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Vatican rejects 'wall of silence' charge on sex-abuse complaints
The Vatican has released a statement defending Church responses to sex-abuse complaints, and rejecting the charge by a German cabinet member that the Vatican was building a "wall of ...

Cardinal Levada: 'Union with the Catholic Church is the goal of ecumenism'
In a lengthy address delivered in Canada on March 6, Cardinal William Levada, prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, stated that the reception of communities of ...

Nigerian massacres: a 'horror' but not a religious conflict
The Vatican has expressed "concern and horror" at the mass killings of Christians in Nigeria. A March 9 statement from the Vatican press office made the point that although the ...

At UN, Vatican envoy denounces 'gender ideology'
The Vatican's representative at the UN has denounced gender ideology, saying that the approach has harmed rather than helped women. Speaking at a UN session on gender equality, ...

Pakistan: Christians, not Muslims, arrested following attack on Christians
In the weeks following a February attack on Christian churches and homes in Pakistan's largest city, police have questioned 40 Christians and arrested five, according to a report published ...

Dutch bishops commission independent abuse inquiry
The Dutch Catholic bishops have called upon a former government minister to head an independent commission investigating sex-abuse complaints. Citing more than 200 reports of abuse filed ...

Attorneys distance themselves from recent claims against Legion of Christ founder
Attorneys representing an alleged former lover of Father Marcial Maciel and her children have severed ties with the family because their recent public accusations differed "in some ...

Two House Democrats vow: no vote for health-care bill without pro-life language
A Democratic lawmaker who voted to approve the health-care reform in the House of Representatives has said that he will not support the Senate version of the legislation unless a pro-life ...

Utah women who seek illegal abortions face homicide charges
Gov. Gary Herbert of Utah has signed a law under which women who seek abortions from someone other than a doctor may be charged with homicide. The Utah legislature passed the law after a ...

Kansas bishops blast proposal to tax religious nonprofits
The Kansas House of Representatives is debating legislation that would compel religious nonprofits to pay sales taxes. "As originally drafted, House Bill 2549 would have repealed the ...

Polish Catholics, Russian Orthodox seek to ease tensions through talks
Polish Catholic leaders have opened ecumenical talks with the Russian Orthodox Church in a bid to improve the historically strained relations between the two countries. A joint statement ...

Bishops, Albany mayor honor nun who touts free needles for drug abusers
Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York and Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany have presented an award to Sister Maureen Joyce to honor her decades of service to Catholic Charities. "It is ...

Jesuit university hosts abortion advocates at forum
Abortion advocates will dominate a "Global Women's Rights Forum" at the University of San Francisco-- a Jesuit institution-- on March ...

Natural disasters give cause for reflection, Pope tells Sunday audience
"The possibility of conversion demands that we learn to read the events of life in the light of faith," Pope Benedict XVI said at his midday audience on Sunday, March 7. The Pope said ...

German Church faces pressure as abuse inquiry broadens
Pressure is mounting on Church officials in Germany to provide a thorough accounting of sex-abuse complaints. And the country's justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, has ...

Muslims slaughter hundreds of Christians in Nigeria
Muslim gangs attacked three villages in central Nigeria and killed up to 400 Christians in pre-dawn attacks on March 7. "The shooting was just meant to bring people from their houses, and ...

1,000 Christian families fled Mosul in 10-day period
Violence against Christians in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul-- the modern name for ancient Nineveh-- has led over 1,000 Christian families to flee in the past ten days, Syrian Catholic ...

Christians in Holy Land depend on Good Friday collection
The Vatican has asked bishops throughout the world to encourage participation in the annual Good Friday collection that is dedicated to the needs of the Church in the Holy Land. In a ...

Government programs cannot replace private charity, Pope says
Government programs can never replace private charity, Pope Benedict XVI said at an audience on March 6. The Holy Father met on Saturday, March 6, with members of the Italian volunteer ...

Cardinal sees need to 'clean up' Church after sex-abuse scandal
Cardinal Walter Kasper said that the sex-abuse scandals now arising in several countries point to the need for "a wider analysis, for maybe the whole Church and not just one country." ...

Malaysian Church accepts Islamic magazine's apology for desecration
Church officials in Kuala Lumpur have accepted an apology from the editors of Al Islam magazine for the desecration of the Eucharist by reporters working for the journal. The two ...

Philippines: Health minister accepts bishops' invitation to debate condom effectiveness
Three weeks after the Philippine government distributed condoms for Valentine's Day, the nation's health secretary has accepted an invitation by two bishops to take part in a public debate ...

Pope visits Rome parish; focus on lay evangelization
Pope Benedict XVI visited the parish of St. John of the Cross, in northern Rome, to celebrate Mass on Sunday, March 7. In his homily the Holy Father said that Lent is an ideal time for the ...

Brazilian bishops distributing 1 million Bibles to the poor
As part of the continental mission launched by the bishops of Latin America in 2007, he Brazilian bishops' conference will distribute one million Bibles to families that cannot afford ...

Denver Catholic school: Lesbian couple's child may not re-enroll
A preschooler at a Catholic school in the Archdiocese of Denver will not be permitted to re-enroll next year because the child is being raised by two lesbians. "Parents living in open ...

Parish funds won't go to abuse payments, Irish bishop claims
Bishop Denis Brennan of Ferns, Ireland-- who last week asked the faithful to help pay for sex-abuse settlement-- has said that no money from parish collections will be used for that ...

Caritas: Protect migrant domestic workers
Caritas Internationalis, the international consortium of Catholic relief agencies, is urging the international community to increase legal protection for migrant domestic workers, some of ...

<i>New York Times</i> profiles Jewish defender of Pope Pius XII
The New York Times has published a profile of Garry Krupp, the founder and head of the Pave the Way Foundation, which has gained prominence by publicizing the evidence that Pope Pius XII ...

Nuncio links high Japanese suicide rate to absence of faith
Japan has a skyrocketing suicide rate. The apostolic nuncio there, Archbishop Alberto Bottari de Castello, tells L'Espresso thinks the acceptance of suicide reflects the absence of faith. ...

With pro-life amendment, US bishops would push for health-care approval
The US bishops' conference will push for the approval of sweeping health-care reform legislation if the current Senate bill is amended to include the pro-life language contained in the ...

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