Catholic World News

Violence between Christian and Muslim youths has flared up in the central Nigerian city of Jos, leading to the deaths of at least 19 people, the burning of gasoline stations and a college, and the...

An Iraqi archbishop has announced that the regional government has approved his plans to construct a Catholic university and a 100-bed Catholic hospital. Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda...

Secretary of State William Hague told reporters on February 1 that the revision of the Act of Settlement, which was passed in 1701 and bars Catholics from the monarchy of the United Kingdom, is not...

The laity of a largely Polish parish in Vienna are protesting Cardinal Christoph Schönborn’s decision to give their parish to the Serbian Orthodox Church. Pfarre Neulerchenfeld was constructed...

Representatives of 23 European bishops’ conferences met recently in Munich to discuss university pastoral work. Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster spoke on Blessed John Henry Newman’s Idea of...

February 2 is the 15th World Day of Consecrated Life, a commemoration begun by Venerable John Paul II in 1997. In his message for the 1st World Day of Consecrated Life, the Pontiff explained...

The new prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Religious has revealed that the emphasis on liberation theology in Latin America nearly drove him out of the seminary, and shook his faith in the...

Irish Catholic columnist David Quinn examines the odd case of an atheist who objected when his son was taught to pray—at a Catholic school. The situation in Ireland is complicated by the fact...

Pope Benedict XVI devoted his weekly public audience on February 2 to “one of the highest examples of Christian spirituality of all time,” St. Teresa of Avila. The Pope traced the life of St....

A little boy squirted past security officers to approach Pope Benedict XVI during the regular papal public audience on February 2. Bolting from his parents, the boy gained the stage of the Paul...

Near the conclusion of his regular public audience on February 2, Pope Benedict XVI called attention to the annual Day for Consecrated life, noting that religious men and women are “a particularly...

New Jersey officials of Planned Parenthood have announced the firing of an employee who was caught on videotape offering advice to undercover reporters who were posing as the leaders of an...

The Neocatechumenal Way should suspend its work in Japan, despite support from the Vatican, according to Archbishop Peter Takeo Okada of Tokyo. In January the Vatican Secretariat of State has...

A leading pro-life organization has revealed that its former president, a prominent Catholic priest, was asked to resign because of misconduct with an adult woman. Human Life International (HLI)...

The typical newly-professed woman religious is a 43-year-old cradle Catholic who prayed the Rosary and participated in retreats and Eucharistic adoration before entering religious life, according to...

An Italian missionary who ministers in an impoverished section of Cairo has told the Fides news agency that the protestors there are more interested in democratic reforms than in establishing an...

The bishops of Croatia have issued a pastoral letter welcoming “with great joy” Pope Benedict’s upcoming apostolic visit to the nation. Noting that “his main reason for coming to visit us will...

Pakistan’s leading prelate, Archbishop Lawrence Saldhana of Lahore, decried the burning of Pope Benedict in effigy during a January 30 demonstration by 40,000 Islamic militants. The protestors also...

Attorneys for the Diocese of Wilmington and nearly 146 alleged abuse victims have agreed to a $77 million settlement. Under the terms of the settlement, the diocese has agreed to release unredacted...

Archeologists have uncovered a 5th-century church in Hirbet Madras in central Israel. The Byzantine-style church, which was built near the prophet Zechariah’s tomb, had eight marble columns imported...

As he presided at a Vespers service on February 2 to celebrate the Day for Consecrated Life, Pope Benedict XVI offered three themes for reflection: the spiritual journey, prophetic witness, and the...

Pope Benedict XVI sounded two familiar themes-- the need to allow religious expression in public debate, and the necessary for supporting the family—as he met on February 3 with a new ambassador...

At a February 3 meeting with members of the Emmanuel Community, Pope Benedict XVI said: “The profound grace of your community arises from Eucharistic communion.” "The profound grace of your...

At a press conference in Rome on February 3, discussing Pope Benedict’s message for the World Day of the Sick, the president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care observed that the Pope has a...

A new worldwide catechism designed for young people will soon be available in 7 languages, with a preface expressing the hearty endorsement of Pope Benedict XVI. Youcat-- short for “youth...

Pope Benedict XVI is not registered as an organ donor, the Vatican has disclosed. Msgr. Georg Gänswein, the Pope’s private secretary, has confirmed that the Holy Father is not enrolled in any...

The Vatican has announced plans for an international conference on AIDS, to be held on May 28. Later in 2011, the Pontifical Council on Health Care is expected to produce pastoral guidelines for...

A Slovenian prelate has resigned, prompted by a reportedly “disastrous” financial situation in his archdiocese. The Vatican announced on February 3 that Archbishop Franc Kramberger of Maribor...

The British government is being pressed for an explanation of why funds appropriated for foreign aid had been used to help underwrite last year’s visit by Pope Benedict XVI. Government officials...

Catholic social teaching, particularly in the realm of economics, is sometimes regarded as overly theoretical, notes columnist Jeffrey Tucker. But an essay by Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the head of the...

In Bangladesh, a spokesman for the Catholic bishops’ justice-and-peace commission has condemned the common practice of imposing corporal punishments under Islamic law. “People need to be aware...

A Pakistani legislator has withdrawn a proposal to amend the country’s blasphemy law, after being the subject of death threats. Sherry Rehman had suggested eliminating the death penalty for...

Human Life International (HLI) is organizing public demonstrations in the Philippines urging President Benigno Aquino to resist demands for aggressive population-control policies. “The Aquino...

A leading American Catholic theologian has offered new insights into the work of a papal “birth control commission” that pushed for a change in Church teaching prior to the release of the 1968...

One third of the Catholic theology professors in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have signed a declaration calling for women’s ordination and lamenting “traditionalism” in the liturgy. The 144...

The official dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion-- the Anglican – Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC)-- will begin a new round of conversations in May,...

Thousands of Christians in the western Indian state of Karnataka will take part in a peaceful protest in defense of their religion. Despite 251 incidents of violence against Christians in Karnataka...

Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s delegate for the implementation of Anglicanorum Coetibus in the United States, said in a recent interview that...

The pastoral commission of the Church in Malta has issued a document calling for stronger workers’ unions. “The Catholic Church has constantly agreed and supported the right of workers to unite...

