National News
USCCB general secretary resigns; reports allege ‘possible improper behavior’
Msgr. Jeffrey D. Burrill, named to the top organizing post of the bishops' conference last November, resigned because of impending news of acts that "did not include allegations of misconduct with minors."
Fires, graffiti, red paint are among ways Portland churches vandalized
Four Portland Catholic churches have been vandalized in the span of about six weeks. The acts can be traced to lone individuals, groups of teens and even some families.
U.S. bishops express solidarity with Cuban people, church leaders
A statement by two key bishops acknowledged "the ongoing protests in Cuba and among the diaspora in the United States" as perhaps the most significant unrest in decades.
Two statues destroyed outside N.Y. Catholic church
A statue of Mary and of St. Therese Lisieux were dragged across the street from the grounds of a Queens parish church and smashed with a hammer July 17, according to the Brooklyn Diocese.
Spending bills without Hyde seen as move to expand abortion on demand
The congressional House Appropriations Committee voted July 15 to exclude the Hyde Amendment, which has barred federal funding for abortion since 1976, from the 2022 federal budget. A petition seeks to reinsert the provision before the full House votes on the spending measures.
U.S. using list of ‘shame’ to root out Central American corruption
The U.S. State Department released a roster of "corrupt and undemocratic actors" from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, part of the Biden administration's effort to stem corruption that leads residents to emigrate from the region.
Eyewitness stories of religious repression mark summit
From Christians in Nigeria to Muslims in Myanmar, the first-person accounts of brutality and discrimination against religious communities punctuated the July 13-15 International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington.
Supreme Court sets October date for Kentucky’s abortion case
Kentucky's ban on "the gruesome practice of live dismemberment abortions" in the second trimester of pregnancy will be defended at the high court, vowed the state's attorney general.
Cuban exiles in Miami gather at their shrine to pray for homeland
Two days after protests against the communist regime broke out in different cities across Cuba, observers said the Cuban people "cannot stand it anymore" -- especially the young.
Genocide charges ‘must be pursued,’ Smith says at religious freedom summit
At the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith strongly criticized China for "trying to destroy or radically transform religion into the party's slave."