Catholic World News

The Vatican offered a sober reaction to the death of Osama bin Laden, with the director of the Vatican press office, Father Federico Lombardi, noting that the Al Qaida leader "was was gravely...

Following a 2006 pastoral letter expressing support for women’s ordination and an apostolic visitation led by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, an Australian bishop has announced his early...

Cardinal Agustín García-Gasco, the retired Archbishop of Valencia, died in Rome of a heart attack in the hours before the beatification of Pope John Paul II. He was 80 years old. Born in Spain...

Father Thulani Magwaza, whom Cardinal Francis George named administrator of St. Sabina Parish in Chicago after suspending Father Michael Pfleger, offered strong praise for the controversial priest...

Sehar Naz, a 24-year-old Christian woman who works in the insurance industry in the northern Pakistani province of Punjab, was abducted and repeatedly raped by an army intelligence officer,...

Quoting William Butler Yeats (“Things fall apart / the centre cannot hold / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”), Father Robert Imbelli, a professor of theology at Boston College, writes that the...

The Vatican has announced the prayer intentions of Pope Benedict XVI for May 2011. The Pope's general intention is: "That those working in communication media may respect the truth, solidarity, and...

The attendance of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe at the beatification of Pope John Paul II posed a diplomatic problem for the Vatican, since the African leader has been roundly condemned by...

The Vatican has announced a new accord with Azerbaijan, establishing the juridical status of the Church in that country. The pact, which was signed on April 29, guarantees the right of Catholics...

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone presided at a Mass of Thanksiving in St. Peter’s Square on May 2, concluding the formal schedule of events for the beatification of Pope John Paul II. All through Sunday...

Pope John Paul II “restored to Christianity its true face as a religion of hope,” Pope Benedict XVI said at the May 1 beatification of the Polish Pontiff. Well over 1 million people crowded into...

President Bronislaw Komorowski of Poland met on May 2 with Pope Benedict XVI in a private audience at the Vatican. The Polish leader “"wished to express the gratitude of the Polish nation for the...

Religious clashes in Nigeria have caused at least 300 deaths, destroyed 300 homes, and driven 14,000 people from their homes, the Nigerian bishops’ conference reports. The violence in...

"State priests"--Catholic clerics who show greater loyalty to the Communist regime than to the Church--create serious difficulties for Church leaders in Vietnam. Three Catholic priests are...

On April 30, Pope Benedict XVI met with European radio broadcasters who were joining in the 80th-anniversary celebrations of Vatican Radio. In his remarks to the group, the Holy Father said that...

Bishop Giovanni Martinelli, the apostolic vicar of Tripoli, attended the funeral of a son and 3 grandchildren of Colonel Muammar Qaddafi, who were killed in a NATO air strike. Bishop Martinelli,...

The American public solidly supports the beatification of Pope John Paul II, despite heavy media coverage for critics of the ceremony, a new poll shows. The Marist poll, commissioned by the...

Amid security fears, Christian schools and other institutions closed in Pakistan following the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden. Additional police have been placed around churches in...

An estimated 14,000 people, most of them Christians, have fled their homes in the north-central Nigerian state of Kaduna following the latest in a series of attacks by supporters of presidential...

Following the discovery of a burnt copy of the Qur’an in a Christian cemetery, 500 extremists attacked a Christian neighborhood in Gujranwala, a city in Punjab province in northeastern Pakistan....

A day after Bishop William Morris of Toowoomba said he would retire early following an apostolic visitation, Pope Benedict XVI removed him from office. The May 1 retirement announcement and May 2...

The apostolic vicar of Tripoli has again urged NATO and its allies to suspend the bombing of Libya. “Yesterday I went to see the house hit by four NATO missiles,” Bishop Giovanni Martinelli said...

The Archdiocese of Washington has formally announced the opening of Blessed John Paul II Seminary to help educate its burgeoning number of college and pre-theology seminarians. The archdiocese...

Pope Benedict has expressed his condolences to the Archbishop of Mobile following the tornadoes that left hundreds dead in the southern United States. “His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI was saddened...

A Chinese bishop who was ordained in 2007 has died at the age of 45 of pancreatitis. Bishop Francis Lu Shouwang of Yichang, a city of four million in east-central China, was ordained with the...

A Catholic church in Iowa has canceled a scheduled appearance by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, explaining that it wished to avoid political repercussions. Gingrich was scheduled to speak on...

Catholic bloggers from around the world met in Rome on May 2 for an unprecedented Vatican blogging "summit." The 150 invited guests received encouragement from Vatican officials at the meeting,...

The coffin of Blessed John Paul II, which had been exposed for veneration in the front of St. Peter's basilica during the weekend of his beatification, has now been moved to a final resting place in...

Pope Benedict XVI will join the bishops of Italy in praying the Rosary on May 26, during a regular meeting of the Italian bishops' conference, the Vatican has announced. The Italian bishops have...

The US Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal in a lawsuit brought by Catholic activists against San Francisco officials who had condemned Catholic teaching as “hateful and...

The Vatican has warned that the messages of a self-styled Korean “visionary” are not “true Christian teaching.” Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-jung of Kwangju has said that the Congregation for the...

Father James Schall, SJ, explains how modern states and international organizations, by claiming to define new rights, are actually undermining all human rights. In 1948, Father Schall points...

A Vatican expert on relations with Islam has remarked on the urgent need for dialogue, underlined by the fresh tensions in the wake of the death of Osama bin Laden. Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald...

Readers enjoy lively writing, but newspaper readers generally expect that reporters will maintain an objective approach to the news. So Terry Mattingly was bemused when a New York Times reporter,...

Iraq's ambassador to Italy has promised that his country's Christians will have added government protection in the wake of the death of Osama bin Laden. Ambassador Saywan Barzani said that "the...

Coptic Christians in Egypt are hoping to draw 1 million people to a demonstration on May 6, protesting attacks on San Marco cathedral in Abbasseya. The cathedral has been the target of sit-ins...

Bishop Brian Finnigan, an auxiliary of the Brisbane, Australia archdiocese, has been appointed apostolic administrator of the Toowoomba diocese, following the forced resignation of Bishop William...

Archbishop John Bathersby of Brisbane said he supported Pope Benedict’s decision to remove Bishop William Morris from his position as Bishop of Toowoomba, one of Brisbane’s suffragan sees. “I...

Father Akram Javed Gill, who ministers to the small Catholic community in Abbottabad, the city of 120,000 that was the site of Osama bin Laden’s compound, recounted the raid in which the al Qaida...

To the relief of Pakistan’s beleaguered Christian community, Paul Bhatti, currently special adviser to the prime minister, has been named to a cabinet-level post as federal minister for religious...

