Less than a month after issuing an instruction outlining the reasoning and method for giving non-liturgical blessings to same-sex couples and those in irregular unions, the Vatican has published a clarification amid a flurry of backlash and confusion.
Dioceses across the U.S. are asked to hold additional listening sessions in the next few months, following a request from the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops which is preparing for the second session of the global Synod on Synodality in October.
The U.S. Department of State has demanded the release of Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa and other imprisoned Nicaraguan religious leaders following a wave of detentions targeting Catholic clergy over the Christmas season.
Since Christmas, Nicaraguan police and paramilitaries have detained more than a dozen priests, including an archdiocesan vicar, as the Sandinista regime escalates a campaign of terror against the Catholic Church — an institution it has struggled to subdue.
In 2023, for Christians, the unthinkable has happened: In Bethlehem in the West Bank, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, the place where Christmas began, Christmas has been canceled.
WILLIAMSBURG — To remind people of the true meaning of Christmas, St. Francis of Assisi made a decision 800 years ago that drastically revitalized Catholic tradition. In 1223, he gathered faithful to the town of Greccio, Italy, and staged, with animals, the first Nativity scene, reenacting the birth of Jesus Christ. Now, in recognition of […]
In the hours that followed release of a Vatican note outlining the pastoral grounds for same-sex blessings, reactions among American Catholics seemed to run the gamut from styling it as a major step forward to insisting on hitting the brakes, on the grounds that not much has really changed.
A new version of an iconic cockerel, or rooster, is once again watching over Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, symbolizing resilience amid destruction after a devastating April 2019 fire. It was installed Dec. 16 atop Notre Dame spire’s cross.
After two women were killed and several others injured in a series of targeted attacks on a Catholic church and convent by the Israeli military in Gaza, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem condemned the violence, especially as Christmas draws near.
In the long-awaited denouement of the Vatican’s “trial of the century,” which has been seen widely as a litmus test of Pope Francis’ press for reform, a Vatican tribunal Saturday sentenced Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu to five years and six months in prison for his role in various financial crimes.
