International

Pope Francis urges Catholics to help children by supporting adoption

Adoption is often a difficult and bureaucratic process, but there are many children who need homes and the Church should step up to help them, Pope Francis said. Speaking on May 24 to employees and patients of an Italian hospital for abandoned children, he said, “so many times there are people who want to adopt […]

Pope Francis appoints new head of Vatican’s interreligious dialogue

Pope Francis appoint-ed Spanish Bishop Miguel Ayuso Guixot Saturday as president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Guixot succeeds Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran, who led the Vatican dicastery for over ten years until his death in July 2018. As a priest in the Comboni Missionary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Guixot served as […]

Former airline pilot appointed to lead diocese of US

Pope Francis Friday named Bishop Robert D. Gruss of Rapid City, South Dakota, the next bishop of the Diocese of Saginaw, Michigan. Gruss, 63, was bishop of Rapid City since 2011. A native of Arkansas, he was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa in 1994, after a career as a commercial […]

Attempt to legalize abortion, gay marriage fails in Mexican Congress

The portion of a constitutional reform initiative seeking to legalize abortion and same-sex marriage in Mexico did not advance in the nation’s legislature. A gender parity bill was debated and approved in both houses of the Mexican Congress May 23. The bill would require that half of the country’s public service sector be women. Porfirio […]

Francis mandates clergy abuse reporting worldwide, empowers archbishops to do investigations

Pope Francis issued sweeping new laws for the Catholic Church on the investigation of clergy sexual abuse May 9, mandating for the first time that all priests and members of religious orders worldwide are obligated to report any suspicions of abuse or its cover-up. The pontiff has also established a new global system for the […]

Pope discusses deaconesses, need for nuns to be servants not ‘maids’

She thanked the Pope for being a source of inspiration and helping the church fight the abuse of minors and vulnerable people. “We are also grateful for your having faced the painful issue of abused religious,” she said, noting that many forms of abuse occur world-wide, including cases of religious abusing their fellow sisters. National […]

German Catholic women begin boycott over lack of reforms

A grassroots Catholic women’s movement – using the motto of the Virgin Mary who should be given her voice – launched a week of disobedient non-service on May 11 – with the backing of major lay organizations and even singular bishops. The women planned to hold rites outside churches, without priests, and withhold services inside parishes […]

Pew study finds continued support in Western Europe for paying church taxes

To Americans who drop coins into the collection plate, write a check or perhaps text in their Sunday donation, the idea that the state would charge an annual tax to support their church can seem strange and off-putting indeed. But in several Western European countries, a majority of adults not only agree to pay a […]

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Youth taught to use social media to become Good Samaritans

Pakistan’s oldest priest passes away at 97