Several Jewish leaders paid tribute to Blessed John Paul II following his beatification. “The memory of Karol Wojtyla remains indelibly impressed in the collective memory of the Jewish people,”...

Returning from the funeral of one of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s sons, where the apostolic vicar of Tripoli lamented that some Christians were ignoring Pope Benedict’s call for a ceasefire. Saif...

An auxiliary bishop of Baltimore has expressed concern about the treatment of Muslims in the United States. “Our dialogue has taken on renewed urgency since we met last year,” said Bishop Denis...

The bishops of Massachusetts are calling for the end to state funding of a website intended to counter teen pregnancy. “This website employs demeaning and sexually explicit terminology, an...

The trial of Bishop Raymond Lahey, who led the Diocese of Saint George’s (Newfoundland) from 1986 to 2003 and the Diocese of Antigonish (Nova Scotia) from 2003 until his 2009 resignation, begins on...

President Benigno Aquino of the Philippines may have hurt his own political standing with his aggressive support of a family-planning bill, according to a spokesman for the nation's episcopal...

At his weekly public audience on May 4, Pope Benedict XVI launched a new series of talks, on the topic of prayer. The Pope, who recently concluded a series of weekly talks on the most influential...

April 30 was the deadline for citizens of the European Union to make their voices and heard with regard to the recent European Commission drive to introduce “automatic mutual recognition” of public...

Bishop Raymond Lahey has entered a guilty plea in his trial on child-pornography charges. The former Bishop of Antigonish, Nova Scotia resigned in 2009, shortly after he was stopped at Ottawa...

Freedom of religion, which was subjected to “systematic denial by atheistic regimes of the 20th century,” is again in danger today, Pope Benedict XVI told the members of the Pontifical Academy of...

The Holy See Press Office has issued a statement in response to the trial of Bishop Raymond Lahey. The Canadian bishop pled guilty to possession of child pornography and faces a sentence of at least...

Muslim youth angered by the reelection of President Goodluck Jonathan have set fire to four churches in northern Nigeria. “A crowd of young people, disappointed by the result, attacked the homes...

The mayor of Moscow has pledged that “there will be no problems and delays” that would hinder a plan by the Russian Orthodox Church to construct 200 churches in the Russian capital. The city of...

Bishops on the island of Mindanao are warning of the danger of terrorist attacks in response to the killing of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden. “We are really worried [about] the impending...

Pope Benedict may soon name St. John of Avila (1500-69) the 34th Doctor of the Church, according to the I-Media news agency. Known as the Apostle of Andalusia, the saint helped develop the theology...

Just-war scholars contacted by the National Catholic Register, including one who emphasized he opposed American military intervention in Iraq, all agree that the killing of Osama bin Laden was...

The US House of Representatives has passed a comprehensive ban on the use of taxpayer funds to pay for abortions. The “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” approved on May 4 by a 251- 176 vote,...

Pope Benedict XVI offered his thanks to a group of American Catholic donors in a private audience on May 5. The Pope met with members of the Papal Foundation, who were led by Cardinal Donald...

Catholic Charities of Illinois has asked for an exemption from statewide rules requiring equal treatment for same-sex couples, warning that the agency might otherwise drop its adoption and...

The pro-life activist group Operation Rescue has welcomed a federal indictment against a a self-styled "pro-choice terrorist." Theodore Shulman was arrested by the FBI in February, and is charged...

An Indiana prosecutor has dropped criminal charges against the pro-life demonstrating who were arrested for trespassing while protesting the appearance by President Barack Obama at Notre Dame...

Proper interpretation of the Bible requires a steady awareness of its divine inspiration, Pope Benedict XVI said in a message to the Pontifical Biblical Commission. The Pope’s message, made...

A group of 34 new members of the Swiss Guard will be sworn in at a Vatican ceremony on May 5. The annual swearing-in ceremony marks the anniversary of the date in 1527 when 147 members of the...

A Christian adviser to Pakistan’s prime minister hopes to make Muslims realize that true religious faith “does not admit such alternatives” as violence against Christians. Paul Bhatti—who...

On May 7 and 8, Pope Benedict will make the 40th apostolic journey of his pontificate. He has traveled outside of Italy 18 times; this weekend’s pilgrimage will be his 22nd apostolic journey within...

The Diocese of Allentown has dropped its appeal of a decision by the Congregation of the Clergy ordering that nine closed churches be maintained for sacred worship. The Congregation had found...

The denial of the right to life of the unborn has created a culture in which disabled infants are being killed through denial of medical treatment, neonatologist and bioethicist Carlo Bellieni warns...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has welcomed the House passage of the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. “By passing the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, the House has...

At the request of Archbishop Allen Vigneron, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has named St. Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as the patroness of...

Brazil's supreme court has ruled that the government must recognize same-sex unions. In its May 5 decision the Federal Supreme Court reasoned that although the country's constitution does not...

US Speaker of the House John Boehner has chosen a Jesuit priest to be chaplain of the House. Father Patrick Conroy, SJ, a native of the state of Washington and former chaplain at Georgetown...

On May 5, the Opera Theatre of Rome performed works by Vivaldi and Rossini in a concert at the Vatican’s Paul VI auditorium. The concert was arranged by Italian president Giorgio Napolitano, to...

Pope Benedict XVI met on May 6 with 34 new members of the Swiss Guard, and encouraged them to use their terms in Rome “to widen your cultural, linguistic, and above all spiritual horizons.” The...

The Australian carries an unusually informed and insightful commentary on the forced retirement of Bishop William Morris. The Pope's insistence on the early retirement of the Australian bishop...

In a blunt address to participants in a conference on post-Vatican II liturgical reform, Pope Benedict XVI expressed concern that “the liturgy has perhaps been seen…more as an object to reform than...

Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregorios III Laham has cautioned leaders of the Western world that they should not throw their support behind revolutionary movements in the Arab world. "Our Arab...

The Economist used the beatification of Pope John Paul II as the occasion for an essay criticizing Pope Benedict XVI, suggesting that the current Pontiff's leadership looks unimpressive by...

There is a rising current of unease at the Vatican, writes John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter, about the continuing prominent role played by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the former Secretary of...

The Vatican Museums will be open in the evening on Fridays this summer, for the 3rd consecutive year. "To be open during the evening means offering the possibility for families and friends to...

Catholic bishops in the southern Mindanao region of the Philippines are warning of the possibility of terrorist attacks, as supporters of Al Qaida seek revenge for the killing of Osama bin Laden. ...

Commenting on the new film There Be Dragons, which depicts the life of St. Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, David Gibson can't help noticing the contrast with another film that famously...

Armed with guns and Molotov cocktails, thousands of Muslims attacked Coptic churches and neighborhoods in a Cairo, provoking sectarian violence that led to at least 12 deaths and 232 injuries....

