Catholic World News

An estimated 5,000 survivors, many with ribbons over their mouths, gathered in the Kandhamal district of the eastern Indian state of Orissa on August 30 to commemorate the fourth anniversary of...

Catholic Relief Services has announced that it is revising one of its documents on HIV prevention. “CRS does not purchase, promote or distribute condoms, nor do we provide funding to other...

Six US senators have signed a letter calling for the release of Rimsha Masih, a Christian girl imprisoned in Pakistan on blasphemy charges. “As you know, last week a young, mentally-disabled...

The director of the Holy See Press Office has devoted his weekly editorial to Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, who died on August 31 at the age of 85. “Cardinal Martini’s formation and personality...

The Franciscan missionary who supervised the first translation of the entire Bible into Chinese will be beatified on September 29 in his native Sicily. Born in 1907, Father Gabriele Maria...

Father Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, who was appointed Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue on June 30, reflected on his work in a brief interview with L’Osservatore Romano....

Writing for L’Osservatore Romano, an official of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace emphasized the importance of a World Water Week conference that took place in Stockholm from August...

Pope Benedict XVI cautioned against using religion as “a façade, a covering” for worldly pursuits, during his Angelus audience on Sunday, September 2. God’s law liberates man, the Pope told the...

The annual meeting of the Ratzinger Schülerkreis--the seminar bringing together former theology students of Pope Benedict XVI—ended on September 2 with a Mass celebrated by the Pontiff at the...

Christian leaders in Australia have expressed severe misgivings about legislation that will allow for indefinite detention of refugees seeking asylum. A statement issued jointly by Catholic,...

A Syrian rebel group has issued a pledge to protect Christians and honor religious freedom for all minority groups. The Free Syrian Army (ESL) issued a statement from Aleppo promising that it...

In Pakistan, a controversial legal case has taken a spectacular turn, as an Islamic leader has been arrested for allegedly planting evidence of blasphemy on a mentally disabled Christian...

The Italian journalist at the center of the “Vatileaks” scandal has declined to identify any of his sources, aside from Paolo Gabriele. But he said that no cardinal furnished him with confidential...

In a statement for the Labor Day holiday, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has expressed dismay that poverty has not been a major issue in 2012 political campaigns. The statement,...

In a final interview shortly before his death, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini called for a “radical transformation” of the Church, arguing that Catholicism today is “200 years out of date.” “Our...

The retired Archbishop of Westminster says that he is happy he declined an appointment to the British House of Lords. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor disclosed in a lengthy interview that he...

Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt has been asked to speak to a Vatican conference on religious liberty. The flamboyant Jamaican athlete, "the world's fastest human," was asked to join other...

Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver has decried a decision by the Denver City Council to back away from an honor for a local business, after the firm challenged the HHS contraceptive mandate. In...

The Washington Post profiles longtime USCCB staffer John Carr, who has resigned after helping to shape the US bishops' statements on political issues for more than 25 years. Carr, whose...

George Weigel suggests that the debates of the 2012 political campaign reflects the contrasting visions of the political theorists Thomas Hobbes and Edmund Burke. Liberal Democrats, Weigel...

In a message to mourners at Cardinal Carlo Martini’s funeral, Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute to the prelate as “a man of God, who not only studied the Bible, but loved it intensely, he made it the...

Declaring that “a person not only has the right to freedom of conscience, the right to profess one's faith, the right to change faith, but also has the right to keep secret one's beliefs,” the high...

In August, the Kingdom of Bahrain announced that the bishop who ministers to over two million Catholics in the region would be moving his apostolic vicariate’s headquarters to the Arabian island...

Pope Benedict XVI has sent a message to Maria Voce, president of the Focolare movement, on the occasion of Genfest, an ecumenical youth gathering that took place in Budapest from August 31 to...

In a Vatican Radio editorial on the European financial crisis, programming director Father Andrej Koprowski has evoked the image of the Tower of Babel. “The Bible describes how the Tower of Babel...

The secretary of the Mali’s episcopal conference warns of recent Islamist terrorist gains in the West African nation. The strategic city of Douentza, says Father Edmond Dembele, has fallen to the...

A strike by lawyers in Pakistan has added further complications to the legal case of Rimsha Masih, the mentally impaired Christian girl who has been jailed since August 16 on blasphemy charges....

"For Syria, reconciliation is the only anchor of salvation,” said Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregory III Laham, in an open letter calling for an international campaign to end the current civil...

Father Benedict Groeschel is leaving the EWTN television show for which he has been host, in the wake of controversy roused by his remarks in an interview on sexual abuse. Father Groeschel came...

Paolo Gabriele, who had been quoted as saying that he acted alone in stealing papal correspondence, told an Italian television audience that he had at least 20 allies in the campaign of leaking...

The leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon has announced that he welcomes a visit by Pope Benedict XVI. Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah told a television audience that members of the Islamic militant group hope...

Catholic leaders in the Holy Land have condemned an attack by vandals on a monastery outside Jerusalem, and protested that a “teaching of contempt” is encouraging hatred for Christians in...

Anne Hendershoot observes in Catholic World Report that John Carr, the outgoing USCCB staff member, has recently been at odds with his former allies on the liberal wing of the Democratic...

The Democratic Party platform for 2012 “strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade, endorses legal recognition of same-sex marriage, and regards the promotion of “gay rights” as an American...

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has announced plans to close 103 parishes--more than half the parishes in the archdioceses--by 2020. Archdiocesan officials said that the reconfiguration is required...

The Archdiocese of Kirkuk, Iraq, has opened a new primary school to serve Muslim as well as Christian students. As he celebrated the opening of the new school, located near his cathedral,...

A prominent Anglican prelate has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to protect Christians from militant secularists. Anglican Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali said that secularists have...

The Democratic Party may regret inviting Cardinal Timothy Dolan to lead the closing prayer at the Charlotte convention, Princeton’s Robert George writes in the Wall Street Journal. Democratic...

A Christian leader whose preaching led to the conversion of 300 in a central Laotian village has been arrested. The arrest took place in Bolikhamsai Province. Local officials in the Communist...