An Italian missionary who ministers in an impoverished section of Cairo has told the Fides news agency that President Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt since Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981,...

Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino of Havana has announced that two more Cuban political dissidents will soon be released. Cardinal Ortega, who has been instrumental in arranging the release of dozens...

The Pontifical Council for Health Care is preparing a new version of its “Charter for Health Care Workers,” offering guidance on issues like stem-cell research and reproductive technology. The...

Pope Benedict XVI met on February 4 with the officials of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s highest court. The Apostolic Signatura, led by Cardinal Raymond Burke, is meeting this week in a...

The Catholic bishops of the Philippines have endorsed a campaign of civil disobedience against aggressive family-planning legislation that is due to go into effect in February. “We, together...

An organization of dissident Irish priests has called upon that country’s bishops to delay implementation of the new Roman Missal, which is scheduled to go into use in November, on the 1st Sunday of...

For the second time in less than a week, a Planned Parenthood employee has been caught on videotape giving helpful advice to a man who identifies himself as the operator of a prostitution ring using...

Despite threats against their client’s life, lawyers for Asia Bibi believe that the young Pakistani mother will be judged innocent of blasphemy charges when her case is heard by an appeals...

Popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt are not motivated by Islamic fervor or revolutionary ideology, but are “demands for freedom and dignity,” according to the Catholic bishops of the...

A Catholic pastor in Delaware has been indicted on charges of theft and falsifying records, with prosecutors charging that he made personal use of parish funds. Father Cornelius Breslin wrote...

Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Labore, the president of the Pakistani bishops’ conference, has expressed his dismay at the government’s decision to back away from efforts to amend the country’s...

The bishops of Costa Rica have condemned legislation that would legalize in vitro fertilization in the Central American nation. “The Church is opposed from the moral point of view to ‘in vitro’...

A Coptic Catholic bishop has told the Fides news agency that a consumerist culture spread by mass media has helped foster the recent uprising in the largely impoverished nation. And a Jesuit analyst...

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has set aside burial space for the hundreds of victims of notorious abortionist Kermit Gosnell. The bodies of the children, who were born alive, killed, and then...

Concurring with recent comments made by a state supreme court justice and a former director of state prisons, the bishops of Ohio are calling for the abolition of the death penalty in their state....

An interfaith coalition, composed largely of Muslim groups, has condemned Rep. Peter King’s upcoming congressional hearing on the radicalization of the American Muslim community. “The essence of...

Major donors to Catholic schools are now demanding a higher level of financial transparency and academic accountability, The New York Times reports. “The relationship between the Church and its...

Archbishop Ambrose Madtha, the Indian-born prelate who serves as apostolic nuncio to Côte d’Ivoire, has announced that Pope Benedict is giving 50,000 euros ($67,688) to Bishop Gaspard Béby Gnéba of...

Southern Sudan’s recent referendum on independence was, against all odds, peaceful-- a miracle attributable in large part to the prayers of Catholics worldwide, according to Catholic Relief...

In 1984, the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy wrote to an American bishop, instructing him not to hand over personnel files in the case of a priest who had been accused of...

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has scold Irish politicians for “criticism and mud-slinging” in this year’s election campaigns, and called for a more thoughtful approach to the nation’s...

Pope Benedict XVI renewed his challenge to China to respect religious freedom, as he presided on February 5 at the ordination of five new bishops. All five of the new bishops consecrated by the...

Pope Benedict XVI has chosen a French theologian, Father Francois-Marie Lethel, to preach this year’s Lenten Retreat at the Vatican. Father Lethel, a Discalced Carmelite, is the secretary of the...

An Indian cardinal has disclosed that Pope Benedict XVI would like to visit the country, but it is not clear whether the Pontiff will be able to make the trip. “Whenever I meet the Pope, I talk...

Pope Benedict XVI prayed for peace in Egypt, and looked forward to the World Day of the Sick on Friday, during his public audience on Sunday, February 6. The Holy Father said that he has been...

Catholic nurses are encountering more frequent challenges to their consciences in their efforts to care for the sick, reports the head of an international nurses’ group. Marylee Meehan, president...

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Islamic country, has seen a jump in the number of attacks on religious minorities—ironically, just as the country began its observances of Inter-Faith Harmony...

Pope Benedict XVI spoke of an “educational emergency” caused by relativism, in a February 7 address to members of the Congregation for Catholic Education. “Educational work seems to be becoming...

Under Turkish law, no religious body has secure legal status, notes Otmar Oehring in an analysis for Forum 18. The country’s fundamental approach to religious bodies must change, Oehring argues, in...

The Vatican has released a “study text” for the new English translation of the Roman Missal, including sections of the translation that will be introduced later this year. The Vox Clara...

In noteworthy editorial columns appearing today: Joseph Bottum, writing in USA Today, calls attention to the persecution of Christians around the world. In recent years, he points out, US foreign...

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a brutal group that has moved into southern Sudan after compiling a bloody record of human-rights abuses in northern Uganda, has murdered a 37-year-old nun,...

Coadjutor Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles and Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson are urging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to halt the deportations of Haitians to their...

Unmarried pregnant women in South Korea-- a nation with one of the highest abortion rates in the world-- will be able to receive free maternity care in Catholic hospitals under a new initiative...

In 1990, Clinton, Iowa-- then a city of 29,000-- boasted five historic parishes. Two decades later, two of the parishes have been demolished, and a third is part of a Catholic school. The fourth has...

A cloistered, contemplative women’s religious community in California officially became part of the Norbertine Order during a recent Mass celebrated in Fresno’s cathedral. Founded in 1997, the...

A deacon of the Diocese of Joliet has been found guilty of embezzling $317,000 from his parish between 2006 and 2009. “Three months after he started as business manager, he started stealing from his...

Thousands of Muslims attacked three Christian churches, an orphanage, and a health-care clinic in Indonesia on February 8. A Catholic priest was badly beaten as he sought to protect the...

At a Vatican meeting to follow up on the work of last year’s special Synod for the Middle East, participants reported that “the general socio-political situation in the various countries of the...

Although the Catholic Health Association (CHA) recently acknowledged the authority of diocesan bishops to judge whether Catholic health-care institutions are following Church moral guidelines, the...

For the third time in less than two weeks, a Planned Parenthood employee has been caught on videotape giving helpful advice to a man who identifies himself as the operator of a prostitution ring...