Two decades after the collapse of Communism, Russians are more likely believe in God than are citizens of any other European nation, according to two recent surveys. The Public Opinion Fund...

A Haitian bishop has told Aid to the Church in Need that the January 2010 earthquake that killed an estimated 200,000 has contributed to a revival of faith in the impoverished nation. The...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is urging senators not to make “disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor persons.” “Access to affordable, life-affirming health care...

Yad Vashem, the State of Israel’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, has named an Italian priest to its list of “Righteous Among the Nations” because he hid a Jewish family during...

An Illinois bishop has decreed that the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel be said after every Mass in his diocese. “Disbelief in Satan and the forces of evil leaves us unable to resist them,”...

A spokesman for Egypt’s small Catholic community has appealed to international leaders to support the country’s existing military regime, in order to prevent a takeover by Islamic...

During a weekend visit to Venice, Pope Benedict XVI challenged Catholics to uphold their city’s rich tradition as “a crossroads of peoples and of communities.” Venice, the Pope said, has a...

On Saturday, May 7, Pope Benedict XVI flew from Rome to Aquileia, Italy, for the first stop in a weekend trip that would later take him to Venice. (See today’s separate CWN headline story for an...

Leaders of Caritas International will meet later this month, for their first general assembly since the Vatican moved to assert more control over the international coalition of Catholic relief...

In a message to the 14th National Assembly of Italian Catholic Action, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged lay involved in helping to resolve “the most pressing problems of the everyday life of the family:...

Dozens of Hmong Christians have been killed, and scores wounded, in a brutal government crackdown on demonstrations demanding religious freedom and land reform. The violence against Hmong...

The Archdiocese of Melbourne, Australia, has moved to laicize all priests who have been convicted of sexual abuse against children, The Age reports. Of the 11 living Catholic priests who have...

Boys Town, the famous Nebraska institution founded by Father Edward Flanagan, has elected its first non-Catholic chairman of the board. Rajive Johri, the new chairman, who was born in India and...

Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne has revoked the canonical license of theologian David Berger, citing the professor's dissent from established Church teachings. The Cologne archdiocese...

Dissident theologian Hans Küng has declared that the Catholic Church can survive only by following a program of reform laid out in his new book, Can the Church Still Be...

Early registrations for World Youth Day have already surpassed 340,000, organizers report. World Youth Day will be celebrated in Madrid from August 16 to 21. Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to...

A 25-year-old man who suffers from mental illness is the latest Pakistani Christian charged with violating the country’s blasphemy law. Babar Masih has been accused of “offending the religious...

Many members of Opus Dei are delighted with the favorable portrayal of their founder, St. Josemaria Escriva, in a newly released major film, There Be Dragons. But reviewer Steven Greydanus, writing...

The removal of a dissident Australian bishop, announced by the Vatican on May 2, came after more than a decade of conflict between the bishop and the Vatican, and almost four years after he was...

Members of the Islamic Salafi movement have attacked a Catholic church in Imbaba, a suburb of Cairo, according to an Italian missionary. “A group of Salafis came shooting in the church and killed...

Stating that “receding glaciers require urgent responses,” a working group commissioned by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences has called upon nations to “reduce worldwide carbon dioxide emissions...

Christian leaders in Malaysia are dismissing claims by Muslim bloggers and a government-owned newspaper that they are lobbying to have Malaysia declared a Christian state. Since 1957, the nation has...

Less than two weeks after the North American province of his community filed for bankruptcy, the head of the Irish Christian Brothers has told Catholic News Services that the future of his order...

An estimated 40,000 faithful joined four cardinals, 30 bishops, and 400 priests at the beatification of Father Justin Russolillo (1891-1955), founder of the Vocationist fathers and...

Musikstrasse will soon release the final 12 volumes of its Encyclopedia of Music Composed in Concentration Camps. “There were orchestras in Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, Lichtenburg and indeed six...

Pope Benedict XVI has made two important appointments: Archbishop Fernando Filoni, who has been the sostituto or deputy Secretary of State, has been named the prefect of the Congregation for...

Chemical abortions using the drug RU-486 are more dangerous to mothers than surgical abortions, an Australian study has found. Researchers who examined almost 7,000 cases found that 3.3% of the...

Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has issued a fundraising appeal for Democratic political candidates, asking donors to contribute in order to stop Republicans from their goal of preventing the...

In a conversation with Vatican Radio, Melkite Catholic Archbishop Jean Jeanbart of Aleppo reports that the Syrian government's brutal crackdown on political demonstrations has caused alarm for the...

Church leaders in India have called the attention of the nation’s leaders to a “saffron-colored corridor” of states in central India where Hindu extremists have pursued a campaign of violence...

A medical survey in California has found that homosexual men are much more likely to contract cancer as their heterosexual counterparts. The study, published in the journal Cancer, also showed that...

The apostolic vicar of Tripoli, who has consistently denounced the NATO air strikes in Libya, reports that the bombing is causing a massive exodus of refugees. "The Libyans are afraid, every day...

Cardinal Joseph Zen has renewed his criticism of Vatican efforts to reach a diplomatic accommodation with Beijing--this time in conversation with the Wall Street Journal. Repeating arguments that...

The US Navy has begun training chaplains to solemnize same-sex marriages, despite a federal law that bars the practice. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which became law in 2006, defines...

A spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that she is reconsidering her support for a Jesuit nominee for House chaplain after learning that the Oregon Jesuit province, to which the...

The bishops of the Philippines, citing President Benigno Aquino’s continued support of population control, have ended their dialogue with his administration over the Responsible Parenthood,...

Father Michael Pfleger, the controversial pastor of St. Sabina Pastor in Chicago, has vowed to preach at other churches if Cardinal Francis George does not lift his suspension by this weekend. The...

Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles urged Congress and the president to work together to enact comprehensive immigration reform. The chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Migration made his...

Following ratification by the majority of the nation’s 173 regional presbyteries, the Presbyterian Church USA has officially approved the ordination of active homosexuals to its clergy. In doing so,...

"Man by his very nature is religious," Pope Benedict XVI told his weekly public audience on May 11. The impulse to pray, he said, is natural to humanity. From the dawn of history, the Pope said,...

The Vatican has announced that a new Instruction on the implementation of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, regarding the broader use of the traditional Latin Mass, will be released on Friday,...

The Vatican has prepared a set of guidelines for the handling of sex-abuse charges, which will be offered as a model for policies in every country and diocese. The Vatican document, prepared by...

Under heavy pressure from Congress, the US Navy has set aside plans to train chaplains to officiate at same-sex weddings. Rear Admiral Mark Tidd, the chief of naval chaplains, who had announced...

