Most Popular News Within Last 30 Days
Nigerian priest found guilty of abusing adult women in Texas
A priest of the Diocese of Uyo, Nigeria, who ministered in the United States was convicted in a Texas courtroom of three counts of sexual assault of adult women.Father Anthony Odiong, who was arrested in Florida in 2024 for child pornography, also “fathered at least one child with another woman in Louisiana who had been under his spiritual direction,” according to the prosecution’s DNA evidence.
The case “highlights the Catholic Church’s ongoing challenges in addressing clergy sexual predation of adults in situations where they are vulnerable, particularly in relationships of pastoral care or spiritual guidance, while states such as Texas and Georgia have passed laws to criminalize such acts,” noted Gina Christian of OSV News.
‘Queer voices were strong’ at Katholikentag, group says
New Ways Ministry, which dissents from Catholic teaching on homosexuality, said that “queer voices emerged loud and proud in both their worship and their calls for reform” during Katholikentag (Catholic Day), the biennial German Catholic gathering first held in 1848.During the gathering, which took place in Würzburg from May 13 to 17, “more than 200 people attended a queer worship service,” according to New Ways Ministry. Held inside the Order of Saint Augustine’s church, the service was “prepared by the initiative #OutInChurch, the Augustinian Monastery in Würzburg, the Federation of German Catholic Youth (BDKJ), the Network of Catholic Lesbians, the Ecumenical Working Group on Homosexuality and the Church (HuK), and ‘Queer and Christian in the Diocese of Würzburg.’”
New Ways Ministry was the subject of a notification by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1999) and a statement by the US bishops (2011). Pope Francis, however, praised Sister Jeannine Gramick, co-founder of New Ways Ministry, in a handwritten letter, and subsequently met with Sister Gramick and other leaders of the group.
Leading Italian prelate deplores gruesome murder of migrants
The vice president of the Italian Episcopal Conference deplored the gruesome murder of four migrants from Afghanistan and Pakistan who were working in slave-like conditions in Amendolara, a small...Abducted Nigerian parishioners freed after 3 months in captivity
The chancellor of the Diocese of Kafanchan, Nigeria, announced that all parishioners abducted on February 9 from Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Karku have been released.Father Nathaniel Asuwaye, the parish priest, was released earlier this month.
Cardinal Müller, former CDF prefect, blasts Synod report on doctrinal issues
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the prefect of the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 to 2017, blasted the newly published Synod report on doctrinal issues, which...Christians attacked in India during prayer service
Christians in a remote village in the predominantly Hindu Indian state of Chhattisgarh (map) were assaulted on May 31 during a prayer service.Catholic Connect, a website of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India, reported that “between 25 and 30 people were physically assaulted. At least five individuals suffered serious injuries.”
Ho Chi Minh Cultural Space established inside Vietnamese cathedral
A Ho Chi Minh Cultural Space was inaugurated inside Phú Cường Cathedral on May 8, sparking controversy among Vietnam’s Catholics.Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969) was the founder of the Indochina Communist Party and the president of North Vietnam. The cathedral is located in the former South Vietnam, conquered by North Vietnam in 1975. Venerable Nguyễn Văn Thuận (1928-2002), the coadjutor archbishop of South Vietnam’s capital, was then imprisoned by the Communist regime for 13 years.
At Phú Cường Cathedral, “Father Anton Hà Văn Minh said that the teachings of Jesus Christ and the ideology of Hồ Chí Minh shared similarities in their humanistic values and aspirations toward freedom,” UCA News reported. “Within hours, clips of the interview spread across Vietnamese Catholic social media, triggering an intense backlash.”
Man vandalizes, sets fire at Missouri Catholic school
A man broke into a Catholic elementary school in Missouri, damaged images of Christ and the Virgin Mary, and set a fire in the building.The incident at Immaculate Conception Elementary School in Springfield is one of over 400 acts of vandalism, arson, and other destruction at parishes and other Catholic sites in the United States since 2020.
Pope Leo breaks new ground with encyclical on AI [News/Analysis]
In choosing to be known as Pope Leo XIV, our current Pontiff made tribute to Leo XIII, the author of Rerum Novarum, the encyclical that formed the foundation of Catholic social teaching. Now Leo XIV...Mexican bishops form exorcist ministry team
Bishop José Trinidad Zapata Ortiz of Papantla, Mexico, discussed the work of the Mexican bishops’ recently established exorcist ministry team, the Pastoral Care of Consolation and the Ministry of Exorcism (DEPAC).Bishop Zapata told ACI Prensa that “many of our parishioners who are baptized do not live out their faith in an orthodox manner” and take part in “spiritist practices or other types—satanic ones, or the so-called ‘Santa Muerte.’”
The bishops thus saw a “growing need to address these situations of spiritual, moral, and physical suffering of some persons, which may have a malevolent origin” and to “support the exorcists who were already undergoing training courses,” the prelate said.
Bishop Zapata warned that if Satan “wreaks havoc upon us, it is because we first allowed him to do so. We venture onto his paths and let him into our lives.” When a bishop appoints an exorcist, the priest should be “a Eucharistic priest, a Marian priest, a priest who enjoys caring for those in need, especially the sick.”
