Sudanese bishops expressed concerns about the possibility of military conflict, persecution, and humanitarian disaster following the weeklong referendum on southern Sudanese independence....

Addressing representatives from bishops’ conferences in Europe and North America who were making an annual pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem lamented the...

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has issued a statement decrying the January 8 shooting in Arizona that left six dead, including...

Miguel Diaz, the US ambassador to the Holy See, welcomed Pope Benedict’s annual address to the diplomatic corps and said that the Obama administration and the Holy See are of “one heart” in...

In their 2011 pastoral letter, Taiwan’s bishops have outlined four priorities for the new year: “loving the Eucharist, constantly participating in the best way at the celebration of the Holy...

The first “ordinariate” for Anglicans entering the Catholic Church will be established in England this week, according to Archbishop Vincent Nichols. In a January 11 announcement, Archbishop...

By strong emphasizing religious freedom in his message for the World Day of Peace and his address to the Vatican diplomatic corps, Pope Benedict XVI has provided welcome encouragement to embattled...

Islamic demonstrators rallied in Lahore and Karachi, Pakistan, to denounce the call by Pope Benedict XVI for a change in the country's blasphemy laws. A spokesman for Jamaat-e-Islami, a group...

Cardinal Robert Sarah, the president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, is in Haiti this week, bringing a message of support and a financial contribution from Pope Benedict XVI as the impoverished...

The government of Egypt has recalled its ambassador to the holy See, in protest against Pope Benedict's charge that Egypt had not done enough to protect Christians from mob violence. In his...

Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis testified on January 10 in a court case that pits the archdiocese against the rebellious board of St. Stanislaus Kostka parish. The archbishop told a...

Italy’s foreign minister Franco Frattini has condemned the religious violence that erupted at Christmas Nigeria and demanded action from the African country’s government to protect Christians....

Anglicans who are planning to enter the ordinariate in the Catholic Church have been informed that they will no longer be able to use the church in which they have been worshipping. Even a "shared...

Less than two weeks after a church bombing in Alexandria left 21 Coptic Christians dead, an off-duty policeman shot four Christians on a train, killing a 71-year-old man. A fifth person was also...

One year after the earthquake that devastated Haiti, bishops are charging that the nation’s government and the international community are ignoring the Church to the nation’s detriment. “The...

Salam Fayyad, prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority, told a group of European and North American bishops that “we are very disturbed at the recent terrorism against Christians in both...

The Diocese of Wilmington, which declared bankruptcy in 2009, has increased its settlement offer to 150 alleged abuse victims from $28 million to $74 million. “The Church is making this about...

Citing declining enrollment and rising costs, the Archdiocese of New York has announced that it will close 26 Catholic elementary schools and one Catholic high school. 4,700 students are...

Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson offered a memorial Mass on January 11 for victims of the January 8 shooting that left six dead, including US District Court Judge John Roll, and at least a dozen...

The Croatian government and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization are paying tribute to Father Roger Joseph Boscovich (1711-87) during the 300th year of his birth....

recognized a miracle attributed to the intercession of Pope John Paul II, according to reliable reports in Rome. The final approval of the miracle would fulfill all the conditions for the...

In a message to the people of earthquake-ravaged Haiti, Pope Benedict XVI said: “The time has come to rebuild, not only material structures but, and above all, civil, social and religious...

The cleansing fire of Purgatory is “not an exterior fire, but an interior fire,” fueled by the soul’s hatred for its own sins, Pope Benedict XVI told his weekly public audience on January 12. The...

The Catholic bishops of Venezuela have called upon President Hugo Chavez to forego the special powers that were granted to him by the nation’s legislator. In a January 11 statement, the...

Authorities in Laos arrested 11 Christians for holding a “secret meeting” to celebrate Christmas. Three of those arrested, who are Protestant pastors, remain in custody. The small Protestant...

More than 21,000 people participated in a "webcast" announcing the publication of Unplanned, a new book by the former director of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic. Abby Johnson, whose...

A former Anglican bishop, who will be ordained this week as a Catholic priest, offered details of his approach to Rome in an interview with the Catholic Herald. Andrew Burnham told how he sought...

After the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that a Catholic university’s fundamental purpose is secular, the Cardinal Newman Society warned that many Catholic institutions are risking...

Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacked four non-Muslim villages in central Nigeria on January 10 and 11, killing 18 and burning down a church and over a dozen houses. Soldiers reportedly collaborated in...