The Diocese of Charlotte has posted two large banners outside the downtown parish closest to the site of the Democratic National Convention. A 6-by-27-foot banner reads, “A Message from the...

In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, the head of the Syrian Catholic Church—an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See—said that the right to religious freedom “only...

The bishops of the State of Washington have issued a statement urging Catholics to uphold the definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman during the upcoming marriage referendum. At...

The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), an apostolate dedicated to the evangelization of college students, has expanded to 16 new colleges this fall, including Harvard...

Speaking to the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE), Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin said that the European financial crisis points to the failure of the Church to inculcate its...

At his weekly public audience on September 5, Pope Benedict XVI told the faithful that “prayer is, above all, a listening to God, Who speaks.” “Engulfed as we are by so many words, we are little...

“Never let the dark mentality of relativism and nihilism, which affects various parts of your world, open a breach in your lives,” Pope Benedict XVI implored the Christians of Africa, in a message...

Most of Africa’s children are born, live, and die without ever being registered as citizens, according to a study performed for UNICEF. Because parents lack the resources to register the births...

After three days of violence in Belfast, political leaders in Northern Ireland have held meetings with representatives of the contending factions, and said that they hope for a restoration of...

The criminal trial of Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Missouri, which was scheduled to open on September 24, has been moved up to Thursday, September 6, and will involve a decision by a judge...

The head of a dissident group of Austrian priests has renewed his call for “a new model of leadership” in the Catholic Church, in an interview circulated by the Catholic News Service (CNS), an...

An Evangelical college in Illinois has appealed the decision of a federal judge to dismiss its lawsuit challenging the HHS contraceptive mandate. Wheaton College had joined a number of Catholic...

A federal judge in Massachusetts has ruled that the state government must pay for the sex-change surgery requested by a prison inmate: a convicted murderer who is serving a life sentence without the...

The Christians of Syria are in endangered by escalating violence there, and a victory for Islamic militants in Syria would have negative implications for Christians thoughout the Middle East. These...

Pope Benedict XVI has received an electric car, to be used around Vatican City. The white Renault Kangoo, a gift presented to the Pontiff on September 5, is one of three such vehicles the Vatican...

The sex-abuse scandal has demonstrated the need to encourage a clear sense of accountability in the Church, says the Vatican’s top prosecutor. Msgr. Charles Scicluna told Vatican Radio that the...

Two eminent Catholic writers, Father Alexander Lucie-Smith of London's Catholic Herald and David Quinn in the Irish Catholic, argue that in his final interview, published posthumously, the late...

A new movie presented at the Cannes and Berlin film festivals, produced by an Egyptian-born French director, examines the remarkable phenomenon of “Our Lady of Zeitoun”—the reported Marian...

A new report on the handling of sex-abuse policies by Irish Church officials has sparked a new round of criticism of the Irish hierarchy. And an apology issued by one Irish bishop, who said that he...

Hours after telling a reporter that she does not know whether abortion should be illegal, the executive director of the social justice lobby Network addressed the Democratic National Convention and...

Two months after a German court banned infant circumcision, Berlin, one of the nation’s 16 states, has declared circumcision legal under certain circumstances. According to the decision,...

Solidarity, the Polish trade union whose protests three decades ago helped lead to the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, has distanced itself from a Republican National Committee...

Two priests who knew Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, the foundress of the Missionaries of the Charity, reflected on her spirituality and example in separate interviews with Vatican Radio. Father...

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, has traveled to the Marian shrine of Montevergine to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the veneration of an image of the Black Madonna...

With the encouragement of Bishop Thomas Tobin and the assistance of the Legion of Mary, six Rhode Island parishes have undertaken door-to-door evangelization efforts since 2010. “In total, these...

As Pope Benedict XVI prepares for his September 14-16 visit to Lebanon, the Vatican has released some official statistics on the Church in that country. Just over half (54%) of Lebanon’s people...

Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev has praised Vatican contributions to inter-faith dialogue, during a meeting of the annual Congress of Leaders of the World's Traditional Confessions, held...

Nearly 300 Christian children have been taken from their families in Bangladesh under false pretenses and forcibly converted to Islam, local sources have told the AsiaNews service. Impoverished...

Using unusually strong language, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires has criticized Catholic pastors who refuse to baptize children born to single mothers. The cardinal expressed his...

Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Missouri, has been found guilty of failing to report evidence of sexual abuse by a priest in his diocese. After a brief bench trial, Judge John Torrence...

Following President Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, delivered the...

Following a papal audience, Lithuania’s new ambassador to the Holy See told Vatican Radio that Pope Benedict is concerned about “the narrowing of the freedom of faith to mere freedom of...

At the root of the European financial crisis is the “lack of an anthropological and social vision focused on solidarity and subsidiarity,” the Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe stated...

Stand Up for Religious Freedom, the organization that sponsored religious-freedom rallies in March and June that attracted 125,000 people, has announced that the next round of rallies will take...

The chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops is calling upon the Pakistani government to work for the “freedom, peace, and security” of Rimsha Masih, the...

Bishop Robert Finn, found guilty of failing to report child abuse and sentenced to two years of probation, received a “disturbingly light sentence,” the Kansas City Star stated in an...

The growth of the faith in the missions is “a sign of hope for the future of the universal Church,” Pope Benedict XVI told a group of bishops from missionary territories during a September 7 meeting...

Cardinal Franc Rodé, the retired prefect of the Congregation for Religious, has agreed to a paternity test, confident that it will disprove a claim that he fathered a child in the late 1960s. The...

Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Missouri, has expressed gratitude for the quick resolution of his criminal trial, although he was found guilty on a misdemeanor charge. In a statement...

Rimsha Masih, the Pakistani Christian girl who was arrested on August 16 on blasphemy charges, has been released on bail. Just days after an announcement that the accused girl would spend another...

At the European Court of Human Rights, state attorneys for the United Kingdom argued that Christians do not have a right to wear a crucifix at work. “There is a difference between the...

Pope Benedict XVI appointed Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the 84-year-old dean of the College of Cardinals, as his legate for the dedication of the neo-Gothic Cathedral of Our Lady of Fatima in Karaganda,...

The Iranian Protestant pastor whose 2010 death sentence on charges of apostasy was not carried out following an international outcry has been released following a new trial. Youcef Nadarkhani,...

