Catholic News Service

A move by the Department of Justice to expand how it carries out federal death sentences — to include electrocution, gas or firing squads along with lethal injections —was sharply criticized by Catholic anti-death penalty activists.

Pope Francis has named Bishop Michael W. Fisher, an auxiliary bishop of Washington since June 2018, to head the Diocese of Buffalo, New York.

In oral arguments Nov. 30, the Supreme Court weighed in on President Donald Trump's order to exclude immigrants living in the country illegally from the 2020 census for purposes of redrawing congressional districts.

Agencies like Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Paterson are teaming up with other groups to make sure the growing number of families and individuals showing up at their doors are fed during the holidays.

Bishop Chen was the third bishop to be named and ordained within the regulatory framework of the provisional agreement between China and the Holy See regarding the appointment of bishops.

Despite confusion over the morality of using these companies' vaccines, it is not "immoral to be vaccinated with them," the chairmen of the U.S. bishops' doctrine and pro-life committees said Nov. 23.

Iota marked the first recorded Category 5 storm ever to hit the island. The Colombian government estimates that the hurricane damaged 100% of structures, destroying eight of 10 of them.

Pope Francis advanced the sainthood causes of 127 Spanish martyrs, three Italian religious women, an Italian archbishop and three priests. 

An elderly Jesuit priest struggling in an Indian jail with ill health says he still finds happiness in listening to the stories of other inmates and credits his congregation for the training that helps him cope with his situation.

Hamburg Archbishop Stefan Hesse has stepped down from his post as spiritual assistant to the Central Committee of German Catholics, the most important laypeople's organization of the church in Germany, pending clarification of all the allegations about his possible role in covering up sexual abuse cases during his time in Cologne.

Longtime anti-death penalty activist Sr. Helen Prejean tweeted after Orlando Hall's execution by lethal injection that under Attorney General William Barr's leadership, "the Justice Department worked into the early morning hours filing reams of appeals, ultimately succeeding in gaining court approval to execute a Black man who was sentenced to death by an all-white jury. This is not 'Christlike behavior.'"

Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster said he will not "walk away" from leadership of the church amid pressure to resign over his handling of child abuse cases.

The presence of Latin Americans around the world has enriched the Catholic Church with a renewed zeal for the Gospel, Pope Francis said.

Msgr. Enrico Radice, the former rector of a minor seminary located in the Vatican, denied knowing about the alleged sexual abuse of a student, but instead alleged that the victim and his friend, who claimed he witnessed the abuse, were motivated by money.

In 2019, Pope Francis invited young economists, entrepreneurs and "change-makers" to gather in Assisi to share ideas for making the global economy more responsive to the needs of the poor and of the planet.

Despite quickly shifting travel restrictions in place during the global pandemic, the majority of cardinals-designate are planning to attend the Vatican ceremony to receive their red hats and cardinal's rings.

The two abuse survivors who resigned as spokesmen of the victims' advisory board in the Cologne Archdiocese have accused Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of a "renewed abuse of abuse victims."

In response to the upcoming federal execution of Orlando Hall Nov. 19, and two more federal executions scheduled to take place in December, two U.S. bishops' committee chairmen called on the government to end this practice.

Pope Francis' teaching on the "just war" theory is a crucial point of reflection in today's world where the historic motives to morally justify aggression and violence are often misused, said Cardinal Michael Czerny, undersecretary for the Vatican's Migrants and Refugees Section.

Two European Catholic commissions warned that Arctic warming is intensifying competition over the region's resources and urged tougher policies to protect its biodiversity and Indigenous communities.