In an interview with L’Osservatore Romano, Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, discussed the background of the new dicastery and...

Justin Bedford, the deputy head of mission at the British Embassy to the Holy See, told Vatican Radio that the European Union needs to be cautious in defending the rights of persecuted Christians in...

Sri Lanka is experiencing its worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami that left 31,000 dead and displaced over 500,000, according to Caritas Internationalis, the consortium of Catholic relief...

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver has paid tribute to US District Court Judge John Roll, who was slain during the January 8 shooting in Arizona that left six dead and at least a dozen wounded,...

The National Catholic Register has profiled Leah Darrow, who pursued a modeling career after becoming one of 14 women who appeared on the “America’s Next Top Model” reality television show. After...

Workers at the Vatican have already begun preparations for transferring the body of Pope John Paul II, in anticipation of his beatification. The body of the late Pope, currently buried in the...

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed a diplomatic “representative” to Vietnam, in an indication of some movement toward the restoration of diplomatic ties. Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, who has been...

Rejecting the arguments of militant Islamic leaders, some imams in Pakistan are backing the call by Pope Benedict XVI for repeal of the nation’s blasphemy law. The moderate Islamic leaders say...

Concluding a visit to the Holy Land, a group of Catholic bishops from Europe and North America said they were “painfully aware of the frustration” among Catholics in Israel over the government’s...

Hindu leader Swami Aseemananda-- who shot into limelight by spearheading the orchestrated anti-Christian violence that rocked the Indian state of Gujarat during the Christmas season in 1998—has been...

The Boston archdiocese has released a new non-discrimination policy for parochial schools, allowing for homosexual and lesbian parents to send their children to Catholic schools. The new...

George Weigel-- the author of the definitive biography of Pope John Paul II (Witness to Hope)-- has offered additional details of Communist regimes’ efforts to subvert the Church. Speaking at the...

Days after the Vatican Secretariat of State overruled the Japanese bishops’ decision to suspend the activities of the Neocatechumenal Way in the nation for five years, the president of the Japanese...

Theophilus Bela, president of the Jakarta Christian Communication Forum and secretary general of the Indonesian Committee of Religions for Peace, has prepared a report documenting dozens of recent...

L’Osservatore Romano has published an op-ed piece by Ettore Gotti Tedeschi criticizing the United States’ Keynesian economic policies. Tedeschi, who has served as president of the Institute of...

Australia’s ambassador to the Holy See, warned of a worsening world food crisis in a January 13 interview with Vatican Radio. Record food prices have led to riots in several nations. “Deep...

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, chief rabbi of Efrat and chancellor of the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation (CJCUC), met with Pope Benedict on January 12. According to the CJCUC, the...

On January 16, the Church will observe the 97th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, a commemoration instituted by St. Pius X. Pope Benedict’s brief message for the day is entitled “One Human...

Pope John Paul II will be beatified on May 1. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has released a decree, formally approved by Pope Benedict XVI, confirming the authenticity of a miracle...

When the new English translation of the Mass is introduced in November, Jeffrey Tucker says that it will bring several positive changes: a restored sense of reverence, decorum and tradition; an...

In an annual meeting with local political leaders, Pope Benedict XVI made a strong plea for public support of family life, “founded on marriage between a man and a woman.” Speaking to Mayor...

One security guard was killed and another seriously wounded when armed men attacked the residence of Bishop Philip Sulumeti of Kakamega, Kenya, on January 13. The motives of the assailants are...

Catholic Charities USA will present its “Keep the Dream Alive” awards at a Mass on January 17 honoring the memory of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. The 2nd annual “Keep the Dream Alive” awards...

The Vatican has established the first personal ordinariate for Anglicans entering the Catholic Church. On January 15, as 3 former Anglican bishops were ordained to the Catholic priesthood, the...

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has issued a decree, formally approved by Pope Benedict XVI, declaring that Father Nelson Baker (1842-1936), a priest of the Diocese of Buffalo, New York,...

With a series of nine decrees, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints has advanced the causes of 13 candidates for canonization or beatification. At a private audience with Cardinal Angelo...

An Egyptian man, Mohamed Ahmed Hussein, has been sentenced to death for killing seven people, including six Coptic Christians, in a January 2010 drive-by shooting outside a church in southern Egypt....

Italian authorities are expected two million pilgrims for the May 1 beatification of Pope John Paul II, according to press reports. An estimated three million people attended his funeral in...