"It is a source of joy and comfort to see that this pilgrimage for peace, which was begun at Assisi in October 1986 by Blessed John Paul II, continues to bear fruit,” Pope Benedict XVI said in a...

According to the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, recent studies have linked abortion drugs to increased maternal mortality in impoverished nations—belying claims that abortion drugs are a...

Pope Benedict XVI appointed Cardinal Jozef Tomko, the 88-year-old prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, as his legate to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the...

Media critic Terry Mattingly observes that a Washington Post profile of outgoing USCCB staffer John Carr portrayed him as a political “moderate,” and proceeded to prove the point with quotations...

During a September 9 meeting with visiting bishops from Colombia, Pope Benedict XVI said that “tireless defense and promotion of the institution of the family” should be a top priority for the...

The Boston Globe, which played a key role in uncovering the sex-abuse scandal, now reports of a consequence that has often passed unnoticed: the plight of priests who have been accused of abuse,...

A wave of violence that swept across Iraq this weekend should not be attributed to Al Qaida terrorists or to ordinary criminals, said Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk. “The attacks are politically...

Pope Benedict XVI looked forward to his coming trip to Lebanon during his Angelus audience on September 9, and stressed that his voyage “comes about under the sign of peace and with reference to...

Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia, heads a large group of religious leaders who have joined in a statement urging legislators not to change the definition of marriage. “Marriage is the...

The Ten Commandments “can be understood by everyone, precisely because they translate fundamental values into concrete norms and rules,” Pope Benedict XVI said in a video message to participants in...

A California legislator has introduced a proposal that would allow for 3 people to be recognized as the parents of a single child. This was inevitable, argues Jennifer Roback Morse, once same-sex...

On September 8, Pope Benedict XVI met at Castel Gandolfo with participants in the 23rd International Mariological Congress, which is devoted to the developments in Mariology since Vatican II. In...

Crisis magazine reproduces an important essay by Father Regis Scanlon, originally published by the Homiletic and Pastoral Review, on how the prevalence of homosexuality in the priesthood has...

An English bishop has suggested that Catholics should pray in public every Friday afternoon, as a way of bearing witness to the importance of their faith. Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and...

At his Angelus audience on Sunday, September 9, Pope Benedict XVI suggested that a single word from the Gospel can be used to sum up the mission of Jesus. The Pope pointed to the word that Jesus...

A homosexual couple has filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts court against the Worcester diocese, charging that the diocese discriminated against them by rejecting their offer to buy a retreat...

Calling for an attentive reading of the texts of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy said that Catholics must reject the “hermeneutic of...

The Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Kirkuk has told Aid to the Church in Need that “everyone is speaking of democracy and freedom [in Iraq], but the reality on the ground is different.” “The rise...

St. Joseph’s University, a Philadelphia Jesuit college, has announced that it will purchase the archbishop’s residence from the archdiocese for $10 million. The archbishops of Philadelphia have...

Muslim and Christian leaders from throughout the Middle East gathered in Istanbul on September 7-8 to discuss the Arab Spring and peace in the Middle East. Among the Catholic attendees was Father...

Franciscan University of Steubenville is facing criticism from the Council on Social Work Education and some alumni for including homosexuality in a course entitled “deviant behavior.” Noting...

As the number of Catholic military chaplains continues to decline – the number has fallen from 400 a decade ago to 260 today -- Catholic World Report has interviewed four active and retired...

The Vatican has hired an expert consultant to strengthen its safeguards against money-laundering. In July an appraisal by European banking investigators, the Moneyval group, gave the Vatican...

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is seeking an injunction to stop enforcement of a new Missouri law that makes it a misdemeanor to disrupt services at a house of worship. The ACLU argues...

The Catholic bishops of Nigeria have condemned the terrorist acts of Boko Haram, and warned that the group is seeking to split the nation. The bishops’ statement read: The patience of...

Muslim leaders of both the Sunni and Shi’ite sects in Lebanon say that they will welcome Pope Benedict XVI when he arrives in that country on September 14. Lebanon’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Rashid...

More than 85 people from 31 different African countries have gathered in Dar-es-Salaam for a conference on pastoral care of street children. The conference, co-sponsored by the Tanzanian...

At his installation as head of the Glasgow archdiocese, Archbishop Philip Tartaglia said that “the proposal the Church makes to the world today is not an idea, or a plan or a policy, but a...

Chen Guangcheng, the Chinese pro-life activist, has urged executives at the Apple computer company to use their influence against China’s brutal one-child population policy. Chen, whose dramatic...

In Belgium, a Poor Clare community is being criticized for accepting a request to house a notorious criminal who has been released on parole. The Poor Clares of Malonne agreed to offer a place to...

Catholic Church officials in India are protesting a “brutal and unjustified” police response to an anti-nuclear protest. Two people were killed when police opened fire to disperse protesters who...

In her first public interview since her release on bail, a 14-year-old Pakistani Christian girl accused of blasphemy insisted she did not burn the Qur’an. “I’m scared,” Rimsha Masih, who is in...

The Courtyard of the Gentiles, a Vatican effort to promote dialogue with nonbelievers, will host two days of talks in Sweden on science and faith. The principal organizers of the September 13-14...

Speaking in Germany, Father Firas Aridah, a parish priest in a Palestinian village, lamented the effects of Israeli settlements in the area. The priest’s talk was posted on the website of the...

Speaking at the Newseum in Washington on September 10, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York made the case that “freedom of religion has been the driving force of almost every enlightened,...

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia discussed capital punishment in his most recent weekly column. “Both Scripture and Catholic tradition support the legitimacy of the death penalty under...

Amid nationwide closures of Catholic schools, “a number of schools, private and even diocesan … are finding growth and enthusiasm in the rediscovery of a rigorous, classical liberal arts...

Pope Benedict XVI told his weekly public audience on September 12 that “as Christians we can never be pessimists.” The Holy Father devoted his Wednesday audience to a discussion of the second...

“I exhort all Christians of the Middle East--both those born there and the newly arrived--to be builders of peace and architects of reconciliation,” Pope Benedict XVI said at his weekly public...

