Catholic World News

Thirteen priests have been killed on Mindanao--the second-largest island of the Philippines--since 1970, and a dozen of those murders remain unsolved. Bishop José Cabantan of Malaybalay links the...

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, has thanked Rep. Joseph Pitts for scheduling a November 2 hearing entitled...

Edward Green, the former director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard School of Health, has again defended Pope Benedict’s 2009 remarks on AIDS and condoms. While traveling to...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) are again urging Catholics to lobby their senators on behalf of foreign aid for the...

In a newly published interview, Christopher Thompson explores the links between Thomism, respect for the created order, and agriculture. “For centuries the Church advanced a philosophy of...

L’Osservatore Romano has paid tribute to Angelo Montonati on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. The Italian journalist, who has written nearly 50 biographies of saints, recounted: ...

The Vatican has no plans to allow laicized priests to engage in some forms of public ministry, a senior Church official has told the National Catholic Reporter. Responding to a statement by...

At his public audience on November 2, Pope Benedict XVI said that remembrance of the souls in Purgatory is a healthy reminder that the promise of redemption eases our fear of death. Speaking on...

The Catholic bishops of Illinois have decried the news that Governor Pat Quinn will participate in a Pro-Choice Leadership Award ceremony. In a public statement, the bishops said that Quinn’s...

Moving to subdue rumors, the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has issued a reminder that any authoritative response to a Vatican offer must come from the group’s leadership. The SSPX...

The Diocese of Orange, California, is seeking to stop the sale of the Crystal Cathedral to Chapman University. The diocese, which had made a $53.6 million offer to purchase the property, is...

At a midday audience on November 1, the feast of All Saints, Pope Benedict XVI reminded the faithful that all Christians are called to holiness, and everyone has a vocation to become a...

The president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity drew protests when he told an American audience that many Jewish people support the cause for the beatification of Pope Pius...

Sister Elizabeth Johnson, whose book Quest for the Living God has drawn a cautionary note from the US bishops’ conference, has assailed Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington for claiming that she...

A priest of the Worcester, Massachusetts diocese has apparently fled the country after being charged with child pornography and with stealing from his parish. Father Lowe Dongor failed to appear...

As he welcomed a new ambassador from Brazil to the Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI said that a healthy secularism “must not consider religion as a mere individual sentiment, relegated to the private...

The Vatican has released the prayer intentions of Pope Benedict XVI for November 2011. The Pope’s general intention is “That the Eastern Catholic churches and their venerable traditions may be...

The pastor of a Protestant church in India’s Muslim-majority Kashmir province is under virtual house arrest, and seven Muslim converts to Christianity are also in police detention, following...

The Irish public has a grossly exaggerated impression of the scope of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, a new survey has discovered. The Iona Institute poll found that 70% of the Irish public...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is urging the US Senate to reject the Respect for Marriage Act--a measure that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which became...

In declining to renew a grant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services to aid victims of human trafficking, the leadership of the US Department of Health...

At Rep. Joseph Pitts’s November 2 hearing--entitled “Do New Health Law Mandates Threaten Conscience Rights and Access to Care?”--Republicans and Democrats clashed over conscience rights. The...

Daniel Avila, an attorney who serves as policy advisor for the Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), has retracted a...

Following the passage of a state concealed-weapons law, the bishops of Wisconsin have issued a statement discouraging Catholics from bringing weapons into churches. “Whatever an individual parish...

In an interview with Catholic World Report, actor Martin Sheen discusses The Way, a new film set on the famed Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James)--the pilgrimage route to Santiago de...

The Irish government has announced plans to close its embassy to the Holy See. Foreign minister Eamon Gilmore said that the decision was motivated by economic concerns, rather than by a serious...

Shrugging off criticism from the state’s Catholic bishops, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn said that he was proud to present the Pro-Choice Leadership Award, saying that it was “the proper, Christian...

On November 3, Pope Benedict XVI presided at an annual Mass for the bishops who have died in the past year, and remarked in his homily that only in Christ does the world find hope for triumph over...

Charles Lewis, religion columnist for the National Post, comments on the Vatican’s often clumsy handling of public relations, and notes that not everything coming out of the Vatican should be seen...

When American presidential candidate Herman Cain denounced the eugenicist theories of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, liberal journalists rose to Sanger’s defense, claiming that...

Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas of San Salvador argues that global warming is the most serious problem facing humanity today. The Salvadoran prelate said that his country should take part in...

The Holy See Press Office has issued a statement responding to Ireland’s decision to close its embassy at the Vatican. “The Holy See takes note of the decision of Ireland to close its Embassy to...

Recognizing that children are a gift from God is “the true basis of prevention of child abuse,” the promoter of justice of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said at an international...

The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation, which met recently to discuss the laity, parishes, and regional structures of authority, has issued a statement on the plight of Middle...

Speaking recently at the Mexican American Catholic College in San Antonio, Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville discussed the changing dynamics of immigration, the satanic roots of the culture of...

Researchers at the Arizona State University have linked the hormone in Depo Provera to memory loss. The birth-control shot can act as an abortifacient as well as a contraceptive. “What we found...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development is urging Catholics to “tell the Deficit “Super Committee” and your members of Congress that...

Meeting on November 4 with a new ambassador from Ivory Coast to the Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI applauded the African nation’s efforts to achieve reconciliation after a bloody civil war. Voicing...

The special council for the Synod of Bishops for America met in Rome last week, for discussions that centered on relations with other religions. A note released by the Synod of Bishops after the...

An American Jewish researcher has uncovered evidence that Pope Pius XII went under cover on personal missions to save Jews from the Holocaust. Gary Krupp of the Pave the Way Foundation cites a...

