The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco heard oral arguments Oct. 19 in a lawsuit that aims to overturn a 2017 federal regulation expanding the exemption to the federal contraceptive mandate to include the Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious employers.
The firestorm surrounding the clergy sex abuse crisis and the way some bishops handled allegations of abuse against priests will be an important part of the agenda of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ fall general assembly.
The U.S. bishops will start 2019 with a spiritual retreat to pray and reflect on the important matters facing the Catholic Church.
Hurricane Michael’s Oct. 10 landfall brought near Category-5 strength winds when it came ashore at Mexico Beach, near Panama City on the Florida Gulf Coast. Two weeks after the storm came ashore, Michael’s death toll has risen to 29 in Florida alone and a total of 39 across the Southern United States. Much of the impacted region remains without power and clean water.
The attorney general for the District of Columbia is the latest official to announce an investigation into clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church and said his office will look at possible abuse cases in the Archdiocese of Washington.
The physical impact of Hurricane Michael and the anticipated recovery period for parts of the Florida Panhandle appear to be on a scale of last year’s Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, according to the Church’s top emergency management specialist in Florida.
While Arturo Mari may have started his professional photography career in the Vatican taking pictures of Pope Pius XII when he was just 16 years old, Mari’s work commanded the world’s attention when he accompanied history’s most travel-minded pope, St. John Paul II, on more than 100 pastoral visits outside Italy.
The Rev. Andrew Brunson, an evangelical Presbyterian pastor who had been jailed by Turkish authorities for nearly two years, returned to U.S. soil Oct. 13 after being freed the day before by Turkey.
This generation of immigrants to Baltimore will continue to find a haven in the Catholic Church.
After months of speculation, Pope Francis on Oct.12 accepted the resignation of Cardinal Donald Wuerl amid the Archdiocese of Washington’s “Season of Healing,” called by the archbishop in response to the “confusion, disappointment and disunity,” over clerical sexual abuse.