Caritas Internationalis, the consortium of Catholic relief and development agencies, has issued an appeal for aid to Brazil, which is suffering from its worst floods and landslides in 40 years. The...

Michael Berenbaum, a rabbi and Holocaust scholar, has praised the Vatican announcement of Pope John Paul II’s beatification. “Jews have no right to register an opinion on whom the Roman Catholic...

Two Catholic prelates joined the chief rabbi of Poland on January 16 to commemorate the Holocaust and honor Christians who sheltered Jews from Nazi persecution. Archibshop Jozef Michalik of...

On January 15, Pope Benedict XVI met in a private audience with an ecumenical delegation from Finland. The group was in Rome on an annual pilgrimage marking the feast of St. Henry, the nation’s...

Pope Benedict XVI likened the Italian police who patrol the Vatican area to “guardian angels” during a private audience on January 15 with officials of the General Inspectorate for Public Security...

Migrants and refugees should be recognized as members of the “one human family,” Pope Benedict XVI said on January 16. Indeed, the Pope reminded Christians, the child Jesus Himself was a...

An Irish television documentary, scheduled to be aired on Monday evening, January 17, will report that a leading Vatican official discouraged Irish bishops from reporting priestly abuse to...

Patriarch Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir—who as head of the Maronite Catholic Church exercises enormous public influence in Lebanon—has reportedly submitted his resignation to the Vatican. The Lebanese...

The leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church will not celebrate the liturgy in public on the feast of the Epiphany, which the Copts observe on January 18. For the first time, Coptic Pope Shenouda III...

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has praised President Barack Obama for his executive order easing restrictions on travel to Cuba. Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany, New York, the chairman of...

Catholic Church leaders in Kerela, India, have expressed shock and dismay at the death of 102 pilgrims during a stampede at a local Hindu shrine. In the Kanjirapally diocese, where the...

Pope Benedict XVI met on January 17 with members of the Polish Ecclesiastical Institute, which is marking its 100th anniversary. The Polish Ecclesiastical Institute was founded in 1910 to provide...

In a sign of support for the Neocatechumenal Way, Pope Benedict XVI held a private audience on January 17 for members of the controversial lay movement. But the Pope also offered words of caution,...

Pope Benedict XVI met on January 17 with Irina Bokova, the director-general of the UN’s Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The conversation, according to a brief...

A Christian doctor in Mosul was shot a point-blank range on January 15, in the latest of a series of targeted attacks on Iraqi Christians. Dr. Nuyia Youssif Nuyia, a prominent cardiologist and...

A Catholic mental-health worker in Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) has been suspended after encouraging colleagues to read material about the psychological impact of abortion on...

Father Keith Newton, the former Anglican bishop who is now head of the first personal ordinariate for Anglicans entering the Catholic Church, told a press conference that he hopes that the...

Pope Benedict has named Werner Arber, an 81-year-old professor emeritus of microbiology at the University of Basel, as president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Arber, who won the Nobel Prize...

The leading prelate in Myanmar (Burma), one of the world’s most repressive nations, is calling for greater religious freedom. Quoting Pope Benedict’s recent Message for the World Day of Peace,...

In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Bob Fu, a student leader at Tiananmen Square who subsequently became a Protestant pastor and fled China, discusses the realities of police repression...

In 1908, Rev. Paul Wattson, then an Anglican religious in Graymoor, New York, began a Church Unity Octave with the support of Anglican and Catholic prelates, including Cardinal William O’Connell of...

In 1997, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy directed the Irish bishops not to enforce their new policy calling for mandatory reporting of priests who molested children, an Irish television...

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity began on Tuesday, January 18, with the focus on the Christian communities of Jerusalem. Materials for this year’s observance—jointly produced by the...

A vial of the blood of the late Pope John Paul II, entrusted by doctors to Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, will be recognized as a relic when the late Pontiff is beatified. Cardinal Dziwisz, who for...

A threatening anti-Catholic message was spray-painted on the walls of at least two Catholic churches in southern California last week. The message "Kill the Cathlics" (sic) was found on the walls...

Picking up on the message that New York’s Archbishop Timothy Dolan and other Christian leaders sounded at a press conference last week, Wall Street Journal columnist William McGurn questions how the...

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), outlined the conference’s nine legislative priorities for the coming year. The top...

Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the justice and peace commission of the Pakstani bishops’ conference, in part attributes the increasing fundamentalism of the nation’s Muslims to curricular...