More than 70 professors have signed a public letter challenging an appearance by House Speaker John Boehner as the commencement speaker at Catholic University. The faculty members—many of them...

Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana has signed legislation that stops all taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, making Indiana the first state to take that step. Planned Parenthood officials...

As Sri Lanka struggles to recover from the effects of a long and bloody civil war, officials of Caritas International, the Catholic relief agency, are forming women's organizations to assume local...

Ireland’s National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC), in its 3rd annual report, has recorded a significant rise in the number of allegations of abuse in the past year. The NBSC reported 272...

Police investigators in India's troubled Orissa state have confirmed that Maoists were responsible for the 2008 killing of a prominent Hindu-nationalist leader, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati. The...

Attorney Jeffrey Anderson, who has made multiple efforts to lodge a sex-abuse lawsuit against the Vatican, has filed a new suit charging that two Pontiffs--Popes John Paul II and Benedict...

Informed observers are praising the newly-appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples as an expert on the Church in China. Pope Benedict appointed Archbishop Fernando...

Fearful for their safety, some Coptic Christians have begun to flee Egypt, according to John Pontifex, spokesman for Aid to the Church in Need. Offering an overview of recent violence against...

The bishops of Bolivia have released an Easter message to the nation’s Catholics following their 91st general assembly, which took place from May 5 to May 10. The commemoration of Holy Week...

In an interview with Vatican Radio, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who was elected head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church on March 25, discussed his hopes for Christian unity with the...

The assistant secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of People told participants in a missionary conferences that they are the servants of evangelization, not its...

Families are fleeing Libya’s capital because of NATO missile strikes, the city’s apostolic vicar has told Vatican Radio. “We have no more social life in Tripoli,” said Bishop Giovanni Martinelli...

After Father John Echert, a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul - Minneapolis, asked a state lawmaker to reconsider his opposition to a state marriage amendment, a member of the lawmaker’s staff...

Father Anand Muttungal, a Church spokesman in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, has joined other religious leaders in criticizing a government decision that will make the Bhagavad Gita...

A delegation of Orthodox rabbis traveled to the Spanish island of Majorca to offer prayers for 37 Jews killed under the auspices of the Inquisition in 1691, including three burned alive in the...

Andy Smarick, a former deputy assistant secretary at the US Department of Education, examines the rise and fall of Catholic schools in the United States and considers whether faith-based charter...

Pope Benedict met with a delegation from B’nai B’rith International on May 12 and urged Christians and Jews to bear common witness to dignity the human person. Thanking the organization’s...

Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, expressed “sadness” at the recent removal of Bishop William Morris while “gratefully acknowledg[ing]...

Thirty years after the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul, “the time has come to attempt an historical assessment” of the event, according L’Osservatore Romano--“not only for its...

The destruction of a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Easter Sunday is the latest of 20 incidents of vandalism at Mexico City’s historic cathedral, according to the Fides news agency. Desde la Fe,...

Cardinal Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, is visiting Japan from May 13 to 16 on behalf of Pope Benedict to convey the Pontiff’s closeness, prayers, and assistance to...

A spokesman for Rep. Nancy Pelosi said that the House minority leader’s concerns about Father Patrick Conroy, the Jesuit nominee for House chaplain, have been addressed. Pelosi had reconsidered her...

Preaching at a Mass in Sydney, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People said that Christ knocks at the door of societies in the person of the...

The bishops of Nicaragua have launched a national Rosary crusade for peace ahead of national elections later this year. The crusade will culminate in a day of prayer and fasting on July 1. The...

The Mexican bishops’ web site has been offline since May 5 because of a crippling cyber attack. The attack “damaged the database and most data has been lost,” said Paola Rios, head of the digital...

With the approval of Pope Benedict XVI, the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei has released Universae Ecclesiae, an instruction on the application of Pope Benedict’s 2007 motu proprio Summorum...

Pope Benedict XVI extolled his predecessor, Blessed John Paul II, for introducing the “theology of the body,” as he met on May 13 with participants in a conference organized by the John Paul II...

The chairman of the review board that handled sex-abuse complaints for the Philadelphia archdiocese has issued a harsh critique of the procedures that led to a scathing grand-jury report earlier...

Two Catholic priests in northern Uganda have defied orders requiring them to appear before the police over alleged criticism of the government in their preaching. Father Nakary Adiga and Father...

In a new Instruction, the Vatican has made it clear that the use of the extraordinary form—the traditional Latin liturgy—should be available to all the faithful. Universae Ecclesiae, released on...

Following his May 15 Regina Caeli address, Pope Benedict appealed for peace in Libya and Syria. “I continue to follow with great apprehension the dramatic armed conflict that in Libya has caused...

Catholics in England and Wales will be obliged to abstain from meat every Friday beginning September 16--the anniversary of the first day of Pope Benedict’s 2010 trip to the United...

For the first time in over four decades, a solemn Pontifical Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite has been offered at the Altar of the Chair of St. Peter’s Basilica. Cardinal Walter...

Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presided at the May 15 beatification of Father Georg Häfner (1900-42), a parish priest who perished of malnutrition at...

In a world with “new problems and new forms of slavery”--“both in the so-called First World, wealthy and rich but uncertain about its future, and in emerging countries,” where the “masses of the...

The apostolic vicar of Tripoli has renewed has call for a truce in the Libyan conflict. “Yesterday, in Marsa [el-]Brega, 16 people died, and several were killed in other parts of Tripoli. The...

The Vatican newspaper has denounced proposals to legalize the sale of human organs. “The moral problem is not primarily that of the seller,” writes Giulia Galleoti in L’Osservatore Romano. “In...

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, has offered condolences in the name of Pope Benedict to the families of the victims of the May 11 earthquake in the southeastern Spanish...

Pope Benedict reflected on Christ as the Good Shepherd during his May 15 Regina Caeli address and urged Christians to pray for bishops, priests, and vocations to the priesthood. “The attitude of...

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has issued a circular letter “to assist episcopal conferences in developing guidelines for dealing with cases of sexual abuse of minors perpetrated by...

Describing India as a “home to various ancient religions, including Christianity,” Pope Benedict urged a group of Latin-rite bishops from India to promote a culture of religious freedom and...

Addressing participants in a conference organized by the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace, Pope Benedict praised Blessed John XXIII’s landmark social encyclical Mater et Magistra on the 50th...

In its newly released 2011 annual report on human rights, Amnesty International criticized the Holy See for “not sufficiently comply[ing] with its international obligations relating to the...

A 17-year-old Christian woman has been kidnapped, raped, and murdered in Orissa, the northeastern Indian state that was site of an anti-Christian pogrom in 2008. “There is great fear among the...