A “climate of generalized insecurity” prevails in Ivory Coast, provoking worries of widespread new fighting there, Bishop Gaspard Beby Gneba of Man has informed the Fides news service. Violence...

Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore has sent an angry protest to authorities in India’s Karnataka state after the vandalization of another Catholic church on November 2. Archbishop Moras wrote...

Irish columnist David Quinn argues that the decision by his country’s government to close its embassy at the Holy See was “petty and immature.” The Irish government said that the embassy was...

Anglican Archbishop John Hepworth has offered to drop complaints of sexual abuse against Catholic clerics if the Adelaide archdiocese will help him to re-enter the Catholic Church. Archbishop...

Weltbild, a major German publishing house owned by the German bishops’ conference and various dioceses, has marketed some 2,500 erotic works. While Weltbild has denied that the works meet the legal...

Gunmen attacked a Catholic parish in the north-central Nigerian state of Kaduna on November 3, killing two women and injuring a dozen. Protestors took to the street following the shooting and burned...

Addressing the Anti-Defamation League’s annual meeting, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York took stock of Jewish-Catholic relations and urged Jews and Catholics to work together to protect...

Following the publication of a column that linked Satan with the origins of same-sex attractions, Daniel Avila has resigned as policy advisor for the Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of...

Today’s teenagers are less sexually active than those of a generation ago, according to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control. “From 1988 to 2006-2010, the percentage of...

In his weekly editorial, the director of the Holy See Press Office welcomed “Baby 7 Billion” into the world. “We want to tell you that you are unique and special, that you are a wonderful gift,...

Speaking on November 7 to a new ambassador from Germany to the Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI said that when the Church becomes involved in legislature affairs, the goal is “defending values which are...

A controversial Australian priest has evidently lost his battle to obtain a second delay of his retirement from parish duty. Father Bob Maguire, who agreed in 2009 to step down in February 2012...

Anglican Archbishop John Hepworth has denied reports that he has offered to drop a sexual-abuse complaint against the Adelaide Catholic archdiocese. “I have withdrawn nothing,” said Archbishop...

Christians can face death with “invincible hope,” Pope Benedict XVI told a public audience on November 6. The ability to “live and die in hope” marks a dramatic difference between Christians and...

Dissident Catholics in Austria have announced their intention to conduct liturgical ceremonies in which lay people act as priests, preaching and simulating the celebration of Mass. "Church law...

At the conclusion of his Angelus audience on Sunday, November 6, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his grief over the latest religious violence in Nigeria, and promised his prayers for the victims and...

“To be a priest means to serve,” Pope Benedict XVI reminded students at the pontifical universities at a Mass on November 5. Presiding at the Vespers service that formally opened the academic...

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago has expressed misgivings about a statement in which he and the other Catholic bishops of Illinois criticized Governor Pat Quinn for participating in a Pro-Choice...

Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi has endorsed a “personhood” initiative, which would amend the state’s constitution to specify that human life begins at conception. In a heated contest...

Father Robert Busa, SJ, died in August, just short of his 98th birthday. Vatican Insider profiles the priest whose research in computer language paved the way for the arrival of word processing,...

Archbishop Giuseppe Betori of Florence, Italy, survived an apparent assassination attempt on November 5. An unidentified man confronted the archbishop outside his office, shot and wounded the...

The Hanoi archdiocese has issued a protest against a violent police assault on a Redemptorist monastery and the associated parish. Hundreds of police officers and soldiers rushed into the...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is offering unusually strong and public criticism of critics of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the USCCB’s controversial...

A year after the Christian woman Asia Bibi was sentenced to death on blasphemy charges, the president of Pakistan’s Episcopal Conference is warning that Islamic extremism in on the rise. “A year...

Meeting in common assembly, the bishops of two nations--newly independent South Sudan and the Republic of Sudan, which is largely Muslim--called upon the African Union to address the violence that...

Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian Protestant pastor sentenced to death for converting from Islam, is being pressured by prison authorities to revert to Islam, according to media reports. At a recent...

Addressing an interfaith conference on air pollution, the chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development linked respect for the life of the unborn with concern for...

L’Osservatore Romano has paid tribute to architect and scholar Paolo Portoghesi on his eightieth birthday. “Like many authentic artists, Portoghesi has never ceased fighting for his ideas, which...

A Melkite Catholic bishop has announced plans to begin ordaining married men to the priesthood in the US, bringing an end to a longstanding agreement. Bishop Nicholas Samra, who was installed in...

L’Osservatore Romano has given a nod of approval to the new Steven Spielberg movie, The Adventures of Tintin. Tintin, the comic-book detective, is “a knight without a stain,” the Vatican...

Pope Paul VI tried to persuade General Francisco Franco to renounce the Spanish government’s privilege of nominating Catholic bishops, the Vatican newspaper reports. The Pontiff was unable to sway...

The retired prefect of the Congregation for Clergy denounced liturgical abuses as he presided at a Mass in St. Peter’s basilica for participants in a conference organized by the Una Voce Federation,...

A British court has ruled that a Catholic diocese can be held responsible for the actions of priests, clearing the way for a sex-abuse victim to seek legal compensation from the diocese. The...

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has heatedly denied the charge that his government is closing the Irish embassy at the Vatican for political reasons. Kenny insisted that the decision to close...

Following attacks that left more than 100 dead, nearly all Christians have fled Damaturu, the capital of one of Nigeria’s 36 states. The Islamist organization Boko Haram (“Western education is a...

Weeks before Egypt’s November 28 presidential election, the government-linked National Council for Human Rights has ruled that the military did not fire on Coptic Christian protestors in...

Three weeks after military forces in Myanmar (Burma) disrupted Mass in a Kachin State village, shooting at worshippers and burning down the church, soldiers have attacked a Protestant church in the...