The bishops of England and Wales have announced that the new translation of the Order of Mass will be used in parishes beginning in September. “The new translation is a great gift to the Church,”...

Father Ferdinand Azevedo, an American Jesuit who went to Brazil in 1975 and served as a religion professor at the Catholic University of Pernambuco, was found bound and killed in the northeastern...

In a likely reference to missionary priests and religious, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People said that at a recent conference that “it is...

“Rather than joining efforts to support or oppose the repeal of the recently enacted health care law,” the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will “continue to devote our efforts...

A 45-year-old Pentecostal pastor was found dead in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, the site of an anti-Christian pogrom in 2008. While local police say that Saul Pradhan died accidentally of...

In a column preceding the January 22 March for Life, Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City - St. Joseph observed that “almost 60 million surgical abortions have been recorded in the United States” since...

EWTN, the global Catholic broadcasting network founded by Mother Angelica, has reached an agreement to purchase the National Catholic Register. The National Catholic Register-- not to be confused...

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was the theme of the weekly public audience by Pope Benedict XVI on January 19, with the Holy Father underlining “the providential fact that prayer is at the...

At his general audience on Wednesday, January 19, Pope Benedict XVI offered special recognition to an Italian group, Figli in paradiso, which offers support to the parents of children who have died....

A Congolese nun, Sister Jeanne Yemgane, was shot and killed by rebels who assaulted the vehicle in which she was traveling on January 13. Sister Yemgane, had been the superior of a St. Augustine...

In a press conference following his ordination as a Catholic priest, a former Anglican bishop explained the “step of faith” he was taking as the first leader of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady...

A Boston attorney who specializes in sex-abuse cases has released the names of over 100 priests and church employees who have been named in sex-abuse complaints. Mitchell Garabedian, who boasts...

A Philadelphia abortionist has been charged with 8 counts of murder. Dr. Kermith Gosnell was arrested after a woman died following a botched abortion. Prosecutors charge that he also killed 7...

Pope Benedict XVI has named the members of the Vatican’s newly formed Financial Information Authority. Following up on the December 30 motu proprio in which he established new rules for Vatican...

The Vatican has denied that Irish bishops were told not to report abuse accusations to law-enforcement officials. A previously secret 1997 letter that was cited in an Irish television program as...

This week Pope Benedict XVI offered a strong endorsement to the Neocatechumenal Way, as he led a Vatican "commissioning ceremony" in which members of the lay movement were sent off on missions. The...

In England, a homosexual couple has won a £3,600 legal judgment from hotel owners who refused to accommodate them. Peter and Hazelmary Bull, the Christian proprietors of the Chymorvah Hotel, had...

The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer has estimated that abortion has led to 300,000 breast-cancer deaths in the US in the years since the Roe v. Wade decision. Dr. Joel Brind explained that his...

The US abortion rate rose 1% between 2005 and 2008, according to a new report published by the Guttmacher Institute, the research organization that was originally an arm of Planned Parenthood....

Describing Pope Benedict’s decision to name him a cardinal as “a sign of love of the Pope for sacred music,” Cardinal Domenico Bartolucci discussed the crisis in Church music in a recent...

In an interview with L’Osservatore Romano, Cardinal Jozef Tomko discussed his decades of friendship with Pope John Paul II. The two met in 1969, when the future Pontiff was Archbishop of Krakow and...

The Washington Post has published a lengthy article on conflicts between Catholic hospitals and bishops over abortion and sterilization. The tendentious article begins: In Texas, a Catholic...

The emergency response coordinator for Caritas Internationalis, the consortium of Catholic relief and development agencies, sees signs of hope for the impoverished nation. Haitians desire “to put...

Writing in the National Post, Father Raymond de Souza pays tribute to R. Sargent Shriver as “the most outstanding statesman in a tradition that has almost entirely disappeared-- the principled...

Egypt’s Al Azhar University, the world’s leading center of Sunni Islamic thought, has suspended talks with the Vatican in protest over the “insulting remarks” by Pope Benedict XVI—a reference to the...

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faces heavy criticism from leftist groups, feminists, and the Catholic bishops' conference as an investigation continues into his relations with young...

The martyrs who die for the Christian faith, even if they come from different denominations, are the most powerful witnesses to the cause of unity among all believers, according to the president of...

Mexican actor Eduardo Verastegui has announced plans to build the largest pro-life clinic in the US, in Los Angeles. Verastegui made his announcement at a dinner raising funds for Mantle of...