President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia has denounced the murder of Father Gustavo Garcia Bohorquez, a 34-year-old university chaplain. “A murder has been committed that has deeply affected all...

The June 5 beatification of Juan de Palafox (1600-59), a bishop who served as governor of Mexico, will be a milestone in “one of the most complex [sainthood] causes in the history of the Church,”...

The Instruction issued this week, underlining Pope Benedict’s desire for wider use of the “extraordinary form” of the Mass, is part of the Pontiff’s overall plan for a liturgical “reform of the...

While the Vatican has called upon the world's bishops to devise common plans for handling sex-abuse allegations, the ultimate responsibility will remain with diocesan bishops, a Vatican official...

The head of the government-backed Catholic Patriotic Association has announced that Chinese officials plan to proceed with the appointment of new bishops, without approval from the...

A Kentucky court has dismissed the lawsuit of the former accountant for a Catholic parish, who said that she had been fired because she reported that a priest who had been disciplined for sexual...

A British government investigation into the arrest of 6 men during Pope Benedict's visit to Great Britain last September was an honest mistake. There was never a plot against the Pontiff's life,...

Government officials in Hanoi have announced plans to tear down a convent in Hanoi that has served for years as a refuge for women and children in need. The scheduled demolition of the convent,...

A Christian man, the young father of three small children, was kidnapped, tortured, and beheaded, in the latest of a long series of violent assaults that have frightened the Christians remaining in...

Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe of Naples has announced that prominent Mafia leaders will no longer be allowed Catholic funerals if there is no evidence of their repentance. "If Mafiosi were repentant...

"The international financial system seems to be trapped in a trap of egoism and selfishness," says Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Cardinal Rodriguez, the president...

The Scottish Legal Action Group has called for an end to Scotland’s system of publicly-funded religious schools on the grounds that such schools foster sectarian violence--prompting a strong reply...

Coptic Christians in Cairo who were protesting recent attacks on churches were themselves attacked by a mob as riot police watched, according to press reports. The mob threw gasoline bombs and rocks...

The Australian government has rejected a request by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils to permit Muslims to fall under the Shari'a legal system. “There is no place for Shari'a law in...

In a strongly-worded editorial, The Record--a Catholic weekly owned by the Archdiocese of Perth--has welcomed Pope Benedict’s decision to remove Bishop William Morris from the governance of the...

Referring to Venerable Pius XII, Great Britain’s representative to the Holy See “feared [that] the Holy Father may make Radio appeal on behalf of Jews in Hungary and that in his appeal he may also...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has praised the Obama administration’s decision to extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haiti and criticized a decision to resume deportations...

A Florida parish priest has decided to accept a Mass intention for repose of Osama bin Laden’s soul, provoking controversy in his parish. “I think it's totally wrong, he doesn't belong in the...

Responding to the Vatican's Instruction on sex-abuse policy, Time magazine concludes that the document "addressed only half the scandal that has been rocking the Catholic Church." The...

At his regular weekly public audience on May 18, Pope Benedict XVI spoke on prayers of intercession, using the biblical patriarch Abraham as a his model. In the first two talks in his series on...

Pope Benedict XVI has called upon all the faithful to pray for the Church in China, as Catholics there prepare for a special day of prayer for Church unity. The Pope, who has designed May 24 as a...

A final report on the sex-abuse scandal, prepared for the US bishops, has found no single factor responsible for clerical abuse. "The rise in abuse cases in the 1960s and 1970s was influenced by...

Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia, has voiced some skepticism about a report from the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which called for action to curb global warming. "Climate change is...

Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant leaders from Russia and several adjacent nations gathered recently in Moscow to address the demographic crisis afflicting the region. Russia’s population has...

The president of the Korean bishops’ conference has offered strong criticism of nuclear energy, calling it a “monster” and stating that it is a “lie” to call it a clean energy source. Nuclear...

The president and vice president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, joined by other Australian prelates, have lent their support to the beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen....

Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence has called upon Rhode Island lawmakers to reject legislation that would grant legal recognition to same-sex civil unions. “The civil unions legislation itself is...

The New York Times offered strong criticism of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s new circular letter on the sexual abuse of minors. “The Vatican’s long overdue guidelines for...

A British parish priest falsely accused of sexual abuse has reflected on the experience in an interview with a local newspaper. Father Geoff Hilton, a former policeman who serves as a parish...

The director of campus ministry at Seattle University, a Jesuit institution, defended a drag show that took place at the university and criticized the Cardinal Newman Society, which had taken note...

A final report on the “causes and context” of the clerical sex-abuse scandal, prepared by John Jay College and released on May 18 by the US bishops’ conference, has met with critical reactions--both...

A majority of Americans now believe that homosexuality should be accepted, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. Only 45% of those surveyed favored legal acceptance of same-sex...

Facebook pages devoted to religious material are drawing millions of visitors, outdoing pages for pop-culture icons. The “Jesus Daily” page attracted well over 2 million visits in one week, an...

The Jesuit priest who has been nominated to become chaplain of the US House of Representatives has disclosed: “I never pray in the name of Jesus—except when I’m doing something Catholic—saying Mass,...

Christians in Pakistan have faced a new wave of hostility, and often violence, since the death of Osama bin Laden. The parish priest in Abbotabad, where US forces shot and killed the terrorist...

Pope Benedict XVI has chosen the theme for his message for next World Day of Peace: "Educating Young People in Justice and Peace." The World Day of Peace is observed on January 1. The Pope’s...

Addressing members of the Pontifical Theological Faculty Teresianum 75 years after its foundation by the Order of Discalced Carmelites, Pope Benedict emphasized that Catholic spirituality must...

Rep. Paul Ryan, a Catholic and head of the House Budget Committee, and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), have exchanged...

Preaching less than two weeks before a nationwide referendum on the legalization of divorce, the head of one of Malta’s two dioceses said that dissenting Catholics should not receive Holy...

Iraqi Catholics have remained faithful despite persecution, according to a Chaldean Catholic prelate. “In all these years, I never heard of one single Christian who converted to Islam,”...

Nearly three years after the anti-Christian pogrom that left 100 dead and over 50,000 homeless, the leading prelate in the eastern Indian state of Orissa told the Fides news agency that Hindu...

The bishops of England and Wales will decide at their November meeting whether to reverse a 2006 decision and transfer the celebration of the Epiphany and the Ascension from Sunday back to their...

The Vatican will offer live internet coverage when Pope Benedict XVI places a satellite-phone call to astronauts on the space shuttle on May 21. The Pope will call the crew of the shuttle...

A meeting of Catholic and Islamic scholars, jointly sponsored by the Holy See and the Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies in Jordan, has concluded with a statement that believers of both faiths...

