The fatal stabbing of a Catholic priest inside the church rectory where he lived has rocked the eastern Nebraska community of Fort Calhoun, a one-stoplight town where people tend not to worry if they forget to lock their doors at night.
President Joe Biden is hosting a White House reception the evening of Dec. 11 to mark Hanukkah, celebrating the festival of lights as he has continued to denounce rising antisemitism in the U.S. and abroad amid the Israel-Hamas war.
For a second Sunday, an ailing Pope Francis skipped his popular window appearance to the public in St. Peter's Square, but in televised remarks said he's doing better even though his voice wouldn't let him read all his comments aloud.
Pope Francis said on Nov. 30 that he is suffering from acute, infectious bronchitis and that doctors recommended he cancel his planned visit to Dubai this weekend to avoid the quick changes in temperature that would be involved.
Pope Francis presided at his weekly audience with the public at the Vatican, but he said that he's still unwell and asked an aide to read his remarks for him on Nov. 29, a day after canceling an overseas trip.
Pope Francis has punished one of his highest-ranking critics, Cardinal Raymond Burke, by yanking his right to a subsidized Vatican apartment and salary in the second such radical action against a conservative American prelate this month, according to two people briefed on the measures.
Pope Francis is receiving antibiotics intravenously to treat a lung inflammation and will scale back some appointments, but he doesn’t have pneumonia or fever, the Vatican said Nov. 27.
Pope Francis met separately Nov. 22 with relatives of Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinians living through the war and begged for an end to what he called terrorism and "the passions that are killing everyone."
The founder of the far-right, unofficial Catholic media group Church Militant has resigned for an unspecified violation of the organization's morality clause, the group said in a statement Nov. 21.
A French bishop has been given a preliminary charge of attempting to rape an adult man a decade ago, the Paris prosecutor's office said Nov. 20. It is the latest of a growing number of accusations of sexual abuse by clergy in France.
Pope Francis' recent gesture of welcome for transgender Catholics has resonated strongly in this working class, seaside town south of Rome, where a community of trans women has found help and hope through a remarkable relationship with the pontiff forged during the darkest times of the pandemic.
Hong Kong's newly appointed Roman Catholic cardinal said he dreamed of bishops and faithfuls from different parts of greater China praying together one day during a historic visit by the head of the Chinese Catholic church, a publication affiliated with the city's diocese reported Nov. 17.
When Auxiliary Bishop Silvio Báez finished his homily on a recent Sunday, applause broke out among the hundreds of faithful in St. Agatha Catholic Church, on the outskirts of Miami, that has become the spiritual home of the growing Nicaraguan diaspora.
The head of the Catholic church in China began a trip to Hong Kong on Nov. 14 at the invitation of the city's pope-appointed Roman Catholic cardinal, marking the first official visit by a Beijing bishop in history.
In the United States, the national conference of Catholic bishops rejects the concept of gender transition, leaving many transgender Catholics feeling excluded. On Nov. 8, the Vatican made public a sharply contrasting statement, saying it's permissible, under certain circumstances, for trans Catholics to be baptized and serve as godparents.
Pope Francis met with European rabbis on Nov. 6 and decried antisemitism, war and terrorism in a written speech he declined to read, saying he wasn't feeling well.
Pope Francis is pressing Catholic theologians to be more in tune with the challenges of ordinary people and urging them to dialogue with non-believers as well as believers of various religions.
Spain's Catholic bishops on Oct. 30 apologized again for sex abuses committed by church members following a report by Spain's Ombudsman that accused the church of widespread negligence.