Responding to mob violence against US embassies in Libya and Egypt, which led to the deaths of four American diplomats, the director of the Vatican press office released a statement condemning...

Speaking to a conference in Istanbul on the “Arab Awakening,” the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue offered a summary of the Vatican’s perspective on the current...

The apostolic administrator of Somalia’s only Catholic diocese has welcomed the election of a new president for the troubled African country. The new parliament’s selection of Hassan Sheikh...

An English diocese has cancelled a lecture by a theologian who has taken a public stand in favor of legal recognition of same-sex marriage. The Diocese of Clifton announced that a scheduled...

An editorial in the Boston Globe chastises the Diocese of Worcester for rejecting a bid by a homosexual couple to buy a retreat house offered for sale by the diocese. The Globe affirms what a...

John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter remarks that Rene Bruelhart, the Vatican's newly appointed banking consultant, brings a unique and impressive set of credentials to his task of...

A group of Polish Catholic priests has come together to produce a monthly magazine devoted to the topic of exorcism. Egzorcysta magazine responds to a need arising from a sharp increase in...

In Catholic World Report, Michael Miller offers a balanced portrait of Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, whose appointment as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has provoked...

In a message to an African conference on pastoral care for street children, Pope Benedict XVI remarked that care for “the poorest and most neglected” is at the heart of the Church’s mission. In...

Addressing the topic of international religious freedom during a symposium at Catholic University of America, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York offered brief comments on the killing of the US...

A priest of the Diocese of Joliet who allegedly abused a teenage boy in the 1970s is being returned to limited ministry, according to local press accounts. Father F. Lee Ryan, who is accused of...

Hobby Lobby—a private chain of over 500 arts-and-crafts stores with 13,600 employees in 41 states—has become the largest company to file suit against the HHS mandate. The company’s owner, David...

Addressing a symposium on international religious freedom, a Georgetown University scholar and former US diplomat decried the “toxic attitude that anyone offending Islam must be...

“Even before the deaths of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Libya on Tuesday, Pope Benedict XVI’s Sept. 14-16 trip to Lebanon shaped up as a high wire act,” John Allen...

The director of the Holy See Press Office has issued a new statement firmly condemning the violent attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya. In an earlier statement, Father Federico Lombardi...

A Pakistani court has adjourned the blasphemy trial of Rimsha Masih after a brief hearing, explaining that the investigation of her case is not complete. AsiaNews, citing local experts, reports...

A spokesman for Catholic Church leaders in Egypt argues that Pope Benedict XVI must go forward with his visit to Lebanon, despite the rising tensions in the Middle East, because the Pontiff’s trip...

The head of Lebanon’s Maronite Catholic Church is hoping for a “Christian Spring” in the Middle East as a result of the Pope’s visit to his country. Patriarch Beshara Rai told Vatican Radio that...

The controversial Bishop Richard Williamson may soon be dismissed from the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), according to a leading Vatican journalist. Citing a report on the German internet site...

A new proposed European policy on scientific research lacks necessary ethical safeguards, the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) has warned. The “Horizon...

Egypt’s Coptic Church will choose a new leader in December, a spokesman for the Orthodox body has announced. The Coptic Church has been without a top official since Pope Shenouda III, who had...

In a briefing released in advance of the Pope’s trip to Lebanon, the Vatican has provided a brief backgrounder, emphasizing the complexities of the country’s history and its current Catholic...

Emmanuel Milingo, the Zambian prelate who was excommunicated in 2006 and laicized in 2009, has surfaced to mourn the death of Sun Myung Moon, the self-proclaimed Korean messiah. Milingo—who was...

Cardinal Dominik Duka of Prague is pressing the government of the Czech Republic for a final decision on proposals to compensate the Church for the properties that were confiscated by the country’s...

Protesting against media bias in coverage of the abortion issue, pro-life leaders in Ireland have stressed that abortion is never a procedure required to save a pregnant woman’s life. Irish...

Speaking in Canberra at an international conference on women’s health, Cardinal George Pell of Sydney reminded doctors that the Catholic Church is the world’s largest provider of health-care...

Same-sex couples unions will be given full legal recognition, and civic officials will be obliged to preside at same-sex weddings, under a proposal to be introduced by the French government. The...

Pope Benedict XVI will travel to Lebanon as a “messenger of peace,” the Vatican Secretary of State said in an interview with the French daily Le Figaro. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone acknowledged...

The spokesman for the Catholic Church in Egypt has told the Fides news agency that “the Catholic Church, the Orthodox and Protestant issued a statement in Arabic” against the American-made film...

The Missouri legislature has overridden Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of SB 749, a bill that “provides protection for religious beliefs as to the imposition of certain health care services such as abortion,...

A Rhode Island judge has ruled that the niece of Gabrielle Mee does not have legal standing to challenge her late aunt’s will, which left $60 million to the Legion of Christ. The niece, who...

The Diocese of Joliet has issued a statement on Father F. Lee Ryan, a priest permitted to resume limited ministry despite a serious abuse allegation. In 2010, the priest was “placed on...

Pro-life advocates have joined a leading homeschooling organization in urging the Senate not to ratify the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). President...

Following a spate of negative publicity, China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission has reportedly called for an end to forced late-term abortion in the Communist nation—a...

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Auxiliary Bishop James Conley of Denver as the new bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, succeeding Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, who is retiring at the age of 77 after two...

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Beirut on Friday afternoon, September 14, for a 3-day visit during which he will release an apostolic exhortation on the Church in the Middle East, and encourage...

Pope Benedict XVI revealed that he had never considered postponing his trip to Lebanon, and decried the importation of weapons to Syria as a “grave sin,” during an informal exchange with reporters...

The patriarchs of four Eastern churches, Catholic and Orthodox, have joined in an appeal for Christians not to leave Syria during the current crisis. "With all my heart we ask the Christians of...

During a press conference in Beirut on the morning before the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI, the country’s Maronite Catholic leader said that an American-made movie mocking Islam “offends...

The visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Lebanon is bringing a “sense of optimism” to the entire Middle East region, an Iraqi prelate told the AsiaNews service. Archbishop Jean Benjamin Sleiman of...

Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin, the Shanghai auxiliary who has been under effective house arrest since he defied Chinese authorities during his ordination ceremony, has expressed his continuing love for...

Public officials in Europe are calling for taxation of properties owned by the Catholic Church, as a means to help balance strained budgets. In Spain, a campaign to impose taxes on church-owned...

Speaking at Georgetown University to a conference on religious liberty, Cardinal Donald Wuerl said that the commitment to religious freedom has been an intrinsic element of American...

An exhaustive scientific study has shown that abortion is more dangerous for mothers than childbirth—contradicting a claim that is often advanced by advocates of legal abortion. Studying the...

The New York archdiocese is looking into the possibility of selling “air rights” above church-owned properties, including St. Patrick’s cathedral. New city zoning regulations would allow property...

William Oddie of the Catholic Herald reports that there is widespread evidence that DNR (“do not resuscitate”) orders are being imposed on elderly or disabled patients at health-care facilities,...

Philadelphia's Archbishop Charles Chaput speaks with unusual candor on a wide variety of topics--the challenges facing the Church in Philadelphia, the sex-abuse scandal, the tight archdiocesan...

During a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI on September 14 in Beirut, Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregory III Laham said that “recognition of a Palestinian state is the most previous good that the Arab...

Kenyan police have announced that they have foiled a suicide-bombing plot against churches in Nairobi, the nation’s capital. “These suspects wanted to use these arms to harm innocent Kenyans...

Asked by a reporter for his “take” on “this big schism between the social justice Catholics and the pro-life Catholics,” vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan distinguished “non-negotiable issues”...

An English archbishop has commissioned 22 lay ministers to lead funerals in his archdiocese. “In some of our parishes in the diocese, priests are being asked to celebrate over 120 funerals each...

Ahmed Abdullah, a Muslim cleric also known as Abu Islam, desecrated a Bible during a 9/11 protest outside the United States embassy in Cairo, according to a report from the Assyrian International...

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and comedian Stephen Colbert engaged in an evening of banter before a crowd of 3,000 at Fordham University on September 14. “The real reason I remain a Catholic...

On Sunday, September 16, as he concluded a 3-day trip to Lebanon, Pope Benedict XVI remarked that his visit had provided an example of inter-faith unity at a time of extreme tensions in the Middle...

In a September 15 address, Pope Benedict XVI explained why a commitment to religious freedom is a requirement for stability in the Middle East. Speaking to an audience that included Lebanon’s...

In Lebanon, a weekend visit by Pope Benedict XVI brought a lull in the contentious debate among rival political and religious groups. But the rhetorical truce broke down on the day after the Pope...

A Catholic cathedral was desecrated in Niger, and several Christian leaders were taken into “protective custody” by police, as angry Muslims rallied against the film, “Innocence of...

The trial of “Vatileaks” suspects Paolo Gabriele and Glaudio Sciarpelletti will begin September 29, the Vatican has announced. Gabriele, the former valet to Pope Benedict XVI, has been charged...

The Vatican’s representative at UN offices in Geneva has made a new plea for peace in Syria, arguing especially that innocent people and especially children should be saved from the consequences of...

In Sweden, many people have drifted away from faith but “feel perfectly comfortable with it and are not necessarily hostile toward religion,” the country’s ambassador to the Holy See told Vatican...

In greetings to the people of Israel for the Jewish New Year, the Catholic bishops of the Holy Land have promised redoubled efforts to promote a lasting peace in the region. The Catholic bishops,...

A militant Islamic group denounced Pope Benedict XVI during his 3-day visit to Lebanon, accusing the Pontiff of “sedition” and demanding an apology for his 2006 speech in Regensburg. The...

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has rejected a proposal for a constitutional amendment to protect the civil rights of homosexuals. AKP lawmakers defeated the proposal,...

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has suggested that the country's Catholics should recover a sense of active membership in communities. Speaking to a Catholic audience in Verona on September...

Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia, has praised his Anglican counterpart, Archbishop Peter Jensen, for his defense of traditional marriage. As Australian lawmakers consider measures that...

Warning that the legalization of same-sex marriage would manifest a “breakdown in society,” Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon predicted that polygamy and incest could eventually be...

The secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has paid tribute to the Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuán a decade after his death. Born in 1928, Cardinal Van Thuán was...

Jonathan Reyes, director of social ministry for the Archdiocese of Denver and president and CEO of the archdiocese’s Catholic Charities and Community Services, has been named executive director of...

The Diocese of Nashville and seven area Catholic institutions have filed suit against the Department of Health and Human Services in an effort to prevent the implementation of the HHS...

A New York Times op-ed has compared contemporary concerns about Islam to anti-Catholic sentiments of earlier generations. “The view that members of a religious minority are not to be trusted —...

An Ohio parish is distributing hundreds of crosses for display in yards to protest a threatened lawsuit that may lead to the removal of Franciscan University of Steubenville’s chapel from the City...

The Vatican has not yet received a formal response from the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) to a proposal for reconciliation that the Holy See made in June, according to reporter Andrea Tornielli of La...

Just days after announcing that a priest would be allowed to return to active ministry despite accusations of sexual abuse, the Bishop of Joliet, Illinois, has reversed himself and removed the...

Pope Benedict XVI has named 36 prelates to participate in the 13th general assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which will meet in Rome in October to discuss the “new evangelization.” The prelates...

After accompanying Pope Benedict XVI on his weekend trip to Lebanon, the prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches told L’Osservatore Romano that he had seen “the image of a flock never...

Catholics in China’s Hubei province are protesting that a church in Xiantao was deliberately torched, and local authorities have been slow to react to the crime. The church, which had been...

Vatican Radio features an interview with Rene Bruelhart, the banking consultant who has been employed by the Vatican to beef up security against money-laundering. The Swiss lawyer, who came to...

Doctors in Sweden have reported success in regenerating tissue to repair a man's damaged windpipe, using the patient's own tissues. The procedure marks another success in the medical use of stem...

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas spoke of his personal background and his Catholic faith in a recent public appearance, and revealed that during his youth he had planned to become a...

“To reduce the tensions within the Church” is “my underlying aim,” the new prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has told Vatican Radio. “In many countries, there is a strong...