The Vatican has vetoed the proposed keynote speaker for the international assembly of Caritas International, the London Tablet reports. The move would underline the determination of the Holy See to...

The arrest of a former seminarian has opened a new window on the scandal surrounding an Italian priest who has been arrested on charges of sexual assault against young boys. Father Riccardo...

William Oddie, the former editor of the Catholic Herald, argues that Pope Benedict XVI is encouraging the use of the traditional Latin Mass as part of a long-term plan to produce a new form for the...

China has allowed the ordination of a new Catholic bishop with the approval of the Holy See. The installation of Bishop John Lu Peisen in the Yangzhou diocese follows a call by Pope Benedict XVI...

A massive statue of Blessed John Paul II, unveiled on May 18 outside the busiest subway station in Rome, has drawn strongly negative public reactions. The modernistic sculpture by Oliviero...

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, told the general assembly of Caritas Internationalis that the Church’s consortium of relief and development agencies must have a vibrant...

Father Michael Pfleger celebrated Sunday Mass at St. Sabina Parish after Cardinal Francis George lifted his suspension of the priest’s faculties. The cardinal had suspended Father Pfleger after the...

An Iranian judge has acquitted 11 Iranian Protestants who were arrested on charges of alcohol use after drinking wine at a communion service. The court cited an article in the Iranian constitution...

A group of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders--including Cardinal Theodore McCarrick--wrote President Barack Obama on May 20 “to offer our united support for urgently needed strong, sustained US...

A 42-year-old man sprayed a Lithuanian priest with a flammable liquid during Mass and then lit a cigarette lighter. The attack took place in Jonava, a city of 35,000. Father Remigijus Kuprys, 46,...

Some 70,000 Brazilians, including President Dilma Rousseff, attended the May 22 beatification of Sister Dulce Lopes Pontes (1914-92), a nun who served the poorest of the poor. Cardinal Geraldo...

Pope Benedict XVI met on May 23 with delegations from Bulgaria and Macedonia, and reminded them that the civilization of Europe is based on a common Christian heritage. The Pope met in separate...

The Vatican has suppressed a Cistercian abbey in Rome. The abbey of Santa Croce in Jerusalem, associated with the Roman basilica of the same name, was formally suppressed in March, by a decree...

In an op-ed column for the Washington Post, Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington makes the provocative argument that the Catholic Church is ready to show the way in a drive to end child abuse in...

The Vietnamese government is moving in the wrong direction on religious freedom, the Archbishop of Saigon warns. In a letter to the prime minister, Cardinal Jean Baptist Pham Minh Man said that a...

“My thoughts go out to the large group of the Movimento per la Vita (the pro-life movement),” Pope Benedict XVI said at his Sunday Regina Caeli audience on May 22. The Pope praised the Italian...

From 2008 to 2010, a Dutch Salesian priest--identified in news reports as Father Van B.--served on the board of an organization that seeks to legalize pedophilia, according to a leading Dutch news...

Chinese government officials have set up security checkpoints around the shrine of Our Lady of Sheshan, discouraging Catholics from traveling there on May 24: the day established by Pope Benedict...

Coptic Orthodox Christians in Egypt report that young girls are being abducted from their families, to be converted to Islam and married to young Muslim men. Once they convert to Islam—often...

An Indian man beat his wife to death in the southern Andhra Pradesh state, after learning that she was pregnant with a female baby. Prakash Chari beat and strangled his wife Surekha, who was six...

Christian humanism faces a “progressive deterioration” because of a “tendency to to reduce the human horizon to what can be measured, to eliminate the fundamental question of meaning from systematic...

Pope Benedict XVI placed a satellite call to astronauts aboard the space station Endeavor on May 21, and questioned them about the insights they gained from their “extraordinary observation...

Vatican officials have met with Egyptian foreign minister Nabil al-Arabi, and told him that they hope for a resumption of talks with the prestigious Islamic institution, the Al Azhar...

The president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care said that access to medical care is an important human right, as he spoke to the World Health Assembly in Geneva. Cardinal Zygmunt Zimowski...

At his Sunday audience on May 22, Pope Benedict XVI said that belief in God and belief in Jesus Christ are “not two separate acts but one single act of faith.” "The New Testament has put an end...

The president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum said that Caritas Internationalis must be an expression of the charitable mission of the Church, and not an organization that exists alongside the...

Father Herman Spronck, the leading Salesian priest in the Netherlands, was removed from his position following the publication of comments in which he stated that “pedophile sex could be accepted,”...

Following rumors that Christian leaders are lobbying to have Malaysia declared a Christian state, Muslim leaders are questioning whether the government of the Islamic state has been too generous in...

A prominent Pakistani priest has told the Fides news agency that the popularity of the Taliban has grown following the death of Osama bin Laden. “Pakistan is now in the hands of the Taliban,”...

Bishop Olivier Michel Marie Schmitthaeusler, a 40-year-old French missionary bishop who serves as apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh, discusses the challenges of leading a tiny Catholic community...

Five months after officials of the Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph found disturbing images on the computer of Father Shawn Ratigan, the priest has pled not guilty to child pornography charges....

In an annual survey of attitudes, the Gallup Poll has found that 72% of Americans believe that abortion should be legally restricted. The Gallup figures show that 49% of Americans label...

The Vatican’s chief spokesman has emphasized that Pope Benedict’s designation of May 24 as a special day of prayer for the Church in China should be understood not as a political move, but “for what...

A Catholic bishop in the Democratic Republic of Congo has called attention to the continued bloodshed by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and thanked reporters who have brought the violence...

The president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has released an in-depth critique of the John Jay report on the clerical sex-abuse scandal. In his 24-page analysis, William...

The Vatican has released a new book on the family, in preparation for the 7th World Meeting of Families, which will be held in Milan beginning on May 30. The book, Family: Work and Celebration,...

Writing in L’Osservatore Romano, a moral theologian says that campaigns to encourage condom use have increased, and not decreased, the risk of HIV infection. “The numerous campaigns that invite...

Hurling stones at Coptic Christians, thousands of Muslims surrounded a Coptic church in Ain Shams, a suburb of Cairo, to prevent its reopening. The church, built in 2004, was closed by state...

Following an appeal from parishioners and heeding recent precedent, the Vatican has ruled that the Diocese of Syracuse should not deconsecrate a closed parish church but must instead maintain it as...

Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras has been re-elected president of Caritas Internationalis, the international consortium of Catholic relief and development agencies. The cardinal...

The Diocese of Fargo has announced that it is opening a chapel next to North Dakota’s only abortion clinic. Mass, followed by Eucharistic adoration, will be offered at the chapel one day each...

