News
Sister Patricia Ann O’Neill, S.S.J., dies at age 73
The Sister of St. Joseph, formerly Sister Hugh Patrice, was born in Ridley Park and graduated from Archbishop Prendergast High School. She entered religious life in 1964 and served in the Philadelphia Archdiocese.
Bishop Joseph Galante, bishop of Camden, dies at 80
A former Philadelphia priest, he earned master's and doctoral degrees, served in Rome and was known for his skills in communications. He was a bishop in Texas before heading the Camden Diocese until 2013.
Supreme Court allows fetal burials, rejects abortion limits in Indiana
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a state law that requires abortion providers to bury or cremate fetal remains. It also refused to take up a challenge to a block of the state law that would prevent women from obtaining abortions based on the gender, race or a potential diagnosis of Down syndrome of the fetus.
In Australia, costs rising in payouts to abuse survivors
Victims of sexual abuse in the Melbourne Archdiocese have received money but waived their rights to sue for more. Under state laws permitting new suits for damages, payments have increased one hundred-fold.
Financial controversy involving Indian cardinal flares anew
The archdiocese is seeking an investigation by India's Central Bureau of Investigation into allegedly fake documents related to financial transactions that, it said, are aimed at defaming the cardinal.
‘Startling’ inaction on climate change must end, pope says
Addressing a Vatican climate change conference for finance ministers from around the world May 27, the pope said that the current crisis is "caused by a confusion of our moral ledger with our financial ledger."
Guilty handouts, soulless bureaucratic aid are fake charity, pope says
Charity should be given freely and lived humbly with the poor, never letting it become hypocrisy, a slick business or a way to soothe a troubled conscience, Pope Francis said.
Prenatal diagnosis of illness is no excuse for abortion, pope says
Addressing participants at a Vatican meeting on medical care for "extremely fragile" babies and on the pastoral care of their parents, Pope Francis said the Catholic Church's total opposition to abortion is not primarily a religious position, but a human one.
Exclusion of migrants is red flag of society in moral decline, pope says
Being indifferent to or excluding migrants is a sign of a deteriorating morality that will soon spread and risk marginalizing everyone who fails to fit in, Pope Francis said.
Bishops praise HHS proposal for civil rights section of health care law
Four committee chairmen of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops May 24 praised proposed regulations to restore "the long-standing position of the federal government that discrimination on the basis of 'sex' does not refer to 'termination of pregnancy' nor 'gender identity.'"