The journalist whose in-depth interview with Pope Benedict XVI became the book Light of the World has dismissed a public protest by German-speaking theologians as “a rebellion in the nursing...

Father Hans Langendörfer, SJ, the secretary of the German bishops’ conference, has responded to a recent statement by over 140 German theologians calling for changes in Catholic doctrine and...

The Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Quebec has made public a November letter to a parliamentary commission considering revisions to a law providing funds to historically significant...

Father Federico Lombardi, director of Holy See Press Office, describes recent protests in Tunisia and Egypt as a manifestation of citizens’ desires for greater liberty and expresses hope that these...

Testifying before a House subcommittee on behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Richard Doerflinger called for the prompt passage of the No Taxpayer Funding for...

Working with pro-life activists, Resurrection Medical Center, a Catholic hospital in Chicago, has adopted the policy of offering immediate emergency care to women who have begun to have a...

The Catholic Herald has profiled Maggie Gobran, a Coptic Orthodox laywoman who ministers to Christians who live in Cairo’s garbage dumps. “In the rubbish dumps Christian women search through for...

Pope Benedict XVI plans to alter the jurisdiction of the Congregation for Divine Worship, placing its focus squarely on the effort to promote reverence and a sense of the sacred in the liturgy,...

The Rome diocese has unveiled a new web site offering information about the May 1 beatification of Pope John Paul II. The site, available in 7 different languages, offers background on the late...

The San Franciscio archdiocese has taken the city of San Francisco to court in a dispute over the assessment of taxes on the transfers of church properties. The city claims that the archdiocese...

Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, has resigned at the age of 77. Cardinal Husar asked Pope Benedict XVI to accept his resignation because of his...

Reacting to a spate of publicity about an Iphone application that helps people prepare for Confession, the Vatican has issued a reminder that the sacrament of Penance requires oral confession to a...

At his weekly public audience on February 9, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about St. Peter Canisius (1521- 1597), the Dutch-born Jesuit who was known as the “2nd apostle to Germany” and named a Doctor of...

The government of Iraq has announced that Pope Benedict XVI may make a visit to Ur, the birthplace of the patriarch Abraham. The Iraqi tourism ministry revealed that the Pontiff had expressed an...

At the conclusion of his regular weekly audience on February 9, Pope Benedict XVI recognized a group of about 70 bishops from around the world who are participating in a conference organized by the...

Western sanctions on Myanmar are not harming the nation’s people, but only punishing the country’s repressive regime, according to a Burmese democracy activist. U Maung Maung, the general...

Police in Dayton, Ohio, are searching for clues that might help them identify the vandals responsible for an attack on a Catholic church there. The vandals spray-painted several statues of...

Indonesian police have stepped up security around Christian churches in Java in the wake of a series of attacks by Muslim militants, amid complaints that the government has not provided adequate...

Continuing demonstrations in Cairo have had a healthy effect of focusing attention on corruption in the government and massive inequalities in Egyptian society, a priest on the scene reports....

Father Richard Gill, a former member of the Legion of Christ who is now a priest of the New York archdiocese, explains the difficulties facing the effort to reform the troubled order. In Father...

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and the head of NATO are calling upon the Afghan government to release Musa Sayed, an ex-Muslim Red Cross worker who faces the death penalty for...

The All Indian Christian Council, with the support of Archbishop Vincent Concessao of Delhi, is calling for the establishment of a government commission to document and combat discrimination against...

Msgr. Robert Stern, head of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, and Father Luciano Verdoscia, an Italian missionary in Cairo, offer differing analyses of the protests in Egypt. Father...

Massachusetts’ four bishops are urging state lawmakers to consider the plight of the poor as they contemplate budget cuts. “In light of the extraordinary challenges our state faces and in view of...

Patrick Leinen, the developer of an iPhone application designed to help people prepare for the confession, welcomed a reminder by Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi that the sacrament...

Four nuns were denied their right to vote in the Cambridge (Ontario) municipal election for Catholic school board candidates last fall. Sister Michael Daniel Dumais, 39, said that a poll worker...

In his message for the 48th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Benedict XVI says that “every Christian community, every member of the Church, needs consciously to feel responsibility for...

Christians and Muslims have protected each other during the protest demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Coptic Christians formed a protective wall around Muslims, allowing them space for...

Human-rights organizations in Pakistan are denouncing the reluctance of police to file murder charges against a wealthy Muslim who apparently tortured and killed a young Christian employee. Imran...

Confirming reports that began circulating yesterday, the Vatican has announced the resignation of Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of Kyiv (Kiev), the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. The...

Rome’s hotels are already almost completely booked for the weekend of May 1, as pilgrims make plans to attend the beatification of Pope John Paul II. Vatican officials now expect up to 2.5 million...

The Archdiocese of Seoul, South Korea, has set up a parish program to provide for the pastoral needs of the blind. Father Stephen Ko Hyeong-seo has been given special responsibilities to care for...

As he concluded a 10-day visit to India, acting as the Pope’s personal representative, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor reported to Vatican Radio that the Catholic Church “is of course a very small...

On February 10, the Vatican announced the appointment of an apostolic delegate to Kosovo—but cautioned that the appointment should not be taken as a sign of diplomatic recognition. Archbishop...

A Dutch cardinal has been accused to covering up evidence of sexual abuse by a priest in the Utrecht archdiocese, and giving the priest new parish assignments even after he had been identified as an...

In Connecticut, a conservative Anglican parish has gone before the state’s highest court with its plea to retain parish properties, to which the Episcopal diocese claims title. The parish...

In an address to the general synod of the Church of England, a Catholic bishop said that the “development of a theology which places [the Blessed Virgin Mary] as an intercessor by the side of her...

Archbishop Pierre d’Ornellas of Rennes, joined by the other bishops of his ecclesiastical province, has issued a statement lamenting the utilitarianism surrounding the birth of Umut-Talha, a “savior...

Msgr. William Lynn, a Philadelphia pastor who headed the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s office of clergy from 1992 to 2004, has been indicted on two counts on endangering the welfare of a child....

Jim Towey, who served as director of faith-based and community initiatives under President George W. Bush before becoming president of St. Vincent College in Pennsylvania, has been named president...