A Toronto art gallery is planning an exhibit of provocative works that includes a picture of a seated Pope Benedict XVI, riddled with bullet holes. The exhibit entitled "Persona Non Grata- The...

A Japanese bishop has announced his determination to suspend the work of the Neocatechumenal Way in his diocese, regardless of the movement’s support from Rome. Bishop Osamu Mizobe of Takamatsu...

Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, has said that President Barack Obama cannot credibly speak about compassion as long as he aggressively supports unrestricted abortion. In a...

A Christian counselor in England, facing legal charges for seeking to help a man leave the homosexual lifestyle, has reported that potential witnesses in the case have received threatening phone...

A California bishop has secured the support of 30 other Christian leaders for a strongly worded statement in support of persecuted Christians. In an initiative for the Week of Prayer for...

Members of European Parliament have passed a resolution condemning violence against Christians in Iraq and Egypt. “I think we are in a very significant moment in the history of the European...

Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has proposed several measures to reduce the nation’s high abortion rate, including ending state health insurance coverage of most abortions...

In 1990, Venerable John Paul II issued Ex Corde Ecclesiae, his apostolic constitution on Catholic universities. In 1999, the bishops of the United States approved “The Application of Ex Corde...

An Australian bishop has called upon the nation’s government to offer more humane living conditions to those seeking political asylum. “The federal government must ease the suffering of asylum...

In April 1963, eight Alabama clergymen, including a Catholic auxiliary bishop, wrote “A Call for Unity,” a letter urging an end to a “series of demonstrations by some of our Negro citizens, directed...

Francis X. Rocca, a Religious News Service correspondent, writes in the Wall Street Journal that Pope Benedict XVI does not have the same personal popularity as his predecessor, Pope John Paul II....

Hong Kong has eased its migration laws, allowing the adult children of parents living in Hong Kong to apply for residency, even if the children were born in mainland China. Proponents of the new...

In a January 21 meeting with police official of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI said that it is crucial to uphold clear moral principles at a time when the public fears “that moral consensus is breaking...

Are some reliably left-leaning journals finally recognizing the validity of pro-life claims? Mother Jones carries a lengthy and mostly sympathetic portrait of a pro-life lawyer and his efforts to...

The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has joined Indian bishops in a week-long discussion of that country's theologians. Cardinal William Levada has joined 28 Indian...

An ordinariate for Anglicans seeking to join the Catholic Church in Australia, which will be set up by Pentecost, will extend to include Anglicans in Japan, according to an Anglican bishop involved...

A bishop from Kazakstan has suggested the preparation of an authoritative document to expose major errors in the interpretation of the teachings of Vatican II. Bishop Athanasius Schneider, an...

Egyptian politics and personal rivalries may have contributed to the decision by Al Azhar University to break off talks with the Vatican, according to one leading analyst. Father Bernardo...

Fulfilling an ancient Roman tradition for the feast of St. Agnes, on January 21, Pope Benedict XVI blessed lambs whose wool will be used to make the pallium, the liturgical vestment that symbolized...

Seven clergy and 300 laity from six Anglican parishes will join the new Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, according to a BBC report. Father Keith Newton, the former Anglican bishop who...

President Barack Obama issued a statement on January 22 praising Roe v. Wade, the infamous Supreme Court decision that struck down laws across the nation protecting unborn children. In the 38 years...

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the “respect for private life” found in the European Convention of Human Rights includes the right of individuals to choose freely to commit...

Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Holy See Press Office, said recently that the new Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is not “a sign of division, but a small bridge on the...

Orphaned children make up more than 10% of the population of the southern African nation of Swaziland, as one quarter of residents between the ages of 15 to 49 have contracted the AIDS virus. There...

The people in the southern Madagascar Diocese of Tolagnaro are suffering from a severe famine caused by drought, according to the nation’s leading prelate, Archbishop Odon Razanakolona of...

Regular donations to parishes via electronic payment are on the rise, according to a Reuters wire story. One quarter of the parishes in the Archdiocese of Washington offer the...

“No one has the right to a marriage ceremony,” Pope Benedict XVI told a Vatican tribunal on January 24. “The right to contract marriage presupposes that the parties can and do intend to...

Braving bitter cold in Washington, DC, and virtually ignored by America’s mainstream media, hundreds of thousands of pro-life activists joined in the 38th March for Life. At a rally on the Mall...

The restoration of Christian unity can only come about as the result of “a serious commitment to convert to Christ,” Pope Benedict XVI told a public audience in Sunday, January 23. Speaking about...

