The tweet early Jan. 3 from Bishop Richard F. Stika of Knoxville, Tennessee, asked for prayers. It wasn’t an unusual request from a church leader. Still, its significance stems from its context and its timing: a few hours after the overnight killing of Iran’s top military leader, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad.
Decrying the acts of religious violence that have taken place during the Christmas season, the president of the U.S. bishops declared: “Violence in the name of God is blasphemy.”
For five years in a row, there have been fewer than 30 death penalty executions and fewer than 50 death sentences, according to a new report that chronicles a continued dramatic decline in the use of capital punishment in the United States.
Bishop Frank Caggiano of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn. — who is originally from Brooklyn— was named chairman of Catholic Relief Services, the arm of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that provides global humanitarian aid.
Bishop Daniel R. Jenky of Peoria said Vatican officials have told him that the upcoming beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen has been postponed “at the request of a few members” of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Bishop Frank J. Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut, is the new chairman of the board of Catholic Relief Services following his appointment by Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann sees the day that Catholic parishes can be one of the first places a woman facing an unexpected or challenging pregnancy can turn to for assistance rather than think of seeking an abortion.
U.S. Catholic bishops elected their first ever Latino leader in a vote on November 12, elevating Archbishop José Gomez as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
In his final remarks as president of the U.S. bishops, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo encouraged the U.S. Church to continue to press ahead in the fight against clergy abuse and in defense of migrants and unborn human life.
The National Council on Disability said in a new study that “the dangers and harms” physician-assisted suicide laws present to people with disabilities “appear to be as significant today” as they were in 1997 and 2005, when the council earlier analyzed the harms of such laws.