February 11 is the 19th World Day of the Sick, a commemoration instituted by Venerable John Paul II. The title of Pope Benedict’s message for the day is entitled “By his wounds you have been...

The Vatican is celebrating a holiday on Friday, February 11: the 82nd anniversary of the Lateran Accords. The Lateran Accords settled a series of hotly contested issues that had pitted the Holy...

Catholic Church officials in Ireland have announced an increase in the number of couples planning to marry in 2011. ACCORD, the marriage ministry of the Irish Catholic bishops, reported that...

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz has given two relics of the Pope John Paul II to Robert Kubica, the Formula One race-car driver who is now recovering from injuries suffered in a raceway...

The Cuban government is releasing 4 more political prisoners, as the result of negotiations with Catholic Church leaders. Church spokesman Orlando Marquez in Havana announced on February 11 that...

As Vatican Radio celebrated its 80th anniversary on February 10, an official of the Vatican Secretariat of State challenged the broadcaster to keep pace with “a veritable revolution underway today...

The West should not underestimate the power of Islamic forces in the Middle East, and Iraqi archbishop has warned. In an interview with Italy’s SIR news agency, Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk...

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev will meet with Pope Benedict XVI in a private audience on February 17. The Russian leader will be in Italy next week for meetings with the country’s political...

A Christian village in the province of Mindanao has been torched, apparently by a small Islamic rebel group. Although there were no reported casualties, dozens of families were routed from their...

The Virginia-based Population Research Institute (PRI) has promised to do “everything in its power” to stop a plan to sterilize 700,000 men in Rwanda. The campaign, encouraging men to undergo...

Catholics in Poland were jolted by the sudden death of Archbishop Jozef Zycinski of Lublin on February 10. Archbishop Zycinksi, who was 62, died in Rome during a visit there. His death was...

A “Religious Landscape Survey” conducted by the Pew Forum found that there are 22 million ex-Catholics in the US. If not for Hispanic immigration, the American Catholic population would be...

Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia has issued three statements-- one of them a YouTube video message-- responding to a Philadelphia grand jury’s indictment of four priests who allegedly abused...

Addressing the United Nations Economic and Social Council on February 11, Archbishop Francis Chullikatt lamented the extent of world poverty and urged a UN body to view the family, founded upon the...

In a victory for Pakistan’s beleaguered Christian community, the nation’s government decided not to eliminate the federal ministry for religious minorities amid a downsizing of federal...

Coadjutor Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, who will succeed Cardinal Roger Mahony as archbishop on February 27, is being described as “very open and understanding,” “willing to hear and learn...

Affirming the link between contraception, homosexual activity, and legalized abortion-- all of which she supports-- Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Catholic who serves as House Minority Leader, blasted the...

Some 60 homosexual activists picketed outside Holy Name Cathedral on February 13. “If we’re going to win marriage equality within this state, we’ll have to be out in the streets like we are today,”...

The Vatican publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, is printing 300,000 copies of a new book by Pope Benedict XVI, reports Andrea Tornielli of Il Giornale. The second volume of the Pope's...

The Vatican is sponsoring a conference this week on providing care for sailors who are captured by pirates. With piracy becoming an increasingly common phenomenon, Vatican officials are calling...

A female Catholic chaplain at John Henry Newman College in Birmingham, England, has confessed that she fabricated a rape charge against a priest with whom she had worked on an earlier assignment....

Irish Catholic commentator David Quinn has provoked a lively controversy by arguing that in the country's coming elections, voters who choose the Labour Party will be advancing the cause of legal...

A rise in the number of priests serving in Latin America is easing the shortage there, at the same time that the number of priests in North America is falling, L’Osservatore Romano reports. The...

An American cardinal will tell Pope Benedict XVI that the Church in Ireland is facing a danger of “national collapse,” according to reports in the Irish press. Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston,...

In London’s Catholic Herald, former editor William Oddie argues that the current debate over the introduction of a new Mass translation should be recognized as the last, desperate offensive by an...

Pope Benedict XVI has named a new archbishop to lead the Catholic Church in Orissa, the Indian state that has been troubled by waves of anti-Christian violence. Bishop John Barwa, who had been...

In a welcome display of inter-faith solidarity, Muslims in the southern Indian state of Karnataka have rallied to the defense of Christians, criticizing a government report that downplayed the...

Pope Benedict XVI met on February 12 with priests and seminarians from the Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and told them that “the presence of priestly...

At his Sunday Angelus audience on February 13, Pope Benedict XVI said that the Sermon on the Mount is the “Torah” of the new Law proclaimed by Christ. Jesus brought “the definitive revelation of...

During his midday audience on Sunday, February 13, Pope Benedict XVI mourned the death of four Roma (gypsy) children who were killed by a fire in a squatters’ shack on the outskirts of Rome. The...

The Vatican has announced that Pope Benedict XVI will preside at an ordinary consistory (a meeting of the cardinals present in Rome) on February 21 to approve the canonization of three new...

Australian Anglicans planning to enter a Catholic ordinariate there discussed the practical arrangements for the move at a conference last week. Bishop Peter Elliott, an auxiliary of the...

The Intercessors of the Lamb has raised the stakes in its conflict with the Omaha, Nebraska, archdiocese, scheduling a major conference in July. The Omaha archdiocese has issued a reminder that...

Cardinal Antonios Naguib, patriarch of the Coptic Catholic Church, has issued a statement welcoming the fall of the regime of Hosni Mubarak. “The Egyptian Catholic Church joins all Egypt's loyal...

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, blasted famed abuse attorney Jeffrey Anderson after Anderson suggested he hid $130 million in...

New York City, which has distributed three million free condoms per month for the last five years, has announced it is launching a smartphone application to help make access to free condoms even...

Jim Towey, the new president and CEO of Ave Maria University, has told the National Catholic Register that Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, his local bishop, “twisted my arm a little bit when I...

Police in southern California have arrested a 53-year-old woman on suspicion of spraying anti-Catholic graffiti at two parishes in the Diocese of Orange. One message read “Kill Cathlick’s”; the...

The California Catholic Daily is reporting that a priest of the Diocese of Orange concelebrated Mass with a Protestant minister on February 13. The priest, Father Agustín Escobar, hails from...

A Greek Orthodox parish in New York has brought suit against the Port Authority, charging that it has been blocked from rebuilding a church that was destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attack. St....