Pope Benedict XVI met on January 24 with a delegation from the Evangelical Luthern Church of Germany, which had traveled to Rome for the closing ceremonies of this year’s Week of Prayer for...

Pope Benedict XVI has sent a message of condolence to the Jewish community of Rome upon the death of Tullia Zevi, the former president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, who died on...

Pope Benedict XVI strongly endorsed Christians participation in online social networks, but also strongly cautioned against the dangers of superficial relationships, in his message for the 45th...

Thousands of Pakistani Muslims demonstrated in the streets of Peshawar and Faisalbad on January 23 to support the country’s blasphemy laws. Islamic leaders called for a new round of mass...

The New York Times has called attention to the “squalid” conditions at the abortion clinic run by Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist who now faces multiple criminal charges related to the...

During the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, several prominent leaders of the Church of England have broken away from the ecumenical theme to protest the establishment of an ordinariate to provide...

The vicar general of the Honolulu diocese has left the priesthood to take a job working for the state’s new governor. Father Marc Alexander, who has been vicar general for 5 years, said that it...

The Catholic bishops of India have protested a statement by the nation’s highest court insinuating that religious conversions were at the roots of anti-Christian violence. “The Church is...

The president of the Italian bishops’ conference has joined in the criticism of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is under investigation for prostitution. But he has has also remarked that...

Following meetings with Church officials, the government of President Benigno Aquino III has decided not to endorse controversial reproductive health measures in the nation’s legislature, according...

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, is urging members of the House of Representatives...

Two prospective nursing students at Vanderbilt University filed a complaint with the federal government after refusing to sign a form that states that nursing students “may be providing nursing care...

Some 5,200 Britons convert to Islam each year, and 62% are women, according to a survey commissioned by Faith Matters. The typical British convert became a Muslim at age 27 and, according to the...

Bishop John Barres of Allentown (Pennsylvania) has formed a historical commission to jumpstart the stalled beatification cause of Father Walter Ciszek (1904-84), the American Jesuit who spent...

Indian media are reporting on the presence of “Catholic yoga” classes at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. The yoga sessions, which cost $15, are led by two women, one “a devoted Catholic and a...

Pope Benedict XVI plans to preside at all of the regular liturgical ceremonies for Holy Week and Easter this year. On January 25, the Vatican released the Pope’s schedule of public liturgical...

The Archdiocese of St. John’s, Newfoundland, is investigating the reported misappropriation of $500,000 from archdiocesan pension funds. The archdiocese has asked local police to investigate the...

The decision by Egypt’s Al Azhar University to break off dialogue with the Vatican may have been prompted by a misinterpretation of Pope Benedict XVI, the AsiaNews service reports. Coptic Catholics...

The Archdiocese of Liverpool has announced plans to change the order in which young people receive the sacraments of Christian Initiation, placing Confirmation before First Communion. Beginning...

A Dutch cardinal has admitted that the country’s hierarchy did not make sexual abuse a priority until the 1990s, when reports of clerical abuse began to emerge from the US. Testifying in a case...

Belgian doctors have set up special protocols to harvest vital organs from patients who are choose euthanasia—which is legal in that country. A December presentation to the Belgian Royal Medical...

The work of evangelization “involves everyone, everything, always,” Pope Benedict XVI says in his message for the 85th World Mission Sunday. The Pope underlines that the Church “is missionary by...

Pope Benedict XVI has sent a message of sympathy to the families of victims of a January 24 suicide bombing in Moscow’s airport. The Pope’s message, conveyed in a telegram to Russian President...

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian bishops’ conference, believes that the persecution of Christians in the Middle East is approaching the level of “ethnic or religious...

The bishops of Pakistan have declared Sunday a day of prayer and fasting for peace in the troubled nation. Pakistan “is tense at every level: poverty afflicts large parts of the population;...

After Governor Tom Ridge, a “pro-choice” Catholic, became governor of Pennsylvania in 1995, his administration ended inspections of abortion clinics, creating a climate in which abortionists like...

In an interview with Catholic World Report, Bishop Robert Vasa-- recently named the coadjutor bishop of Santa Rosa, California-- discusses his concerns about the Catholic Campaign for Human...

Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican Communion, has awarded the Lambeth Cross to Cardinal Walter Kasper. The award, begun in 1939, is given to non-Anglicans who have...