Representatives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and the National Council of Synagogues met on May 17 to discuss “Sources of...

The Youngstown Symphony Orchestra performed Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and selections from the musical West Side Story during a concert held...

Earlier this month Cardinal Raymond Burke criticized the tendency to focus “exaggerated attention on the human aspect of the sacred liturgy.” In the National Catholic Register, Tim Drake comments on...

Pope Benedict XVI has sent his sympathies to the victims of a devastating tornado in Missouri. In a telegram to Bishop James Johnston of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, whose diocese includes...

Italy has seen a slight increase in its population, reversing a downward demographic trend. However, the increase is entirely due to immigrants. Italy’s population rose by 286,114 in 2010,...

The Boston archdiocese has reached an agreement with the Daughters of St. Paul, settling a lawsuit brought by the religious order to resolve a dispute over the archdiocesan pension fund for lay...

At his weekly public audience on May 25, Pope Benedict XVI recounted the story of Jacob’s struggle with the unknown at the ford of Jabbok, and likened that experience to the Christian’s life of...

The head of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue is in South Korea this week for meetings with leaders of the local Buddhist, Confucian, and Protestant communities, and talks with...

The Archdiocese of San Francisco, California, is conducting a special study of its marriage-preparation program, looking for an explanation of a steep decline in the number of Catholic...

Archbishop Peter Nguyen Van Nhon has sent urgent letters to Hanoi government officials, protesting the scheduled destruction of a Carmelite convent. Early this month, city officials announced...

The Cistercian community in Rome that has been suppressed by the Vatican order had a reputation for hosting lavish parties, according to an Agence France Presse report. The abbey of Santa Croce...

Maronite Catholic Patriarch Beshara Rai has scolded Lebanese political leaders for their failure to resolve a 4-month deadlock in the formation of a national-unity government. The Maronite...

The president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has challenged Caritas Internationalis--the Church’s confederation of charitable and development agencies--to recognize its role in the...

The attack on the central Sudanese region of Abyei by forces from the north is leading to a humanitarian disaster that puts thousands of lives at risk, according to leading local Church...

An EWTN radio host, an official who oversaw the work of 16 agencies in the Clinton administration, and a pediatrician who has written on child sexual abuse have been named to the National Review...

Archbishop George Niederauer of San Francisco has announced his opposition to a proposed ban on circumcision in the city. The proposed ban has qualified as a ballot initiative for the November...

An estimated 3,000 people were killed and at least one million displaced in the recent post-election violence in Ivory Coast, according to the Fides news ageny. Laurent Gbagbo lost the November...

Father Patrick Conroy has been sworn in as the new chaplain of the House of Representatives. “Father Pat Conroy comes with a healthy respect for what we do,” said House Minority Leader Nancy...

A refugee camp in Tunisia, which has recently absorbed 3,500 people fleeing from the fighting in Libya, has been struck by violence, a Catholic priest on the scene reports. The Chouca camp now...

The music director of the Chicago Symphony has thrown his support behind the drive by Pope Benedict XVI to revive the tradition of sacred music. ''The Pope is right when he says it is necessary...

As he ordained 5 men to the priesthood, Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia reflected that when a Catholic community does not produce priestly vocations, something is amiss. “Some Catholic...

Citing the work of Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons, columnist Louie Verrecchio charges that the John Jay report on the sex-abuse scandal in America is seriously flawed by a politically-correct...

The Vatican gave its approval for a statue of Blessed John Paul II based on a preliminary sketch, not the controversial final product, an Italian cardinal has revealed. Cardinal Gianfranco...

The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace hosted a one-day conference on “Industry and Outsourcing,” calling attention to the economic difficulties that arise when corporations contract workers...

A German cardinal has said that it is "nonsense" for Catholics to seek Confirmation in the traditional rite. Cardinal Karl Lehmann on Mainz, the former president of the German bishops'...

Caritas International has elected a new leader. Michel Roy, the director of a French charity, will become the secretary-general of the international consortium of Catholic relief agencies. Roy,...

Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria, Illinois, has presented Pope Benedict XVI with a 2-volume positio, summarizing the case for beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. As he accepted the documents,...

India’s Syro-Malabar Catholic Church has elected a new leader. Bishop George Alencherry of Thuckalay, the secretary of the Syro-Malabar Synod, was elected on May 26 as Major Archbishop of...

A prominent Catholic politician in the Philippines has said that he ready to risk excommunication in order to promote an aggressive family-planning bill that the nation’s bishops have adamantly...

The visit by Queen Elizabeth II to Ireland last week demonstrated that the historic struggle between England and Ireland “was never primarily a religious or confessional conflict but one caused by...

Catholic Charities of Illinois has been forced to shut down its adoption and foster-care services because of new state policies that require equal treatment for same-sex couples. Foster-care...

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran praised South Korea as a model of inter-religious tolerance, during a courtesy visit to the nation’s President Lee Myung-bak on May 26. Cardinal Tauran, the president...

The Congregation for the Clergy has asked dioceses worldwide to offer 60 hours of Eucharistic adoration around June 29, the 60th anniversary of Pope Benedict’s ordination to the priesthood. The...

Plowing over tombs with a tractor, Muslim landowners in a town near Pakistan’s third-largest city desecrated a Christian cemetery. The attack took place in Chak Jhumra, which is located near...

Three Mennonites who advocated on behalf of farmers whose land was sold by Communist officials have been charged with attempting to overthrow the government. If convicted, the three, who have been...

Michel Roy, the newly elected secretary-general of Caritas Internationalis--the confederation of Catholic relief and development agencies--discussed his four priorities in an interview with Vatican...

“Common sense” chastity, and not government-promoted “condom sense,“ is the solution to the AIDS epidemic, Botswana’s leading prelate said in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need. “It is...

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum will be making public the research of Father Patrick Desbois, a French priest who has documented 600 Nazi mass graves in Russia, Poland, Ukraine, and...

Giorgio Israel, a professor of the history of science at the Sapienza University of Rome, has lauded Pope Benedict’s new book in an essay written for the Vatican newspaper. The second volume of...

Speaking on May 27 to the general assembly of Caritas International, Pope Benedict XVI underlined the fact that Caritas “differs from other social agencies in that it is ecclesial; it shares in the...

Pope Benedict XVI led the bishops of Italy in the Rosary, and entrusted the nation to the care of the Virgin Mary, during a May 26 ceremony in the Roman basilica of St. Mary Major. The Pope...

The Diocese of Rockford has announced that it will close is adoption and foster-care services because of new state laws that require equal treatment for same-sex couples. Diocesan officials said...

A from the Family Research Council has compiled an impressive collection of evidence demonstrating that stable marriages play an enormous role in forming a healthy society. The data show that...