The British government will propose an end to the current ban on religious ceremonies to formalize same-sex partnerships. A new policy proposal would authorize churches to solemnize gay...

Lay Catholics protesting the closing of a historic Polish parish church in Adams, Massachusetts, have won a partial victory, with a Vatican ruling that the church should remain open. The...

South Korea has seen a sharp increase in the number of people registering as organ donors in the two years since the death of Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan. More than 300,000 people have...

An editorial in the New York Times argues that the US bishops have failed to recover their credibility in the aftermath of the sex-abuse scandal. Citing the recent report of a grand jury on the...

Robert George, the Princeton legal scholar and pro-life leader, makes the case against the "sting" operations by Live Action, which have exposed evident misconduct in Planned Parenthood clinics....

A Canadian Catholic priest is suing the LifeSite News service for libel. Among the charges lodged by Father Raymond Gravel is that LifeSite misrepresented him by identifying him as pro-abortion,...

President Alvaro Colon of Guatemala plans to ask Mexico to provide temporary legal status for people who cross through Mexico from Central America, on their way to entering the US as illegal...

The Vatican has released the details of a visit by Pope Benedict XVI to the Italian cities of Aquileia and Venice, which will take place May 7-8. The Holy Father will leave Rome by plane early on...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) are urging Congress not to slash international poverty assistance. “The proposed Continuing Resolution...

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York has announced that Al Notzon III, who served as executive director of the Alamo Area Council of Governments from 1971 to 2007, has been named chairman of the...

Father Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, is calling upon President Barack Obama and federal lawmakers to “create a new national approach” to assistance to the poor-- an approach...

Thomas Farr, the first director of the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom, argues in a Christianity Today op-ed that the Obama administration must make international...

Allen Hunt, a talk-radio host whose show is broadcast on 150 stations, discusses his conversion to the Catholic faith in a Catholic newspaper interview. Hunt, a former megachurch pastor, says that...

The British government absorbed £6.3 million ($10.1 million) in costs for the visit by Pope Benedict XVI last October, the Foreign Office has reported. The total cost of the papal visit was over...

The US bishops may eventually reconsider their provisions of the Dallas Charter, which prescribe a "zero tolerance" policy for priests who commit sexual abuse, reports John Allen. Although there...

The Archdiocese of Melbourne, Australia has changed its policies for handling sex-abuse complaints, requiring a Church investigator to obtain police permission before he informs accused priests that...

Using the language of Catholic theology, former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd said that the formal apology he issued in 2008 for the mistreatment of aborigines was like a sacrament. “For...

The Vatican will soon issue a long-awaited document to follow up on the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, which provided for the wider use of the traditional Latin Mass, an Italian journalist...

St. John of the Cross “has something to say to us, to every normal Christian today,” Pope Benedict XVI told his weekly public audience on February 16. Continuing his series of talks on the...

A British court has ruled against allowing “bedroom abortions,” in which a woman takes abortifacient pills at home rather than in a clinic. Abortion providers had sought a ruling that would allow...

A Canadian man has been convicted a near-fatal attack on a Catholic bishop, but found not responsible for his actions. Bishop David Monroe of Kamloops, British Columbia, spent 55 days in the...

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev is expected to focus discussion on international affairs during his February 17 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI. But the visit—the first between a Pontiff and a...

The Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) has announced the establishment of a ‘Mother Teresa Chair’ at India's largest institution of higher education: Indira Gandhi National Open...

Two new scientific studies have underlined the practical wisdom of Church teachings on sexuality, as a means of curbing the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. In Zimbabwe, a...

In a Wall Street Journal editorial column, Dorothy Rabinowitz examines the case of Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who stands accused of killing 12 people and wounding 32 others in a shooting spree at...

Iraqi Christians have been targeted by terrorists who do not adhere to the “tolerant essence of the Islamic faith,” Habeeb Mohammed Hadi Ali Al-Sadr, Iraq’s ambassador to the Holy See, said at a...

After a Philadelphia grand jury report asserted that as many as 37 priests who have committed abuse remain in active ministry, Cardinal Justin Rigali has announced that he is placing three priests...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ office of domestic social development has issued an updated policy briefing paper on global climate change. “Protecting God’s Creation and ‘the...

As Wisconsin lawmakers contemplate a bill that would curtail collective bargaining by state employees, Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee has issued a statement upholding the value of unions....

A 26-year-old Colombian priest who served as vicar of his diocese’s cathedral has been shot and killed. “We seriously deplore the cowardly assassination of Father Luis Carlos Orozco Cardona on...

Writing in L’Osservatore Romano, Marcello Filotei criticized several of the performances at the San Remo Music Festival but lauded Davide van de Sfroos as a "true person" in the midst of...

Both international affairs and ecumenical prospects were on the agenda as Pope Benedict XVI met on February 17 with President Dimitri Medvedev of Russia. The 35-minute conversation was the first...

The Boston archdiocese has taken the first steps toward the sale of property at several parishes that have been officially closed since 2004. The archdiocese will solicit public comments on the...

Correcting published reports that a Vatican investigation will show the Irish Catholic Church near “national collapse,” an outspoken priest has said that the investigator, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of...

An Iraqi Christian who had been kidnapped on February 13 was released three days later after his family paid an undisclosed ransom. Iyad Salman Dawoud Askar, a married man with two children, was...

A 3-year-old Australian girl who was blessed by Pope Benedict XVI survived without serious injuries when she was run over by a 22-passenger bus. Claire Hill, whose parents had held her up to be...

The Rome diocese has launched a web site to provide help for pilgrims planning to attend the beatification of Pope John Paul II on May 1. The Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi web site provides...

At a press conference in Rome on February 17, Vatican prelates joined with a Catholic newspaper editor to assess the results of the Pauline Year declared by Pope Benedict XVI, which stretched from...

The Diocese of Springfield, Massachusetts, has released a public statement responding to a Vatican decision that blocked the closing of three churches. The diocesan statement noted that the...

The Vatican has not yet accepted the resignation of Maronite Catholic Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, reports from Lebanon indicate. Cardinal Sfeir, who has led the Maronite Church since 1986,...

The Vatican budget for 2011 “though showing clear signs of improvement, is still marked by the uncertainty of the global economic system and by increased administrative costs.” That was the report...