By a 58%-42% margin, Mississippi voters rejected a state constitutional amendment that would have defined person to include “every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the...

The Pontifical Council for Culture and the Stem for Life Foundation are hosting a three-day conference devoted to adult stem-cell research. Adult stem-cell research avoids “the ethical dilemma...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to discover why the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) declined to renew a grant to...

Pope Benedict devoted his November 9 public audience to a discussion of Psalm 119, the longest of the psalms. The central theme of the psalm is a meditation on the law of God, the Pope told his...

A Benedictine abbey will relinquish control of a noted school in London, as the result of an investigation into a history of sexual abuse there. Alex Carlile, who led an independent investigation...

A papal visit to Ireland in 2012 now seems unlikely, in light of a public statement by the country’s foreign minister that the government does not plan to extend an invitation to the...

The average age of Swiss Catholic priests is over 65, and that number is still rising, a new study has found. Father Ettore Mainati, a theologian at the University of Lugano, tells Vatican...

A prominent Hindu nationalist leader has called for the beheading of anyone who attempts to convert Hindus to another religion. Praveen Togadia, suggested the death penalty for religious...

Republican voters are more likely than the general American population to attend church services regularly, according to a new Gallup Poll survey. Most Democrats, on the other hand, rarely or never...

"In two and a half months, about 40 churches and religious men and women’s houses all over Abidjan have been attacked by armed bandits,” a spokesman for the Abidjan archdiocese has reported to the...

A group of Korean Catholic priests has announced a hunger strike to protest what they see as greed in national policies. The Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice began a week-long hunger...

Speaking at the University of Pennsylvania, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia argued for the recognition of fundamental human rights enshrined in natural law. The American Founders...

Speaking at a UNESCO conference in Paris, a Vatican delegate argued that peace is best built by “small societies,” beginning with the family. Msgr. Francesco Follo, the permanent observer for the...

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has suggested that overpopulation is responsible for “poverty, carbon emissions, climate change, deforestation, civil wars, unplanned pregnancies, and...

Pope Benedict XVI opted to use a rolling platform during recent Vatican liturgical ceremonies because of a degenerative joint condition in his legs, according to the leading Vatican-watcher Andrea...

Eight months after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the bishops of Japan are calling for the closure of all of the nation’s 54 nuclear power plants. “In order to avoid tragedy, we must...

The US Commission on International Commission Religious Freedom has found that “in Pakistan, schools often serve as incubators of societal intolerance, especially toward religious minorities, with...

The bishops of Maryland have issued a statement reviewing the history of religious freedom in Maryland and decrying recent attacks on what James Madison called “the most sacred of all...

Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, an evangelical Christian, has changed the name of the “holiday tree” in the state capitol building back to “Christmas tree.” The tree had been called a Christmas...

A small study conducted by Canadian researchers has found that 19% of patients in a “vegetative state” can consistently demonstrate awareness. The researchers asked 16 patients in the United...

Caritas Internationalis, the Church’s confederation of relief and development agencies, has issued a $695,000 appeal on behalf of Thai flood victims. “This year’s strikingly heavy monsoon rain...

Pope Benedict XVI met on November 10 with the Council of Religious Leaders in Israel, and told them that “dialogue between different religions is becoming ever more important.” “This is pressing...

A Pennsylvania judge has indicated that she will soon decide whether or not retired Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia should testify in the case against four priests on sex-abuse...

At a seminar organized by L’Osservatore Romano to mark the newspaper’s 150th anniversary, experts were asked to discuss “incomprehension between the Catholic Church and the world’s media,...

The family “is not a private entity enclosed in itself,” Pope Benedict XVI wrote in a message to the 2nd National Family Congress in Ecuador. “By its vocation it makes a wonderful and decisive...

A 64-year-old woman has been put to death by her doctors in the Netherlands, without giving her explicit consent for the "mercy killing." The woman, whose name was not revealed, had suffered from...

Muslim students at the Catholic University of America have stated their opposition to a claim that the school discriminates against Muslims. John Banzhaf, a law professor at George Washington...

A Florida jury has awarded a stunning $100 million in damages to a victim of sexual abuse by a Miami priest. The jury called for $10 million in compensatory damages and $90 million in punitive...

The Diocese of Orange, California, has raised its bid for the Crystal Cathedral, offering $55.4 million for the property. The Orange diocese has moved to block the sale of the property to Chapman...

The Catholic priests of Dublin are facing a 9% drop in their salaries this year—after taking a 6% cut the previous year—because of declining church revenue. The basic salary for a priest in...

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone has announced that Vatican offices cannot issue public statements without clearance from the Secretariat of State, reports Sandro Magister of L’Espresso. The veteran...

The Vatican is actively considering a papal visit to Mexico and Cuba in 2012. Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, told reporters that papal nuncios in Mexico and...

Pledging to adhere to state legislation requiring equal treatment for same-sex couples in adoption and foster-care services, Catholic Social Services of Southern Illinois is separating from the...

The leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church is calling for a large Christian turnout during the upcoming national elections. “Your participation in the 28 November elections will maintain a balance...

A 5,000-seat Catholic parish has been dedicated in overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan. St. Peter’s Catholic Church includes a perpetual adoration chapel and is the largest parish in the nation, dwarfing...

The Brooklyn Museum--New York City’s second-largest art museum--is hosting an exhibit that includes David Wojnarowicz’s “A Fire in My Belly,” a video that features ants crawling over a...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Relief Services are renewing their efforts to urge Catholics to lobby their senators on behalf of international anti-poverty assistance....

A study funded by the US National Institutes of Health has found that women who attend religious services regularly are 56% more likely to be optimistic and 22% less likely to be depressed than...