Writing in L’Osservatore Romano, the president of the Pontifical Council said that “the Church looks with great hope to the ecclesial movements and the new communities” in the upcoming Year of...

A Jersey Shore home for elderly and vacationing priests, owned by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia since 1963, has been auctioned for $4.125 million. The proceeds from the auction of the...

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has issued a statement on Motion 312, a bill that would create a commission to reexamine the law that states that “a child becomes a human being...

Responding to a requesting from Muslim students, a Catholic high school in London, Ontario, has converted an office into a Muslim prayer room. Muslims are “members of our school community,” said...

A terminally ill Belgian prisoner has been killed by euthanasia at his request, according to press reports. It is the first instance of prisoner euthanasia in the nation since euthanasia was...

Italy’s foreign minister, Guilio Terzi, said that a visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Lebanon “imparted courage to the tolerant elements of the region,” and added that Syria should follow the “Lebanon...

The city of Milan, Italy opened a “civil union” registry on September 18, allowing the first formal recognition for same-sex unions. The first couple to enter their names in the registry were...

Italy’s government has conferred official recognition for the first time upon Orthodox, Pentecostal, and Mormon churches, responding to a lobbying effort than began in the 1990s. There are an...

George Saba, a leader of Syria’s opposition forces, will visit the Vatican this weekend, the Adkronos news agency has reported. Saba, a member of the Syrian National Council, will participate in...

At his regular weekly audience on September 19, Pope Benedict XVI said that his weekend visit to Lebanon was a trip that “I was very keen to make despite the difficult circumstances, because a...

Pope Benedict XVI called for new efforts to evangelize the indigenous peoples of the world, as well as to protect the dignity of their cultures, in a message marking the 100th anniversary of the...

Catholics and Mormons should stand “shoulder to shoulder as witnesses of Jesus Christ,” Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City told an audience of Mormon students. Speaking at Utah Valley...

The blood of St. Januarius liquefied on September 19, his feast day, in the repetition of a familiar miracle in Naples. St. Januarius, who was martyred during the persecutions of Diocletian, is...

In his regular weekly syndicated column, George Weigel predicts that if the contraceptive mandate survives judicial and political challenges, Catholic bishops will reluctantly close down...

A controversial statue of Blessed John Paul I, which drew an intense negative reaction when it was placed outside Rome’s Termini train station last year, has been remodeled. Sculptor Oliviero...

Some Syrian Christians in Homs, Aleppo, and other cities have begun to take up arms and patrol neighborhoods in self-defense. “The situation is complicating,” said Archbishop Mario Zenari, the...

Following a unanimous vote in the Senate and a 412-3 vote in the House of Representatives, Congress has voted to extend the Special Immigrant Nonminister Religious Worker Program for three years....

A group of youths has attacked and beaten the Kenyan priest who directs Good News Radio, a Catholic radio station in the South Sudanese city of Rumbek. “The reason for the attack remains a...

Fiji’s archbishop is calling upon the Pacific island nation’s political parties to enact stronger environmental laws and to place a higher priority upon respect for the environment than upon...

L’Osservatore Romano has paid tribute to Pericle Fazzili and his monumental “Resurrection” sculpture on the 35th anniversary of its placement in the hall used for papal general audiences. “The...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Relief Services have announced that they will host an online discussion on the global hunger crisis. The September 27 discussion will...

Ian Elliott, the head of Ireland’s National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC)—the independent board created by the Catholic bishops to monitor sex-abuse issues—will...

A spokesman for Egypt’s Al Azhar University has praised Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican for their statements defending the dignity of religious faith. Mahmoud Azab of Al Azhar singled out the...

A former priest who was laicized because of sex-abuse charges has sued the Archdiocese of New York for libel, saying that he was falsely charged. Charles Kavanagh, a former archdiocesan fundraiser...

The Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land has stepped up demands for the government of Israel to take action against attacks on Christianity. Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa asked why Israel has...

Maronite Catholic Patriarch Bechara Rai has joined in calls for a UN policy against defamation of religion. The Lebanese prelate, reacting to the film “Innocence of Muslims”—which he described as...

In Slovakia, a public controversy continues to swirl around the case of Archbishop Robert Bezak, who was removed the leadership of the Trvana archdiocese in July by Pope Benedict XVI. Archbishop...

L’Osservatore Romano has decried the decision by a French satirical magazine to include a cartoon mocking Muhammed. The “questionable” editorial decision by Charlie Hebdo’s weekly magazine to...

Pope Benedict XVI exhorted bishops to foster a “stronger ecclesial commitment to new evangelization” in a September 20 address to prelates participating in a conference organized by the Congregation...

Pope Benedict XVI has sent his greetings to the Jewish community of Rome for their New Year celebrations. In a telegram to Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, the Holy Father offers best wishes to the...

The Vatican has released the schedule for an October 4 visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Loreto, Italy. The Vatican announced on June 30 that the Pontiff would travel to the shrine of Our Lady of...

The Cardinal Newman Society has released its annual “honor roll” listing the top 50 Catholic secondary schools in the US. The 50 schools, selected on the basis of overall academic excellence and...

Australian lawmakers have rejected a bid for legal recognition of same-sex marriage. After a heated debate in the lower house of the Australian parliament, the vote was a resounding 98 to 42...

"Global security must not rely on nuclear weapons," the Vatican’s top foreign-policy official said in an address to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is meeting this week in...

Angered by the YouTube video critical of Muhammad, 8,000 protestors took to the streets of the southeastern Pakistani city of Hyderabad on September 16. Some protestors threw stones at the Catholic...

The Ethics and Public Policy Center has conducted a survey on Catholic women’s attitudes towards contraception. “Critics of the Church’s teaching propose an image of Catholic women fiercely and...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has announced that a special Mass and Pilgrimage for Life and Liberty will take place at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the...

Speaking at Harvard University’s Catholic campus center, Bishop James Conley said that college students are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with relativism and encouraged his listeners to embrace...

As part of the Year of Grace initiative that began in Australian dioceses on Pentecost Sunday, the right arm of St. Francis Xavier has been transported to Australia and will be venerated by the...