The Vatican’s representative in Australia has issued a warning about email scams that solicit funds by pretending a connection with the Holy See. Archbishop Guiseppe Lazzaratto said that the...

A Pakistani lawmaker who has worked to amend the country's blasphemy law has herself been charged with blasphemy. Sherry Rehman, a member of the Pakistani People's Party, was formally denounced...

The Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul has told Newsmax that Christians in Iraq’s second-largest city live in a state of constant fear. Most families that fled the city last autumn following...

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has approved the Protect Life Act (HR 358) in a 33-19 vote. The measure, which awaits a vote in the full House of Representatives, would remove the...

Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay has announced that he has lifted his moratorium, imposed in 2010, on the Catholic Campaign for Human Development collection in his diocese. Bishop Ricken had...

Bishop Tod Brown of Orange has placed Father Augustin Escobar on leave following reports that he permitted a Protestant pastor to act as a concelebrant during Mass and to distribute Holy...

The deputy chief of chaplains of the United States Army told fellow army chaplains on February 17 that “the upcoming end to ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ which will allow openly gay and lesbian...

The Diocese of Albany has sold a closed parish to the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity for $250,000. “It will be great to have a house for real instead of meeting in apartments,” said Eric Otto, a college...

Pope Benedict XVI told a group of bishops from the Philippines that their most important task is “keeping God at the center of the life of the faithful" during an audience on February 18. While...

An independent investigator in the Netherlands reports that his commission has collected more than 2,000 reports of abuse by Catholic priests. Wim Deetman, the former government official whose...

Some Catholic priests in Australia are threatening that they will refuse to accept the new English translation of the Mass when it goes into effect later this year. The recalcitrant priests,...

The Vatican has released a schedule of events for the beatification of Pope John Paul II, outlining “a major ecclesial event” that will be divided into 5 separate ceremonies. On Saturday evening,...

Surveying the difficulties that the American Catholic Church faces regarding marriages and annulments, John Allen notes in a Wall Street Journal column that the number of annulments has declined....

In an address on the religious influences that shape the world, former British prime minister Tony Blair said that there are more practicing Catholics in China today than in Italy. There are an...

America’s mainline Protestant denominations are losing members, the new 2011 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches shows. Overall church membership in the US dropped by 1% last year, settling...

Although media reports routinely estimate that Christians account for 10% of Egypt's population, the Pew Forum reports that the most recent survey places the figure at only 5%. The Pew figure...

The Catholic bishops of Brazil have criticized the "low moral level" of reality TV shows, saying that they "attack the dignity of people, as much that of the participants who are as fascinated by a...

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the former vicar of the Rome diocese, will celebrate his 80th birthday on Saturday, February 19. He will thereby become ineligible to participate in a papal...

A Polish Salesian priest was murdered in Tunisia on February 18. Father Marek Rybinski, 34, was ordained in 2005 and has ministered in the north African nation for three years. A month before his...

At a special liturgy of lament and repentance in Dublin’s pro-cathedral, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin rued the sexual abuse of children and the response by Church authorities to the abuse. “I can...

Iranian authorities recently arrested 45 Christians around the nation and detained them overnight, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide. “The wave of arrests and temporary detentions by the...

Speaking to members of the Communion and Liberation movement, the Holy See’s chief diplomat at UN offices in Geneva said that “the United Nations aspires to create a new international order and to...

Peter Kearney, director of the Scottish bishops’ media office, is calling for a government-funded campaign that targets anti-Catholicism. “Over the last ten years significant amounts of public...

Eucharistic adoration has transformed a dying small-town parish into one of the most vibrant in the Diocese of Fall River, according to an article posted on SouthCoastToday.com, the web site of the...

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has found Father Fernando Karadima, one of Chile’s most prominent priests, guilty of sexual abuse. The 80-year-old priest, according to the...

The world’s Catholic population grew by 1.3% in 2009, reaching 1.181 billion, according to the latest Church statistics, published in the new Annuario Pontificio. The Annuario is the pontifical...

Christians who follow God’s will “are able to make a new start,” putting anger and resentment aside, Pope Benedict XVI told his Sunday public audience on February 21. The Holy Father recalled...

Tony Abbott, the leader of Australia’s opposition coalition, has indicated that he will not swerve from his opposition to legal recognition of same-sex marriage. After a “candid discussion” with...

The Obama administration has rolled back the "conscience clause" protections for health-care workers that were instituted during the Bush presidency. The new federal regulations, released on...

Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic has been named the apostolic nuncio to Russia. Archbishop Jurkovic becomes the first Vatican representative in Moscow to hold that rank since full diplomatic relations...

Pope Benedict XVI will preside at the canonization of three new saints on October 23. At a public consistory on February 21, the Pope announced plans for the canonization of: Blessed Guido Maria...

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran has become the proto-deacon of the College of Cardinals. In that post the French-born cardinal, who is president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue,...

The Catholic bishops of the Philippines have broken off talks with the government about legislation to promote family planning, explaining that the proposed bill is moving ahead too fast to allow...

Less than a week before elections in the Irish republic, the Irish bishops’ conference has released a statement charging that current public policies violate principles of justice and offend against...

Bernard Nathanson, who was one of the leading figures in the abortion industry before he converted to the pro-life cause and the Catholic faith, died on February 21 in New York at the age of...

A Pakistani prosecutor has declined to pursue criminal charges against a legislator who had called for changes in the country’s harsh blasphemy law. Sherry Rehman, a member of the Pakistani...

After the Vatican released an official schedule of events surrounding the May 1 beatification of Pope John Paul II, officials underlined that the ceremony would be open to the public without...

As elections approach in Ireland, Labor Party leader Eamon Gilmore has been fending off questions about his religious beliefs, saying that “religion is a private matter.” Analyst David Quinn rejects...

Amid fears that a post-Mubarak Egypt will become increasingly Islamist, thousands of Coptic Christians marched in Cairo on February 20 to demand the removal of Article 2 from the Egyptian...

The Vatican Secretariat of State, led by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, has decided to replace Lesley-Anne Knight as secretary-general of Caritas Internationalis, the Church’s consortium of relief and...

Tens of thousands of Christians in the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka took to the streets on February 20 to protest a recent report that absolved the local government, police, and Hindu...

