Following President Donald Trump’s plans to deport “millions” of undocumented migrants, the United States Conference of Catholic bishops (USCCB) released a statement acknowledging that nations have a right to protect their borders, while urging attention toward the root causes of migration.
After refusing to fire a teacher who is gay and in a civil same-sex marriage, a Jesuit school in Indianapolis has been stripped of its Catholic label by the archdiocese.
Reflecting on the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the Holy See and Israel, New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan hailed the occasion as an international achievement that has “quite literally made the world a better place.”
For nearly a century, the 40-foot cross “has expressed the community’s grief at the loss of the young men who perished, its thanks for their sacrifice, and its dedication to the ideals for which they fought. It has become a prominent community landmark.”
Timed to mark the 4th anniversary of Laudato si’ -Pope Francis’s landmark document on the environment – the Catholic bishops of California have released a major pastoral statement calling for statewide ecological conversion.
For some observers, it was a welcome sign that even in an archaic institution, change is possible. Yet for others, it remains to be seen whether such change is more than mere symbolism.
After three days of intense debate over the role of the laity in overseeing bishops accused of abuse or its cover-up, the U.S. Catholic bishops voted to enact new standards for holding bishops accountable that include lay involvement, although stopping short of making it a mandatory requirement.
As the U.S. Catholic bishops move closer to enacting new protocols for bishop accountability, they concluded the second day of their high stakes spring meeting by approving a measure to design a national third-party system for reporting claims against bishops.
At a time when the U.S. Catholic bishops are meeting to vote on new measures for bishop accountability, Pope Francis has given the green light for a penal process for a retired U.S. bishop accused of multiple accounts of abuse.
As has been the case for years now, a small group of protesters dismissive of the U.S. bishops’ efforts to enact reforms in their handling of abuse cases gather outside the Baltimore hotel where they conduct their general meeting.