A Dutch priest has been warned by the Diocese of ‘s Hertogenbosch that he must give up a female companion or risk dismissal from ministry. Father Jan Peijnenberg has reportedly lived with the...

Contradicting earlier published stories, the Catholic News Service reports that the Vatican Secretariat of State has not disowned a controversial statement by the Pontifical Council for Justice and...

The Vatican has upheld a decision by the Diocese of Springfield, Massachusetts to close 3 parishes, rejecting a canonical appeal by parishioners. However, the Vatican decision said that the three...

Speaking at Assumption College in Massachusetts, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia argued that Catholic universities should proudly support and advance the Church's distinctive scholarly...

As leading researchers gathered in Rome for a Vatican conference on the use of adult stem cells, one participant spoke about the use of stem cells taken from human placentas. Dr. Robert Hariri...

At Crisis, Ronald Rychlak recalls that Pope John XXIII played an important role in reducing Cold War tensions during the Cuban missile crisis. With the US and USSR in a nuclear showdown,...

The historic church where the Council of Nicea was held, which has been a museum for nearly a century, has been converted to a mosque. The Aghia Sophia in Nicea (not to be confused with the Hagia...

Along with the customary prayers, Ireland's new President Michael Higgins invited a secular humanist to offer a meditation at his inauguration. Columnist David Quinn sees that gesture as another...

Addressing the Pontifical Council Cor Unum on the occasion of the European Year of Volunteering, Pope Benedict thanked “the millions of Catholic volunteers who contribute, regularly and generously,...

Anthony Picarello, general counsel of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has joined Bishop David Choby of Nashville and Vanderbilt University chaplain Father John Sims Baker in...

Belmont Abbey College, a Benedictine college in western North Carolina, has sued the federal government in an effort to prevent the implementation of a mandate requiring private health insurance...

The vice rector of the major seminary in Ho Chi Minh City has told the Fides news agency that the future of the Church in Vietnam appears bright. Young people, said Father Joseph Do Manh Hung,...

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has launched “Crossing the Threshold,” a campaign to reach out to lapsed Catholics. “We have something we're trying to market, and we’re...

The director of the Holy See Press Office has devoted his weekly editorial to gratuitousness and the economic crisis. “The Pope asks us to keep in mind the idea of ‘gratuitousness,’ of giving...

The people of Ireland have been misled about the extent of sexual abuse by priests, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has said. Speaking at a Mass for deceased priests, the archbishop referred...

The New York Times gave front-page coverage to the corporate activism of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia. Specializing in shareholder resolutions, the religious congregation has worked...

The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to the constitutionality of the sweeping health-care reform program informally known as “Obamacare.” The Supreme Court announced on November 14...

Speaking on November 12 to participants in a Vatican conference on adult stem-cell research, Pope Benedict XVI said: "The destruction of even one human life can never be justified in terms of the...

In his first presidential address to the members of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York said that the greatest challenge facing the American hierarchy...

Pope Benedict XVI met on November 12 with Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council. In a brief statement released after the meeting, the Vatican said that the conversation had...

The failure to use our talents is a serious rejection of God’s grace, Pope Benedict XVI told his midday audience on November 13. “God calls each one of us to life and gives us talents, at the...

As he concluded a public audience on Sunday, November 13, Pope Benedict XVI asked for prayers for the success of his visit to Africa this coming weekend. The Holy Father will leave Rome on...

Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, Arizona, has issued new norms for the distribution of Communion under both species. In September, Bishop Olmsted had announced plans to curtail the widespread...

Pope Benedict XVI will use an iPad to turn on the lights of the world’s largest “Christmas tree.” Residents of Gubbio, Italy, have arranged a series of lights on the hill overlooking their town,...

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna has warned that dissident Catholics are challenging central truths of Church doctrine. But the Austrian cardinal is apparently not ready to take disciplinary...

Sex-abuse victims in the Diocese of Covington, Kentucky, are suing their former lawyers, charging that they defrauded them in his handling of the case. A Kentucky court has refused to dismiss the...

A New York judge has decided against a prison sentence for a nun who pleaded guilty to stealing $850,000 from a Catholic school where she was a finance official. Sister Marie Thornton admitted...

In some of the noteworthy opinion columns appearing over the weekend: Ross Douthat of the New York Times compared former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno to Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos....

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), met with President Barack Obama at the White House on November 8. Archbishop...

Three Illinois bishops have announced that they are ending their legal appeal against legislation requiring equal treatment for same-sex couples in adoption and foster-care services. “It is with...

Father Carl Lampert (1894-1944), who served as vicar general of the Diocese of Innsbruck before his internment at Dachau and Sachsenhausen and his eventual beheading, was beatified in Austria on...

The decision of Western governments to recognize Kosovo’s independence from Serbia has harmed the Church’s reputation, according to Serbia’s leading Catholic prelate. Serbians, said Archbishop...

The National Committee for a Human Life Amendment, which works closely with the US bishops’ conference on pro-life issues, is urging Catholics to call upon their senators to reject four provisions...

The Associated Press notes that rising persecution has led many Iraqi and other Christians to flee the Middle East for the United States, leading to increased attendance at Maronite Catholic...

Geron Corporation, a pioneer in embryonic stem-cell research, has announced that it is abandoning that field. After years of touting the potential applications of embryonic stem-cell research,...

Pope Benedict XVI is “putting great hope in the Church in this country,” a new apostolic nuncio told the members of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). In his first address to the...

At a November 15 press conference in Rome, Vatican officials outlined plans for the forthcoming visit to Africa by Pope Benedict XVI. The highlight of the papal trip will be the promulgation of...

A British bishop has criticized a court decision allowing for a diocese to be held liable for sexual abuse by a priest. Bishop Crispian Hollis of Portsmouth acknowledged that a bishop should be...