At the conclusion of a meeting in Belgrade, the Joint Committee of the Conference of European Churches and of the Council of Bishops’ Conferences of Europe called upon the European Union to advocate...

Muslims seeking additional land have burned down a Bangladeshi village inhabited by Christians, Buddhists, and Hindus. “Nobody, not even the civil authorities, respects and guarantees the rights...

Members of Libya’s small Catholic community are not taking part in the uprising against the regime of Muammar al-Gaddafi, the nation’s leading prelate says. “The Catholic community has not met...

Father Bernardo Cervellera, the director of the AsiaNews service, decries the "stuttering timidity" of the European Union, which approved a mild resolution against the persecution of Christians--...

A Canadian pro-life activist who has spent nearly 2 years in prison will have her day before the country's Supreme Court, arguing that her case should be heard by civil courts. Linda Gibbons has...

In his message for Lent 2011, Pope Benedict XVI reminds the faithful that we must share in Christ’s death in order to share in his Resurrection. The Holy Father explains that truth with a meditation...

With a series of photos showing Muslims and Christians demonstrating side by side, an AsiaNews correspondent makes the point that the recent mass demonstrations in Egypt were marked by a spirit of...

As the world waits for news about Asia Bibi, the young Pakistani Christian mother who has been condemned to death after being convicted of blasphemy, another Christian woman has been arrested on...

The Vatican has concluded a round of theological talks with the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), with the head of the traditionalist group reporting that the two sides have not reached agreement on the...

The British government’s plan to allow for registration of same-sex unions at church services has drawn strong opposition from the Catholic Church. Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark said that...

Abby Johnson, who in 2009 left her job as director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas to join the pro-life movement, is preparing to enter the Catholic Church. Johnson, who was converted to...

The Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) has welcomed the Council of the European Union’s decision to condemn violence “against Christians and their places of...

The bishops of eight southern African nations are expressing grave concern over the economic and political situation in Zimbabwe. “Despite some improvements in the country we note that the...

The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Christchurch, which was dedicated in 1905, suffered extensive damage in the New Zealand earthquake that has claimed at least 75 lives. “The engineers...

Over five dozen Christians have been driven from their village at gunpoint and face starvation, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide. The agency reports that a local government official says...

Father Marek Rybinski, the 34-year-old Polish Salesian who was murdered in Tunisia on February 18, was slain by a dishonest worker at the missionary house, according to the local...

A well-funded condom-distribution and population-control program, funded in part by the United States Agency for International Development, has helped fuel the spread of AIDS in Cambodia, according...

Caritas Internationalis, the consortium of Catholic relief and development agencies, has issued an appeal to assist an estimated 5,000 people still displaced by last year’s election violence in Côte...

Claiming “illegal surveillance of the Muslim community,” the California chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations have filed suit against the FBI. “We have seen a special emphasis on...

EWTN provides a balanced summary of the debate among Catholic theologians over the morality of the tactics used by Live Action in its undercover campaign to expose Planned Parenthood. The key...

A Catholic priest has denied reports that he helped to negotiate a cash settlement in a gang-rape case, enabling the perpetrators to escape prosecution in exchange for payment to the victim's...

The Obama administration will no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman, Attorney General Eric Holder has...

The head of the Australian government’s Bureau of Meteorology has criticized Cardinal George Pell of Sydney for his public statements indicating skepticism about man-made global warming. “The...

Deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak may have orchestrated the January 1 massacre of Coptic Christians, the country’s leading Catholic prelate has suggested. Coptic Catholic Patriarch...

A California priest who was suspended from ministry after he invited a Protestant minister to concelebrate Mass and share Communion has issued a statement apologizing and asking...

Catholicism is a “minority culture” in Ireland today, according to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin. In an address at Magdalene College, Cambridge, the Primate of Ireland explained that...

At his weekly public audience on February 23, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the contributions of St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), and especially his work defending the integrity of the...

Pope Benedict XVI blessed a statue of St. Maron, the founder of the Maronite Catholic Church, before his public audience on Wednesday, February 23. The 15-foot marble statue of the 5th-century...

As Cardinal Roger Mahony nears the end of his long tenure as the head of America’s largest Catholic archdiocese, the Los Angeles Times offers a reflection on his legacy, emphasizing the cardinal’s...

An Egyptian state security court has acquitted two men “known to be accomplices” in the January 2010 drive-by shooting of seven people outside a Coptic church in southern Egypt, according to the US...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a statement lamenting the Obama administration’s decision not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court. “Marriage has...

The Spanish bishops and the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church-- a branch of the Anglican Communion-- have issued a joint statement on the mutual recognition of baptism. The document recognizes the...

Agnes Nuggo, a Catholic woman jailed on charges of blasphemy against Islam, recently accused three other Christians of blasphemy, according to the news agency of the Congregation for the...

Following a 25-22 preliminary state senate vote, Maryland is on the verge of become the sixth state to allow homosexual marriage. “Measures were defeated that sought to allow religiously...

A Philippine women’s religious community, founded in Cebu in 1996, combats human trafficking by ministering in “remote villages where the pimps prey on the girls with the promise of a good job in...

A leading canon lawyer has criticized Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany for administering Communion to New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo, a proponent of legal abortion who is openly living with a...

A California woman who participated in an 2007 “ordination” ceremony organized by Roman Catholic Women Priests has renounced her ordination, affirmed the Church’s teaching on the impossibility of...

The anti-government demonstrations that have swept across the Middle East and Asia have reached North Korea, the AsiaNews service reports. The government there has responded with characteristic...

Pope Benedict XVI met on February 24 with Lebanon’s President Michel Sleiman, and said that the peaceful coexistence of Christians and Muslims in that country “stands as a message of freedom and...

The Catholic bishops of Wisconsin have “chosen a neutral stance” regarding the confrontation between the governor and public-service unions in that state, Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison has...

The breakdown of American families has created a major national crisis, and government policies have often exacerbated the problem, writes Patrick Fagan of the Family Research Council. Fagan...

As L'Osservatore Romano marks its 150th anniversary, AP takes note of the criticism that the Vatican newspaper has received because of a new editorial...

The Vatican has released the schedule for a June visit by Pope Benedict XVI to San Marino. The one-day trip will take place on Sunday, June 19. The Pontiff will leave Rome early in the morning,...

