News

Experts fear Cuba is preparing a harsh response to recent protests

Observers have seen a purported plan by the Cuban government to deploy state police and military personnel using whatever means necessary to squash further protests following July 11's massive turnout.

Priests join emergency response to catastrophic flooding in Germany

Aid efforts were running in high gear after torrential rains in Germany toppled buildings, washed away vehicles and left at least 100 people dead. Tens of thousands are without electricity.

Quiet, hard-working Ivan Hicks remembered by West Catholic teammates

The school community is mourning the sudden passing of the junior student and football player who died July 13, hours after collapsing before a scrimmage at Coatesville High School.

Text: ‘Traditionis Custodes’ on use of the pre-Vatican II liturgy

See the Vatican's official English translation of the apostolic letter issued by Pope Francis July 16 concerning use of the Roman liturgy prior to the reform of 1970.

Appealing for unity, pope puts limits on pre-Vatican II Mass

Pope Francis ordered that priests now must have permission to celebrate the so-called Tridentine-rite Mass and bishops are not to establish any new parishes devoted to the old liturgy.

Authority in a wounded church: Leaders see ‘synodality’ as way forward

The clerical sexual abuse crisis has made the need for conversion painfully obvious and led to a reckoning with the use of power in the church through synod processes in several countries.

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.

Vatican prosecutor seeks six-year sentence for abusive priest

Father Gabriele Martinelli is accused of sexually abusing a younger student at the St. Pius X Pre-Seminary before he was ordained. The seminary's rector also faces a prison term if convicted.

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."