A Nigerian prelate is not surprised by reports that the Boko Haram sect has ties to Al Qaida. A Nigerian newspaper, The Vanguard, revealed that Boko Haram members were trained in building...

Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Missouri, has reached an agreement with a local prosecutor that allows the bishop to escape a 2nd indictment on criminal charges of failing to report evidence of...

President Barack Obama risks alienating a crucial bloc of Catholic voters, writes Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson. Gerson focuses particularly on the decision by the Department of Health...

During a visit to Lebanon, where he met on November 14 with President Michel Suleiman, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill expressed his keen concern about the dangers facing the Christian minority in...

Cardinal Donald Wuerl has announced that Pope Benedict XVI will establish an ordinariate for American Anglicans who wish to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church. Two Anglican...

Fearing for their lives, two Pentecostal leaders who have been active in interreligious dialogue have fled Pakistan after they were accused of blasphemy. “It is a very sad story and a symbol of...

The bishops of Texas are urging a Texas congressman who serves on the deficit “super committee” not to make “disproportionate cuts” to anti-poverty programs. “Poverty has grown to unprecedented...

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) is urging the Nigerian government to take steps to protect civilians from Boko Haram (“Western education is a sin”), the Islamist sect that is...

A working group of Caritas, the Church’s confederation of relief and development agencies, is calling upon the Colombian government to address human rights concerns in the northern part of the...

In an op-ed column published in L’Osservatore Romano, Ferdinando Cancelli, who teaches at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, emphasized the primacy of prayer over action....

The Vatican has lodged a protest against a new Benetton ad campaign that features a doctored photo of Pope Benedict XVI kissing an Egyptian Islamic leader. Benetton—a company with a history of...

On November 16, Pope Benedict XVI concluded a series of weekly talks on the Psalms, which he had described as a "school of prayer." At his Wednesday public audience, the Pope spoke on Psalm 110,...

The chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences stressed the dangers of man-made climate change, and called for a tax on international financial transactions, in an address to a Caritas...

The Vatican is considering a reconfiguration of Irish dioceses, while the Irish hierarchy is resisting major changes, according to the Irish Catholic newspaper. The Irish Catholic reports that...

Protests by a Mumbai-based Catholic group have forced Indian movie producers to remove objectionable scenes from a film that is scheduled to be released on November 18. Following protests by the...

The head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Shenouda III, is traveling to the US for medical tests and treatment. Having been selected to head the Coptic Church in November 1971, Pope Shenouda...

The US bishops’ conference plans to expand Project Rachel, a program that reaches out to women who have had abortions. “Project Rachel Ministry is at the heart of the Church’s mission at this...

Father Henry Donneaud, the pontifical delegate who governs the Community of the Beatitudes, has announced that the community’s founder, Deacon Gérard (Ephraim) Croissant, sexually abused sisters in...

Andrea Riccardi, the founder of one of the leading new ecclesial movements, has been named Italy’s minister for international cooperation and integration policies. Riccardi founded the Community...

“Sorry that the use of the image had so hurt the sensibilities of the faithful,” Benetton has removed from an advertising campaign a doctored photo of Pope Benedict XVI kissing an Egyptian Islamic...

A probe by the General Accounting Office has found that the Obama administration violated federal law in granting funds to an abortion-promoting organization in Kenya. “The Obama Administration...

Christians in Pakstani prisons are “disadvantaged in the distribution of food, clothing and medicines, as well as in their ability to practice their religion,” according to Faisalabad Catholic...

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, has named Franciscan Sister Mary Laurene Browne the head of a commission that will investigate recent election...

Dutch police have resumed their investigation of a retired Catholic bishop on sex-abuse charges, after receiving "alarming" new reports from authorities in Ireland. Bishop Cornelius Schilder has...

Preparations are nearly complete for a weekend visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Benin, where he will release the apostolic exhortation concluding the work of the 2nd African Synod. The new papal...

Children continue to suffer as casualties of violence in Somalia, where warring tribes still vie for influence in a country that has lacked an effective central government for near 20 years. UN...

The National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM) was an enthusiastic participant in a recent Girls Scouts convention in Houston, brushing aside protests by pro-life groups about the...

President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus boasted that his country offers a model for ecumenical cooperation, as he met with Cardinal Kurt Koch, the president of the Pontifical Council for Christian...

An icon of the Mother of God was prominently displayed on a Russian spacecraft during a recent television broadcast from the International Space Station. The display of a religious image, during a...

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn celebrated Mass at Vienna’s cathedral of St. Stephen on November 17, as part of a televised event that included testimony from a Medjugorje “seer,” who promised an...

A Catholic nun who had worked for 20 years among impoverished among the poor in India’s mineral-rich Jharkhand state has been brutally murdered, after a series of clashes with powerful coal-mining...

The leader of Spain's opposition party--who is favored to win general elections--may move to reverse the legal approval of same-sex marriage and the decriminalization of abortion. Mariano Rajoy...

Following a ruling by a bankruptcy court judge, the Diocese of Orange will purchase Crystal Cathedral--a 3,000-seat church built under the pastorate of Protestant televangelist Robert Schuller in...

A gang of men attacked an unregistered Baptist prayer meeting near Hanoi on November 13, smashing a cross and beating the pastor to the point of unconsciousness. Collaboration between the gang and...

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) and Canada’s Euthanasia Prevention Coalition have welcomed the publication of “Not to be Forgotten: Care of Vulnerable Canadians,” a report by a...

Three Muslim men have gunned down Jameel Sawan, a Protestant pastor, in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city. “The murder may be motivated by religious hatred, but there is also the track of a...