Speaking on September 21 to a group of French bishops who were making their ad limina visit, Pope Benedict XVI said that the coming Year of Faith presents an opportunity to renew the focus on...

The 3rd volume of Jesus of Nazareth, by Pope Benedict XVI, will be released at Christmas time, the Vatican has announced. The Vatican has reached an agreement with an Italian publishing house,...

The German Catholic bishops have announced that any Catholic who formally withdraws from the Church, by announcing a decision not to pay the “church tax,” will not be allowed the receive the...

Restrictions on religious freedom are becoming more commonplace and more serve around the world, according to a new study by the Pew Forum. The Pew study found that 75% of the world’s people live...

The Australian Catholic bishops have urged efforts to support families, especially families in need, in their annual “Social Justice statement.” Family life is facing new pressures in the 21st...

Syria’s government has charged that a Jesuit priest who was expelled from the country in June was sympathetic toward Al Qaida terrorists. The state news agency SAN said that Father Paolo...

A pool of 8 reporters will be allowed to cover the “Vatileaks” trial of Paolo Gabriele and Claudio Sciarpelletti, the Vatican has announced. While selected journalists will be allowed to report...

The visit to Lebanon by Pope Benedict XVI marked a significant step forward for relations with the Orthodox churches, according to the president of the Pontifical Council for Christian...

A former finance officer for the New York archdiocese has pleaded guilty to embezzlement charges and faces at least a 4-year prison term. Anita Collins admitted that she took more than $1...

After a 3-day meeting in Malta, representatives of justice-and-peace commissions from the European episcopal conferences have issued a statement cautioning against an overly simple interpretation of...

The Orthodox patriarchs of the Holy Land have appealed to the European Union for help in combating a rising tide of anti-Christian violence. In a statement issued this week, four Orthodox leaders...

A spokesman for the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has said that the group declined a Vatican offer of reconciliation because of a requirement that the traditionalists must acknowledge both the...

Cardinal Fortunato Baldelli, the former head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, has died in Rome at the age of 77. The Italian prelate was a veteran of the Vatican diplomatic corps, serving as the...

In the Jesuit magazine America, Bishop Emil Wcela, an auxiliary of the Rockville Center, New York diocese, suggests that women might be ordained to hte permanent diaconate. Bishop Wcela...

Anthony Esolen writes for The Public Discourse that tolerance requires a mutual understanding: the person whose behavior is being tolerated should realize that his behavior is not being endorsed....

Three people were killed and 46 injured in a suicide bombing at the Catholic cathedral in Bauchi, a city of 500,000 in north-central Nigeria. Two policemen who had been guarding the cathedral in the...

The Albanian bishops have announced that they will excommunicate Catholics who take part in the practice of gjakmarrja: revenge killings that avenge murders or violations to a family’s honor such as...

Calling for peace in a strife-torn nation that has suffered the bloodiest conflict since World War II, a delegation from the Congolese Episcopal Conference met with the leadership of the rebel March...

Civil authorities in central Java have threatened to close a Catholic school unless it begins to offer Islamic instruction to its Muslim students. Approximately 40 of the 1,400 students enrolled in...

Pope Benedict’s apostolic journey to Lebanon was an extraordinary success, the director of the Holy See Press Office said in his weekly editorial. “Rarely has a message from the Pope during a...

Christian families in two north Sinai towns found notices attached to their homes and businesses ordering them to leave or be killed. Pledging to remain, Father Gabriel Habib said that “even if...

At his Sunday public audience on September 23, Pope Benedict XVI reminded the faithful that to follow Jesus entail adopting a new way of thinking, and abandoning earthly pride. Reflecting on the...

The people of Guinea Bissau are in urgent need of medicines and medical personnel to help combat the spread of tuberculosis and AIDS, Bishop José Camnate Na Bissign told the Fides news...

The moral commitment of a Christian politician must not be “limited to responding to the requirements of market logic,” Pope Benedict XVI told a group of Catholic political leaders at a private...

African Christians now outnumber the continent’s Muslims, according to figures from the Center for Studies of New Religions (CESNUR). Speaking at an international conference in Morocco, Massimo...

A Catholic college in Massachusetts has invited the widow of Senator Ted Kennedy to speak at a forum on faith and politics, just weeks after the local bishop barred her appearance as a commencement...

A Scottish bishop has drawn public attention—and angry criticism—with his pointed criticism of groups lobbying for legal abortion and same-sex marriage. "Why is the pro-choice lobby so desperate...

Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Enda Kenny attended a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI on September 22 along with other members of the Christian Democrats International but did not meet...

Sandro Magister of L'Espresso analyzes the list of prelates appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as members of the approaching Synod of Bishops. He concludes that the Pontiff named some bishops to...

Anglican Archbishop John Hepworth, who was ousted earlier this year from his leadership post in the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), now faces charges of financial misconduct. The new...

Jeffrey Tucker argues in a Crisis essay that parish music directors have been given too much control over the liturgy. When they try to match the music of each Sunday Mass to the Scripture readings,...

Reflecting upon Pope Benedict’s recent apostolic journey to Lebanon, the president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue said that Islamic fundamentalism is “an enemy not only of...

Angered by the release of a video critical of Muhammad, a mob ransacked and burned down a Lutheran church and other church property in Mardan, a city in northern Pakistan. President Asif Ali...

President Barack Obama holds a 54%-39% advantage over Mitt Romney among Catholics, according to the latest voter survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Among...

Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, who also serves as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Portland in Maine, has emphasized the Maine diocese’s strong opposition to same-sex...

An official who works for the Vatican's Office of Latin Letters has observed a revival of interest in Latin in the Church, particularly among the younger clergy. “Young people are experiencing a...

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops is suggesting ten ways in which Catholics may observe the Year of Faith, which will commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican...

An armed band is holding 280 Christians as hostages in the Syrian town of Rableh, near the Lebanese border. The gunmen seized 150 people on Monday, September 24, and another 130 on Tuesday. The...

A "World Youth Day veteran" who has helped coordinate volunteer workers for previous gatherings spoke with Vatican Radio about the preparations for the next worldwide observance, to be held in Rio...