A Vatican expert on Islam, Father Samir Khalil Samir, sees the current surge of protests in the Arab world as a largely healthy development. The crowds are not motivated by Islamic fundamentalism or...

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America has reported 332,278 abortions in 2009, the last year for which full statistics are available. That figure represents an increase over the previous year....

The Catholic bishops of Egypt will not call for the repeal of Article 2 of the nation’s constitution, which declares Islam to the state religion. Thousands of Coptic Christians marched in Cairo...

Italian officials have arrested six Moroccan men on charges of inciting hatred against Pope Benedict XVI. The men said that the Pope deserved to be punished for baptizing Muslim journalist Magdi...

Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, chairman of the committee on domestic justice and human development of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has praised Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome...

The Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) has observed that the Holy See’s diplomats have become more outspoken in confronting the radical anti-family agenda discussed in United Nations...

A senior high court judge in the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka has completed a report documenting the link between the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP party and hundreds of incidents of...

Father Santos Sánchez Hernández, 43, was brutally murdered on the night of February 21-22 in his rectory in a small town in south-central Mexico. The murder is “a reflection on the corruption,...

William Saletan-- a journalist who has criticized Catholic moral teaching in past articles-- examines “how the politics of abortion protects bad clinics,” such as the clinic operated by notorious...

The Vatican newspaper has condemned Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi for "merciless" attacks on civilians as he clings to power. L'Osservatore Romano said that the latest reports from Libya "paint...

Virginia's legislature has passed a bill that will impose new safety standards on abortion clinics. Abortion advocates fear that the legislation will force most of the state's abortion clinics out...

A Chinese woman who has worked against the country’s brutal “one-child” policy has been sent to a labor camp, just days after she had been released from custody. Mao Hengfeng was re-arrested when...

Irish pharmacists are obligated to provide customers with the "morning-after pill," or face professional sanctions, the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland has confirmed. With the approval of...

The Archdiocese of Sydney, Australia, is reporting a rise in the number of men entering preparation for the priesthood. The Sydney archdiocese may be reaping the benefit of two factors that have...

Italy’s highest court has confirmed a judgment against Vatican Radio for violating legal standards governing the emission of electromagnetic radiation. The court upheld a decision requiring...

Pope Benedict XVI met in a private audience with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir on February 25, but there was no announcement from the Vatican on the Lebanese prelate's retirement. The...

Pope Benedict XVI met on February 24 with the political leaders of Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, and encouraged them to continue promoting religious tolerance. Kurdish President Massoud Barzani...

Janet Smith continues the debate among moral theologians about the morality of Live Action’s tactics, in an analysis posted on the CatholicVote.org web site. After summarizing the argument of St....

Professor Richard Beck of Abilene Christian has drawn considerable attention to his argument that Facebook, by introducing a popular new mans of social interaction, is challenging the role of the...

Pope Benedict XVI will travel in March to the Fosse Ardeatine, the site of a Nazi massacre on the outskirts of Rome. On March 24, 1944, Nazi troops killed 335 Italians, in revenge for a partisan...

American Baptists are recognizing the value of Lenten penitence, the Associated Baptist Press reports. “It’s a biblical thing, not a made-up Catholic thing,” said Kyle Henderson of First Baptist...

Amid continued unrest in Libya, Bishop Giovanni Martinelli of Tripoli has appealed to the Red Crescent and other Muslim organizations to protect Catholic churches and other institutions. Bishop...

Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Holy See Press Office, is expressing optimism about the “possible springtime” taking place in the Arab world. “Thanks to the links with emigration,...

A Philadelphia-area Catholic college has decided not to offer a new part-time teaching contract to an openly homosexual “priest” of a self-described “independent Catholic” parish that is not in...

During two Masses at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony passed the leadership of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to Archbishop José Gómez, who has served as...

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York has denounced a billboard company’s decision to remove a pro-life billboard following complaints from city officials. The billboard stated that “the most...

Of Gods and Men, a movie based on the murder of seven French Trappists in Algeria in 1996, has won the Cesar Award for best French film of the year. The movie debuted in the US on February...

A Chinese bishop who was sentenced to a decade of forced labor because of his fidelity to the Pope has died at the age of 90. Bishop Augustine Hu Daguo ministered in the south central province of...

Society as a whole, and health-care personnel in particular, should help women resist the pressure to have abortions, Pope Benedict XVI said. Women facing difficult pregnancies often feel...

Pope Benedict XVI has formally accepted the resignation of Maronite Catholic Patriarch Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir, who is retiring at the age of 91. Cardinal Sfeir has led the Maronite Church since...

Christians should learn to “trust in the indefectible love of God,” Pope Benedict XVI told his public audience on Sunday, February 27. Commenting on the day’s Gospel reading, the Pope admitted...

New communications technologies are calling for the development of a “new language” to promote the Gospel, Pope Benedict XVI said in a February 28 address to the Pontifical Council for Social...

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is recommending that pregnant women be told that abortion is safer than bringing a pregnancy to term. In a draft of guidance to be given to...

A survey of Australian Catholic priests has found that most find their pastoral work fulfilling, but many are unhappy with the leadership of their bishops and most think that the Vatican does not...

As US military forces adapt to President Obama’s decision to allow openly homosexual recruits, the Pentagon is planning sensitivity training to instruct troops in proper conduct toward...

The Catholic bishops of the Philippines have backed away from plans for a prayer vigil outside parliament to protest the pending family-planning bill. The bishops changed their plans after...

New York’s City Council will take action this week on a measure designed to curb the work of crisis-pregnancy centers. The legislation would require all pregnancy-care centers to post notices...

Cardinal John Foley has resigned and returned home to his native Philadelphia, six months after learning that he suffers from leukemia. Cardinal Foley, who is 75, served at the Vatican as...

Meeting on February 28 with the president of the European Parliament, Pope Benedict XVI underlined the importance of “promoting religious freedom and the protection of Christian minorities in the...

The High Court in London has affirmed the decision of a local council to bar a Christian couple from acting as foster parents because of their opposition to homosexuality. Owen and Eunice Johns,...

Reflecting on the life of Bernard Nathanson (whose funeral was celebrated today in St. Patrick’s cathedral by New York’s Archbishop Timothy Dolan), Robert Reilly tells the fascinating story of how,...