Father Athanasius McVay, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest in Canada, and Lubomyr Luciuk, a professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, have coauthored the newly published book The Holy See...

Three years after California voters approved Proposition 8--a measure that recognized marriage as a union of a man and a woman--and one year after a US district court judge declared the measure...

Arriving on November 18 in Benin, where he will release an apostolic exhortation on the pastoral needs of the Church in Africa, Pope Benedict XVI said that he hoped the document would “fall into the...

“There’s a freshness, a ‘Yes’ to life, in Africa, a youthfulness that’s full of enthusiasm and hope,” Pope Benedict XVI told journalists accompanying him on his November 18 flight to...

Two key government officials in the troubled Kandhamal district of India’s eastern Orissa state have acknowledged that the anti-Christian violence in the region during 2007 was orchestrated in...

Pope Benedict XVI met briefly with Italy’s newly installed Prime Minister Mario Monti on November 18, before setting off on a trip to Africa. Monti traveled to Leonardo da Vinci airport on Friday...

The Vatican newspaper has entered into a lively literary debate, saying that the works of William Shakespeare show that the author was a Catholic. L’Osservatore Romano reviewed a new film,...

A Pennsylvania judge has ruled that retired Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua should testify in the trial of his former assistant, Msgr. William Lynn. But Judge Teresa Sarmina said that the elderly...

The Catholic bishops of Illinois have requested a meeting with Governor Pat Quinn, to discuss his public stand on abortion and same-sex unions. Governor Quinn has made public a letter from the...

Psychiatrist Rick Fitzgibbons explains why same-sex adoption is misguided, saying that advocates of the practice "are ignoring the rights of children and important social and psychological...

Time columnist Amy Sullivan concedes that the Obama administration has a problem with Catholic voters, but argues that it was bad staff work--not a decision from the White House--that caused the...

As hundreds of Coptic Christians marched in Cairo to protest recent violence by Egyptian security forces, assailants threw bottles and stones at the marchers and clashed with them. Agence France...

Testifying on behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops before a US House subcommittee, Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of Las Cruces urged Congress and the Obama administration “to place a...

Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston has issued a statement of support for Antonio Enrique, the father of 11 who edits his archdiocesan newspaper. Some priests have joined gay activists in calling for...

The United States Senate has granted four weeks of additional funding to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a non-partisan body that documents religious-freedom violations around...

In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Florentin Crihalmeanu of Cluj-Gherla--who was ordained a priest at 31 and a consecrated a bishop by Blessed John Paul II at 37--recalled...

Following cancellations of seminars offered by a consultant who, outside of his professional duties, vocally opposes same-sex marriage, Bank of America and Cisco have pledged that they will not...

Cardinal Bernard Law, the American prelate most closely identified with the sex-abuse scandal, has been removed from a ceremonial post at the Vatican. On November 21, the Vatican press office...

The International Theological Commission will gather in Rome next week for its annual plenary meeting, to discuss 3 main topics: theological methodology, monotheism, and Catholic social...

“Do not deprive your peoples of hope!” Pope Benedict XVI exhorted a group of African political leaders on November 19, the 2nd day of his weekend visit to Benin. That message reflected the theme...

“Be the salt of the African earth,” Pope Benedict XVI challenged Catholics as he formally released his apostolic exhortation, Africae Munus, summarizing the key insights of the 2nd African...

The Archdiocese of New York has given a nod to a plan that would raise wage rates for workers on city-backed projects. Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, the local director of Catholic Charities, spoke on...

A Vietnamese public official disrupted a Mass, hurling insults and threats at the priest, in the latest confrontation at a parish in Hanoi. The official burst into the Trai Ha parish church,...

Police in India’s Jharkhand state have arrested 7 people in connection with the brutal murder of Sister Valsa John, while hundreds joined in memorial services for a bold nun who had defended the...

The head of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land has concerns about a Palestinian proposal to UNESCO to make Bethlehem a World Heritage Site. Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa explained that...

Pakistan’s bishops are protesting a decision by the nation’s telecommunications authority to include “Jesus Christ” in a list of 160 words banned in text messages. “The Catholic Church of...

19% of the 212 religious advocacy groups in Washington are Catholic, according to a new study conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Of the groups classified as Catholic--including...

Police in largely Muslim Jammu and Kashmir, India’s northernmost state, arrested Protestant pastor C.M. Khanna on November 19 on charges of fomenting religious enmity and converting Muslims through...

The Dominican superior in Baghdad has told Aid to the Church in Need that the situation has worsened for Christians in recent weeks amid fears that extremists are infiltrating churches. “The next...

Religion News Service has drawn attention to the major sacred art collection at Bob Jones University, the fundamentalist college in South Carolina that lifted its ban on interracial dating only in...

The bishops of New Jersey have issued a statement urging “all people of good will to address the critical needs of the poor who live among us.” “The Church’s concern for the poor is inspired by...

The Archdiocese of San Francisco has won a legal battle to avoid taxes on the transfer of parish properties. The archdiocese had filed suit in April 2010 against city assessor Phil Ting, who had...

A notoriously 'gay-friendly' parish in San Francisco has invited an openly homosexual Episcopalian cleric to lead an Advent Vespers service. Most Holy Redeemer parish asked Bishop Otis Charles, a...

At two separate press conferences held in Rome on November 22, Vatican officials briefed reporters on two upcoming events: a symposium on health care and the gospel of life, and a meeting of the...

The Vatican will soon unveil a “liturgical art and sacred music commission,” and issue new guidelines for the construction of churches and the renewal of liturgical music, according to Andrea...

The German bishops have decided to sell Weltbild, a major publishing house owned by 12 dioceses, amid revelations that the $2.15-billion firm had marketed some 2,500 erotic works. “We can’t make...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic renowned for her support of legalized abortion, has criticized efforts by the US bishops and others in support of conscience-protection legislation for...

