Jonathan Luxmoore

As U.S. Vice President JD Vance visited Hungary to support its government ahead of April 12 parliamentary elections, local Catholics voiced anxieties about their country's future after a bitterly fought campaign.

Supporters of the traditional Latin Mass have urged Catholics not to confuse their movement with the more controversial Society of St. Pius X, commonly referred to as SSPX, whose leaders currently risk excommunication by threatening to ordain their own bishops.

As reports continue of a "quiet revival" of faith among young people across Europe, something of a struggle seems to be opening up — between those welcoming the findings, and those resolutely dismissing them.

Bishop Stanislav Szyrokoradiuk of Odesa-Simferopol said that people "who've taken power" in the U.S. aren't "interested in truth and justice."
 

Spanish church leaders have criticized media treatment of a diocesan bishop who resigned over accusations of sexual abuse, amid renewed debates over the church's historic role in the traditionally Catholic country.

When bishops from Poland and Germany gather to commemorate one of Europe's most famous acts of reconciliation, discussion will focus on its historic significance and continued meaning for the present.
 

A former Anglican bishop urges church leaders to prepare for a surge of Catholic conversions, as a historic Vatican visit by King Charles III coincided with a deepening division in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

 The bishops' conference said their guidelines followed Pope Francis'  "pastoral approach" and reflected concluding resolutions adopted in March 2023 by the Synodal Path reform process

Human rights campaigners have accused the Belarus government of using imprisoned Catholic priests as "hostages," as a Polish Carmelite became the latest detained for alleged espionage.

British Catholics welcomed the presence of King Charles III and top royals at the Sept. 16 funeral Mass for the Duchess of Kent, a Catholic convert, the first such ceremony in the once-persecuted church's main cathedral.

Ukrainians fear U.S. policy driven by business interests rather than concern for their country's future, Odesa-Simferopol bishop says.

"Members of the German bishops' conference and Central Committee of German Catholics have adopted a guide for pastoral workers on blessing couples not married in church — they've recommended diocesan bishops proceed in accordance with its spirit," explained Matthias Kopp, spokesman for the German bishops.

"This measure is being rushed without proper scrutiny and without fundamental questions surrounding safeguards being answered," said Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols of the debated U.K. "End of Life" bill.

In his final Easter Day message April 20, Francis again appealed for peace in the world's many conflict zones, evoking a future "when the clash of arms and the rumble of death will be heard no more."

"Most Catholics currently reflect Russian society, with all the tensions inherent in it," the Russian graduate of Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University told the National Catholic Reporter.

The Feb. 24 anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine was an opportunity to offer "ever more fervent prayers for peace," but Trump's reset in relations with Putin was also proving difficult to understand.

Ukrainian bishops spoke up as international reaction continued over U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance's Feb. 28 televised White House clash with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Fr. Clive Dytor is one of many married ex-Anglican clergy who quit the Church of England in the wake of its 1992 decision to ordain women priests and other liberal changes, and have since been reordained and integrated into Catholic parish life by special papal dispensation.

When Donald Trump was sworn in as U.S. president on Jan. 20, there were fears in places like this of cutbacks in lifesaving Western support. Over two weeks on, many Ukrainians are struggling to stay upbeat about their tortured country's chances over the coming year. 

Church leaders across Europe marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp with calls to remember German Nazi-inflicted sufferings and to counter a new rise in antisemitism and extremism.