A Vatican conference on AIDS prevention has renewed public attention to the Church’s stand against the distribution of condoms as an AIDS-prevention strategy. Dr. Michel Sidibe, the director of...

The Vatican’s assertion of control over the policies of Caritas International should be recognized as a “palace revolution,” writes Jean-Marie Guénois of Le Figaro. By insisting that the agency must...

In a critique of two recent speeches delivered by US President Barack Obama--one in London, one in Dublin--William Oddie of the Catholic Herald concludes that the president's address to the British...

Our Sunday Visitor takes a candid look at the tensions that often arise between home-schooling families and Catholic diocesan officials. The brief story acknowledges that some home-schoolers look...

The special council following up on the work of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East met in Rome this week, and issued a statement reiterating that “the coexistence of religions is essential for...

The worldwide superior of the Daughters of St. Paul replaced the leaders of the American province after the religious order filed a lawsuit against the Boston archdiocese over the handling of...

At a Mass celebrated in Hong Kong in memory of the young Chinese activists who died in the Tienanmen Square massacre of 1989, Cardinal Joseph Zen spoke of the “students’ noble ideals,” and voiced...

Irish Catholic columnist David Quinn looks at recent reports of powerful men who have been charged with cheating on their wives, and argues that modern society is especially vulnerable to such...

John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter perceives a "quiet revolution" in the management style of the Vatican under the leadership of Pope Benedict XVI. He points to the Vatican's assertion of...

Nearly 53% of voters in Malta--one of the world’s few officially Catholic nations--voted in favor of the legalization of divorce in a May 29 referendum. “Even though the result is not what I...

Siagh Krimo, an Algerian Christian, was sentenced to five years in prison on May 25 after he shared his faith with a neighbor. Krimo was sentenced under the nation’s blasphemy law, which prohibits...

Tens of thousands of lives are now at risk following the attack on the central Sudanese region of Abyei by forces from the north, according to the head of the local diocese. “The humanitarian...

Two Christian girls--Rebecca Masih and Saima Masih--were forced to marry and convert to Islam after they were kidnapped by a wealthy businessman on May 24. The kidnapping took place in the...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and three Muslim organizations devoted their recent semiannual West Coast dialogue to “Principles of Interpretation of Scripture with a Special Focus...

Father Salvador Ruiz Enciso, a Mexican parish priest, has been kidnapped and murdered. “We condemn the brutal manner in which he was killed and we have confidence in the authorities that those...

Another Iraqi Christian has been murdered, as targeted killings of the religious minority continue. Arkan Jihad Yacob, a 62-year-old businessman and father of 4 children, was gunned down in...

On May 28, Pope Benedict XVI attended a concert organized in his honor by President Pal Schmitt of Hungary. The concert celebrated two occasions: Hungary’s assumption of the rotating presidency of...

“Catholicisim could not exist without a Marian character,” Pope Benedict XVI told a visiting German delegation on May 28. The Pope added that he had realized at an early age that “being Catholic...

A new round of talks between Catholic and Anglican theologians concluded its first session in Italy last week. The first session of the new Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission,...

At his midday audience on Sunday, May 29, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the Church’s mission to evangelize the world, and contrasted that effort with worldly attempts to gain power. “While the...

In a May 30 address to Catholic bishops from India, Pope Benedict XVI welcomed the growth of small Christian communities in that country, but added that the prayer of these small groups is “born of...

Meeting on May 30 with the staff of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, Pope Benedict XVI said that their work is needed in response to "the crisis we are living through." "The...

Australia’s leading Catholic prelate has said that it was “a tragedy” that the Vatican was forced to remove Bishop William Morris from office, but says that the move was necessary because the...

Catholics in Poland celebrated the memory of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski on May 28, the 30th anniversary of the death of the iron-willed cardinal who had led the resistance to Communism. In Warsaw...

Carl Djerassi, the man sometimes identified as “the father of the birth-control pill,” spoke with the Daily Mail about how sexual behavior has changed, and about the changes he expects in the...

Cardinal Angelo Scola of Venice has indicated that he does not wish to be considered as a replacement for the outgoing Archbishop of Milan, according to a report in the Italian daily La...

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that he thinks William Shakespeare was probably a Catholic. In a conversation about Shakespeare's life and works, Dr. Rowan Williams said that the available...

The Vatican, the International Red Cross, and government officials in the US and other Western nations all helped Nazi leaders escape from Germany and avoid prosecution after World War II, according...

Pope Benedict XVI has called repeatedly for a restoration of the great Catholic tradition in sacred music. But Vatican-watcher Sandro Magister of L'Espresso charges that the commitment to beautiful...

The bishops of Vietnam have asked the government to “open the door to the religious people of good will who aspire to be involved in school education.” “The Catholic Church can offer the...

A schismatic Alabama monastery founded in 1984 has been reconciled with the Diocese of Birmingham and the Holy See. “It is somewhat unique as an effort at reconciliation,” said Bishop Robert...

Operating under the Spanish legal principle of universal jurisdiction for heinous crimes, a judge in Spain has indicted two former El Salvadoran defense ministers and some 20 soldiers for the 1989...

A northeastern Chinese diocese reports that 243 adults received the sacraments of Christian initiation in its cathedral on May 28. The average age of the converts is 32. The conversions in the...

Caritas Internationalis, the confederation of Catholic relief and development agencies, is calling upon the International Labor Conference to adopt measures that protect domestic workers, especially...

Heeding the recommendations of a parliamentary commission, Belgian bishops and religious superiors have agreed to offer compensation to abuse victims. “The bishops and religious leaders are...

The Washington Post has published a lengthy profile of Father Ernesto Cardenal, the poet and former Nicaraguan culture minister who defied Pope John Paul’s order to resign from his position in the...

Liturgical music should combine respect for tradition with steady development of the forms, Pope Benedict XVI said in a message to the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, which is celebrating its...

The Vatican has released the prayer intentions of Pope Benedict XVI for June 2011. The Pontiff's general prayer intention is: "That priests, united to the Heart of Christ, may always be true...

In the aftermath of a referendum vote to legalize divorce, Catholic political leaders in Malta promised to move forward to strengthen existing marriages, and to resist any attempt to inaugurate...

An editorial in the Providence (Rhode Island) Journal criticized the John Jay report on the sex-abuse scandal in the American Catholic Church, saying that the report is “incomplete” because it does...

Noted canon-law professor Edward Peters reminds readers of the Homiletic and Pastoral Review that when a priest hearing confessions encourages penitents to sin, he commits not only a sin but also a...

Commenting on the American Catholic scholars who have criticized Republican lawmakers for failing to help the poor, Father Robert Sirico of the Acton Institute acknowledges that all Christians have...