The policy counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington legislative office is expressing concern that President Barack Obama will grant a wider religious exemption to a mandate that...

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales is asking parishes to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee by replacing the first reading at Mass next Trinity Sunday and by...

In 2004, a New Jersey parish made headlines when it dedicated a memorial in the shape of a millstone to victims of clerical abuse. That memorial has been destroyed with a sledgehammer; a suspect has...

The New York Times offers an explicit and deeply disturbing look at sex education at a Philadelphia school. The Times also reviews the history of sex education in American schools: Sex education...

At his weekly public audience on November 23, Pope Benedict XVI said that the key theme of his weekend visit to Africa had been “the hope that must drive the development of the continent.” With...

Pope Benedict XVI was reportedly under observation for years by the notorious secret-police agency of East Germany, the Stasi. Attempts to reconstruct the shredded records of the Stasi have...

The president of the Spanish bishops’ conference sees “a new political era in Spain,” with the election that brought Mariano Rajoy to power as the nation’s prime minister. Speaking at a plenary...

The Irish television network RTE has suspended an investigative program that wrongfully accused a Catholic priest of rape. The “Prime Time Investigates” program was forced to apologize for the...

Columnist George Weigel welcomes reports that the Vatican is planning to pare the Irish hierarchy by cutting down the number of dioceses in the country. "That there are 26 dioceses in Ireland is...

The Vatican has announced the resignation of another Irish bishop, leaving 7 of the country’s 26 dioceses without an active bishop. Bishop Seamus Hegarty of Derry announced that he was stepping...

Maronite Catholic Patriarch Bechara Rai has renewed his warnings that the “Arab Spring” uprisings in the Middle East could lead to the emergence of more militant Islamic regimes. While welcoming...

Following our usual policy-- and a wonderful American tradition-- CWN will be closed on Thursday and Friday, November 24 and 25, so that our staff can fully enjoy the Thanksgiving...

Pope Benedict XVI will soon name an American priest--his former aide at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith--as apostolic nuncio to Ireland, according to reports in that...

Speaking on November 25 to the members of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, Pope Benedict XVI said that the Church must meet the challenge of proclaiming God’s existence to an increasingly...

The duties of Christian charity cannot be delegated, Pope Benedict XVI said on November in an address to leaders of the Italian Caritas agency, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary. "A work...

The Vatican has unveiled an exhibit on the Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona and the spirituality of its achitect, Antonio Gaudi. As he opened the exhibit—which will be on display in the...

More than 50 civic and religious organizations in the province of Mindanao have appealed to President Benigno Aquino of the Philippines to accelerate a probe into the murder of a Catholic missionary...

The papal representative supervising a reform of the Legionaries of Christ has indicated that many of the rules governing the conduct of members will be eliminated. Cardinal Velasio De Paolis...

Authorities in Pakistan have rescinded a ban on the use of the name "Jesus Christ" in text messages, in a victory for a Christian government adviser. Pakistan had included the name of Jesus...

For several years, scientists and scientific publications have touted embryonic stem-cell test as the most promising field in medical research. Now, with the announcement that the Geron Corporation...

An investigation conducted by an attorney under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Adelaide has found that Msgr. Ian Dempsey, a former chief chaplain of the Australian Royal Navy and archdiocesan...

Members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram have destroyed eight churches in an attack on the northeastern Nigerian town of Geidam. At least four policemen were killed in the...

The director of media relations of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has criticized a report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life that found that the USCCB devoted...

A Coptic Catholic prelate has condemned the latest government crackdown on demonstrators. “The authorities have no right to shoot peaceful people,“ said Bishop Antonios Aziz Mina of Giza. “The...

In tackling the United Kingdom’s debt crisis, members of Parliament should be mindful that “the effects of economic austerity and cutbacks are already being felt disproportionally by the most...

Algeria’s leading prelate discusses at length the challenges of ministering in an overwhelmingly Muslim state where conversion is punished by fine or imprisonment. Only 4,000 of the nation’s 34.8...

Pope Benedict XVI met on November 28 with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, for a discussion of the Middle East and especially “the delicate situation in Syria.” After the meeting, the...

Confirming stories that had circulated late last week, the Vatican has announced the appointment of Msgr. Charles Brown as the next apostolic nuncio to Ireland. The American priest will assume...

A German lawyer--who evidently has a good deal of time on his hands--has filed a complaint against Pope Benedict XVI for failing to use a seatbelt when he rode in the Popemobile during his September...

A Benedictine monk who is the subject of an international arrest warrant apparently returned to Rome recently to draw funds out of his account at the Vatican bank. Father Laurence Soper, the...

The season of Advent is “a timely reminder to us that life has not only an earthly dimension, but is projected beyond,” Pope Benedict XVI told his midday audience on Sunday, November 27....

Pope Benedict XVI attended a musical concert on Saturday evening, November 26. Following a performance of works by Falla, Albeniz, Rueda, Strauss, and Rimsky-Korsakov, by the Orchestra of Asturias,...

European banking experts were in Rome last week for meetings with Vatican officials, as part of the process by which the Holy See is seeking approval as a full partner in European banking...

The Pontifical Council for the Family is preparing a new document on preparation for marriage, which will remind engaged couples that they should not live together before exchanging vows. At a...

Vatican officials are planning a scaled-back financial outlay and a more environmentally-friendly approach for the Nativity scene that will appear in St. Peter's Square this year. The creche will...

Pope Benedict XVI called for effective action on climate change during his Angelus audience on Sunday, November 28. He repeated his message of concern for the environment on Monday in a meeting with...