Troubled by polls that show President Obama leading among Catholic voters—and only narrowly trailing among the most active Catholics—Hadley Arkes writes that it is “breathtaking and unbelievable.”...

A Coptic Christian has been arrested in Egypt and charged with blasphemy for allegedly uploading portions of the film “Innocence of Muslims.” Alber Saber was accused by neighbors of using video...

At least 35 people were killed, and another 60 arrested, as Nigerian troops rounded up suspected members of the Boko Haram terrorist group on September 25. A military unit swept through the town...

The influential Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana has blasted public officials in Lazio, the administrative region around Rome, for financial mismanagement. After officials announced an...

The Pontifical Council for Social Communications is producing a film on Vatican II, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Council. The movie, which will debut in October, uses film and still...

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano will be among the speakers to address a “Courtyard of the Gentiles” conference to be held in Assisi, under the sponsorship of the Pontifical Council for Culture,...

Meeting at the Maronite Catholic Church’s headquarters to reflect on Pope Benedict’s recent apostolic journey, Lebanon’s Christian and Muslim leaders joined in denouncing the YouTube video critical...

At a conference at the Iraq’s Vatican embassy, Middle Eastern prelates urged the West not to engage in military intervention in the region. Residents of the Middle East are not “ignorant (people)...

Earlier this year, Cecilia Giménez, 80, was asked to restore Elías García Martínez’s Ecce Homo in a northeastern Spanish parish. Giménez’s botched attempt at restoration has made the church a...

In an interview with Catholic World Report, Joan Sheen Cunningham recalls her uncle, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, whom Pope Benedict declared venerable in June. “When I was age 10, [my father] sent...

The spread of evangelicalism in Brazil has helped make “evangelical fashion … a growing segment of the country's $52 billion-a-year textile industry,” according to the Associated Press. “It used...

Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the liturgy at his weekly public audience on September 26, continuing his series of talks on the “school of prayer.” Citing the words of Vatican II, the Pope...

Italy’s education minister has called for changes in the the nation’s schools, to accommodate the increasing number of students from other cultures. "There are students in our schools who come...

Vatican diplomacy works “discreetly but constantly,” in “a ceaseless quest for just and human ways,” Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said in a September 25 address. The Vatican Secretary of State—who...

An Illinois appeals court has affirmed the right of pharmacists not to sell abortifacient drugs. The appeals court decision confirmed the ruling of a lower court, which had said that the state...

Catholics in India are organizing protests against a film that mocks priests. Scenes from Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal in which a priest dances with a garland of lottery tickets and a rosary mark a...

The Canadian Catholic bishops’ conference has called a halt to a public campaign by the international-aid arm of their episcopal conference, saying that the campaign was too partisan. The bishops...

An Anglican prelate who is considered one of the leading candidates to become the next Archbishop of Canterbury has disclosed that he is praying he will not be selected. Bishop Graham James of...

Police in the Philippines plan to question a suspended Catholic priest about his possible involvement in an ivory-smuggling operation. Msgr. Cristobal Garcia came under suspicion when his...

The Vatican has confirmed the decision by Bishop Edward Braxton of Belleville, Illinois, to remove a priest from active ministry because he refused to follow the Church’s liturgical...

Speaking at a UN conference on international law, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States said that the rule of law must ultimately be based on a common understanding of natural...

The president of the German episcopal conference has defended the bishops’ controversial new policy barring Catholics from the sacraments if they have formally withdrawn from the Church. "There...

In its 2012 statement for Respect Life Month, written by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) lamented the effects of the 1973...

Citing grave human rights violations, the Central African Bishops Conference (ACEAC) has condemned the violence in the eastern portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo associated with the...

In a 50-49 vote, Uruguay’s legislature has voted to legalize abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy. President José Mujica, an atheist and former guerrilla leader who was elected in 2010,...

Fifty public high schools in New York City are now distributing morning-after pills to students. The school system has already been dispensing birth control pills and condoms. The morning-after...

The Augustinus Institute of the Diocese of Würzburg, Germany, has sponsored a concert in honor of Pope Benedict featuring an oratorio on St. Augustine. Wilfried Hiller of Monaco composed the music,...

L’Osservatore Romano has published a special insert devoted to the women doctors of the Church. Pope Paul VI declared St. Teresa of Avila and St. Catherine of Siena doctors of the Church in 1970,...

Speaking at Australian Catholic University in Sydney, a Melbourne ethics professor recently challenged Sydney Cardinal George Pell’s views on climate change. “Cardinal George Pell has become a...

The Pontifical Council for Culture has announced that it will host an evening event dedicated to the poet Dante as part of the Year of Faith and Synod of Bishops. The event, which includes...

Three years after the restoration of a Russian Orthodox church in Beijing, Catholic World Report’s Anthony Clark has visited the church and discussed the legacy of Eastern Orthodox martyrs in...

The New York Times has published a profile of Dr. Joseph Dutkowsky, a Catholic orthopedic surgeon who treats disabled children. “This is my ministry,” said Dr. Dutkowsky, who has served as...

In an audience with participants in the 32nd World Congress of Sports Medicine, Pope Benedict said that each athlete is “possessed of a moral and spiritual capacity which ought to be enriched and...

The Holy See has announced that it will adhere to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons, including Diplomatic Agents, a treaty was...

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on...

Cardinal William Levada, until recently the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, delivered a 13-page keynote address at a Catholic University of America symposium on the Second...

Strongly criticizing provisions of the Democratic Party platform, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield (Illinois) warned that “a vote for a candidate who promotes actions or behaviors that are...

In an interview commemorating World Maritime Day, a staff member of the Apostleship of the Sea in Great Britain recounted the heroism of Father Thomas Byles, who walked along the decks of the...

On Thursday evening, September 27, the Diocese of Wurzberg, Germany, organized a concert at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, in connection with an international symposium on the...

A French historian and an American theologian have been named the recipients of this year’s Ratzinger Prizes for academic excellence. Historian Remi Brague, a professor at the Sorbonne, was...

A lawsuit brought by a former employee charges that the New York Organ Donor Network has pressured hospitals to declare patients “brain dead” in order to provide organs for transplants. Patrick...