In an interview with the St. Louis archdiocesan newspaper, Cardinal Raymond Burke discusses the work of the Apostolic Signatura and reflects on the importance of properly forming the consciences of...

Amid unofficial reports that 99% of the residents of southen Sudan voted for independence, Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambio is urging prayers for a peaceful transition. “As so...

The University of Barcelona has decided to stop scheduling a Mass on campus every Wednesday until security measures can be adopted to protect Catholic worshipers from a small but aggressive group of...

At a January 25 Vespers service closing the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Pope Benedict XVI said that ecumenical work is a “moral imperative” for all Christians. The Holy Father reminded...

At his weekly public audience on January 26, Pope Benedict spoke about “one of those strong women who brought the light of the Gospel in history at the end of the Middle Ages”—St. Joan of...

At his inauguration as the new president of Catholic University of America, John Garvey delivered an address that invoked the thoughts of Blessed John Henry Newman. Garvey argues that Catholic...

At nearly half of the colleges and universities in the US, abortion coverage is included in the health-care insurance programs offered to students, Students for Life has found. Many schools require...

The Supreme Court of India has cancelled the bail of one of the convicted ringleaders behind the orchestrated anti-Christian violence in the Kandhamal region of the eastern Orissa state. The...

A crusading Catholic radio journalist was shot and killed in the Philippined on January 24. Gerry Ortega had been involved in human-rights work with indigenous peoples living on Palawan Island,...

In Texas, a former Catholic priest will be in court this week to face charges that he tried to hire someone to kill a boy who had accused him of sexual abuse. John Fiala has been behind bars...

An Italian archbishop who once served as private secretary to Pope John XXIII has recounted the announcement of Vatican II, in an article published by L’Osservatore Romano. Archbishop Loris...

The world's Muslim population will grow from 1.6 billion to 2.3 billion in the next two decades, according to a report published by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. There were 1.1 billion...

Motivated by fear and better economic prospects, at least 20 Pakistani Christians are converting to Islam each week. In recent weeks, a leading Muslim politician who called for modifications to the...

The bishops of the Ivory Coast have issued a statement condemning the violence that has afflicted the nation since President Laurent Gbagbo refused to recognize Alassane Ouattara’s victory in the...

Asia Bibi, the 45-year-old Christian mother of five whose death sentence on blasphemy charges has provoked an international outcry, has been moved to an isolation cell in her Pakistani prison for...

Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City - St. Joseph has begun the cause of beatification of Sister Marie de Mandat-Grancey (1837), a French nun who acquired and restored what is traditionally believed to...

A former Miami archdiocesan priest whose television, radio, and newspaper outreach extended to outlets as varied as Telemundo and EWTN will soon have his own syndicated daytime television talk...

A referendum in southern Sudan has undoubtedly produced a large majority in favor of independence from the Khartoum government, but the official returns have been delayed-- adding to tensions that...

The Vatican Bank, working assiduously to gain "white list" status in the European banking system, now has a new oversight body and a new set of operating rules. But the bank, the Institute for...

The cause for beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, which was suspended last November because of a disagreement between two American dioceses, has been started up again. The Diocese of...

A dalit Catholic has been murdered in the town of Thatchur, in India’s southern Tamil state, after he dug a grave for another dalit Catholic in a cemetery previously reserved for members of...

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow praised the former apostolic nuncio in Russia, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, for “your personal contribution to settling difficult problems in relations...

Vatican plans for a "Courtyard of the Gentiles," to promote dialogue with non-believers, will take shape in March with a series of events in France. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of...

A Vietnamese court has rejected the appeal of 6 lay Catholic activists who were convicted of causing social unrest after a series of demonstrations over the government’s seizure of parish...

The Catholic bishops of the Philippines have announced their plans to work aggressively for efforts to combat the spread of AIDS and to help victims of the disease. But the Church leaders stressed...

Children born through in vitro fertilization and other advanced reproductive technologies often feel pain and resentment about their experiences, a new internet forum reveals. Discussing their...

Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg, one of Africa’s leading prelates, addressed the bishops of South Africa, Botswana, and Swaziland on January 25. Archbishop Tlhagale said that the three...

Denouncing “Christianophobia,” the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe has passed a resolution condemning violence against Christians in the Middle East and calling for the development...

In a 170-142 vote, the French senate rejected a measure that would have legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide. Prime Minister François Fillon had spoken out against the bill, as had several...

Authorities in Bhutan have signaled that they will permit the registration at least one Christian organization in the landlocked Asian nation. Currently, Christians are permitted to worship in their...