In an address to 500 participants in the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Health Care, Pope Benedict XVI said that Christians must “defend and promote life, whatever its state and...

Pope Benedict XVI renewed his condemnation of sexual abuse in an address to visiting American bishops. The Pontiff added that while the Church “is rightly held to exacting standards in this regard,...

A superior of the Missionaries of Charity has been arrested in Sri Lanka, and charged with selling children to adoptive parents. Sister Mary Eliza was jailed after a police raid on a home for...

Retired Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia gave testimony for the criminal trial of his former subordinates on November 28, after a judge ruled that the ailing prelate was competent to act...

With the approval of the Holy See and Communist officials, Father Peter Luo Xuegang will be ordained coadjutor bishop of Yibin, a city of 4.5 million in south-central China. The priest will be...

The Catholic-Muslim Forum, a dialogue between Muslim and Catholic scholars formed in the wake of Pope Benedict’s Regensburg address, has held its second session in Jordan. Scholars and religious...

The Syrian government has ordered Father Paolo dall’Oglio, a Jesuit who has sought to build harmony between Christians and Muslims, to leave the nation. “I've been here 30 years, I have worked at...

Nohad Halawi, a Christian woman who worked at Heathrow Airport for 13 years until she was fired in July, alleges she lost her job after complaining of frequent harassment by some of her Muslim...

Archbishop John Hepworth, the onetime Catholic priest who is now primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, has asked police to investigate whether Msgr. Ian Dempsey, former chief chaplain of...

In recent years, atheism become less of a “pragmatic space of irreligiousness and indifference” and more of an active intellectual force, according to an essay published in L’Osservatore Romano....

In his book Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI takes “a methodological step forward” in Biblical scholarship, showing that exegesis can “see itself once again as a theological discipline,”...

When the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to halt funding for a program on human trafficking run by the bishops’ conference, many Catholic leaders charged that the decision was...

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has announced that a priest can sit on a civil service commission without violating a canonical ban on priests holding public office. Archbishop Gregory Aymond said...

An organization of Irish priests has questioned whether bishops have contributed to a climate of hostility toward the clergy. The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) suggested that media...

The Virgin Mary provides the model for priestly spirituality during Advent, said the prefect of the Congregation for Clergy. Cardinal Mauro Piacenza recalled how the Blessed Mother “received the...

The head of the Society of St. Pius X has confirmed that the traditionalist group will not accept the “Doctrinal Preamble” offered by the Vatican, and will seek modifications in the...

Journalists in the Netherlands are reporting that Catholic Church officials acknowledged problems with child abuse in documents dating from as early as 1954. The documents that have been...

The speaker of Australia’s House of Representatives may be forced to choose between his political career and the Catholic priesthood. In addition to his parliamentary duties, Peter Slipper is an...

Amid security scans and police dogs, Father Peter Luo Xuegang was ordained coadjutor bishop of Yibin, a city of 4.5 million in south-central China, on November 30. The Diocese of Yibin has seven...

The number of seminarians in the United States has risen to 3,608--the highest number since the early 1990s--with some seminaries experiencing their highest enrollment in decades. In Minnesota,...

Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga has called upon the international community to take “urgent action” at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban. “Our climate is changing,” said...

In early 2012, the United States Forest Service will decide the fate of “Big Mountain Jesus,” a statue erected by the Knights of Columbus over 50 years ago in honor of soldiers killed in World War...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has donated over $7 million to the Church in Latin America and $2.3 million to the Church in Africa in 2011, including recent grants of over $2.7...

Law Students for Reproductive Justice, a Fordham University student organization, has organized an off-campus birth control clinic because “our Catholic university prohibits the actual prescription...

Father Alfonso Asencios Zuluoga, a Vincentian missionary in remote northeastern Peru, has been missing since November 23. The priest was last seen walking on a rural jungle road after a landslide...

The District of Colombia has dismissed a sex-discrimination case against the Catholic University of America (CUA), brought by an activist who objected to the school’s return to single-sex...

More than 1 million people flocked to Moscow’s Russian Orthodox cathedral—causing massive traffic snarls in the Russian capital—to venerate a reputed relic of the Virgin Mary. The “Belt of the...

The Irish government will create a blue-ribbon committee to review the country’s laws regarding abortion, in response to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights questioning Ireland’s ban on...

Pope Benedict XVI began a new series of weekly meditations, on the prayer life of Jesus Christ, at his regular Wednesday audience of November 30. The Pope recently completed a series of talks on...

Pope Benedict XVI encouraged efforts to eliminate the death penalty during his regular weekly public audience on November 30. At the conclusion of his prepared remarks, the Pope recognized some...

In a message of greeting to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Pope Benedict XVI said that Catholics and Orthodox must work together to bear witness to the Gospel in increasingly...

Ireland is the first nation to announce that it is closing its embassy at the Vatican, but may not be the last, observes John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter. Recognized for centuries as...

Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, has reached an out-of-court settlement to resolve a lawsuit brought by a sex-abuse victim. Brendan Boland, who was molested by Father Brendan...

During his trip to Benin earlier this month, Pope Benedict XVI issued a challenge to Africans to take control of their own future. “They have the strength to do it,” a prominent African prelate told...

The Catholic bishops of Colombia have issued a statement condemning the execution of 4 people who had been held for over a decade by the country’s leading rebel group. The four hostages, who had...

Vatican officials are amused, rather than concerned, by a German lawyer’s complaint about the failure of Pope Benedict to wear a seatbelt while riding in his Popemobile. “It continues continues...

The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano has reprinted an essay on marriage and divorce, written by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1998, in response to public statements by the president of the...

An independent audit of the handling of sex-abuse complaints in six Irish dioceses has found that Church officials regularly overlooked the rights of victims in order to protect priests. But the...