The January 28 release of “The Rite,” a movie based upon the training of an exorcist, has attracted a spate of media coverage, with some articles informative and others condescending. “This is...

Cardinal Roger Mahony has announced that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ 210 elementary and middle schools will adopt a 200-day school calendar, 20 more than most schools around the nation and 25...

Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy since October, has delivered a magisterial address on the teachings of the popes since Pope Pius XI on priestly celibacy. The address...

The Catholic bishops of South Africa have praised former President Nelson Mandela as “a veritable patriarch who stands for and is an example of the virtues of a truly great and loving Father, who...

Despite the decision by Al Azhar University to break off talks with the Holy See, the president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue plans to pursue all opportunities for dialogue...

Terrorist groups in Pakistan are plotting the assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti, the federal government’s minister for religious minorities, the Fides news service reports. Bhatti, a Catholic, is...

Pope Benedict XVI met on January 28 with members of a joint commission for dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox churches. The Pontiff expressed appreciation for their work...

Christian leaders in India’s southern Karnataka state have decried a report that absolved the local government, police, and Hindu groups of responsibility for violent attacks on Christians in the...

A Maltese man caused a minor disruption at the weekly papal audience on January 26, when he shouted for the Pope’s attention, hoping to give him a letter about an alleged Marian...

An estimated 700,000 Poles will travel to Rome for the May 1 beatification of Pope John Paul II, according to a Polish news agency. Some Polish travel agencies are donating 5% of proceeds to...

The Episcopal Commission for Doctrine of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a pastoral letter to young people on chastity. “Living chastity is no easy business in the...

An anonymous missionary in Egypt has offered an eyewitness account of protests in Cairo to Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. “The police have retreated...

Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson has called upon Catholic colleges to “place Catholic identity first” among their concerns. “Catholic is not just an adjective accidental to who you are,” he told...

Caritas Internationalis, the consortium of Catholic relief and development agencies, has issued an appeal on behalf of the victims of Brazil’s worst natural disaster in four decades. An estimated...

Thirty nuns danced to the tune of “Toyang,” a 1993 song by the Eraserheads, in the hopes of attracting vocations to the religious life. The dance took place on January 29 by the altar of the...

Although the Catholic Health Association (CHA) worked for passage of the Obamacare legislation that the US bishops opposed, and offered its support for the Arizona hospital that Bishop Olmsted...

The Vatican bank, the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), will soon have a new prelate on its leadership team, according to Italian media reports. Msgr. Luigi Misto, who handles financial...

On Saturday, January 29, Pope Benedict XVI met with teachers and students from the Pontifical Ethiopian College, and urged them to “walk resolutely on the path to sanctity.” The Pontifical...

Pope Benedict XVI has sent a videotaped message of congratulations to the students, faculty, and staff of the Pontifical University of Santo Tomas in Manila, which is celebrating its 400th...

In observance of the 58th annual World Leprosy Day, the president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care released a statement expressing “gratitude for the commitment of millions of workers,...

At this Sunday audience on January 30, Pope Benedict XVI said that the Beatitude offer “a new program for life, to free ourselves from the false values of the world and open ourselves to true...

Pope Benedict XVI offered prayers for peace in the Middle East, and especially in the Holy Land, as he concluded his Angelus audience on Sunday, January 30. Two young members of the Italian...

With Christian leaders in India angrily denouncing a report that absolved local officials from responsibility for the violent attacks on Christian churches in the Karnataka state, the nation’s...

Australian Anglicans who are interested in entering the Catholic Church will gather at Coomera this week for a 3-day conference, planning for the establishment of a new ordinariate in Australia....

The Vatican has turned down a bid by a high-profile American lawyer to name Pope Benedict and other top Vatican officials as defendants in a sex-abuse lawsuit. Jeffrey Anderson, a Minnesota...

The government of Bhutan has announced that it is accepting the establishment of a Catholic mission in the country. But an exiled dissident warns that no formal recognition has been granted, and...

As a response to an appeal to defend persecuted Christians, which was overwhelmingly approved by the Council of Europe, foreign ministers of the European Union are said to be preparing on a document...

The explosion of unrest in Egypt comes just a few weeks after an outbreak of violence against the country's Coptic Orthodox. Religion reporter Terry Mattingly asks a question that few media reports...

A federal court in Maryland has struck down a law that would have required pregnancy-resource centers to post signs advertising their opposition to abortion. The court ruled that the requirements...