Catholic News Service

To find Catholics who have left the church, start looking at the faces in the pews, according to a recent report.

Pro-life leaders said they were disappointed the U.S. Supreme Court declined Dec. 10 to hear appeals from Kansas and Louisiana on lower court rulings that have stopped the states from blocking Medicaid funds going to Planned Parenthood.

After more than a century, the United States government has returned three church bells swiped by American forces as war booty from the central Philippine town of Balangiga.

God sends his consolation to those in need of reassurance, even when they are facing death, Pope Francis said.

Catholic representatives worked to keep negotiations on track for a comprehensive deal to address global warming as the U.N. climate change conference entered its second and final week in Katowice, Poland.

A Catholic priest was shot dead by unknown robbers Dec. 10 near his parish in central Kenya as he was taking the Sunday Mass offerings to the bank.

The leaders of two U.S. provinces of the Society of Jesus released the names of more than 150 clergy with credible sexual abuse claims against them dating to the 1950s.

Pope Francis made surprise visits Dec. 7 and 8 to people receiving medical care far from their homes, to a dozen intellectually challenged young people and to the staff of a major Rome newspaper.

Retired Bishop Frank Rodimer of Paterson died Dec. 6 at St. Joseph's Home for the Elderly in Totowa. He was 91.

The leaders of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said the concerns of the indigenous peoples in Canada and the bishops' updated sexual abuse policies were among the issues they spoke about with Pope Francis.

A 24-year-old woman dumped sulfuric acid on a priest while he was hearing confessions in the Managua cathedral.

Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit planned to pray for the country Dec. 7, even as the French government dropped all fuel tax increases for 2019.

Just last year, Catholics were required to attend separate Masses two days in a row for the Sunday obligation and Monday's Christmas Mass. Now, they have a similar opportunity this year with the feast of the Immaculate Conception falling on a Saturday -- Dec. 8.

Saying that Jesus provides light for the church to overcome darkness, Archbishop Thomas Rodi of Mobile released the names of priests, deacons and religious brothers who had been credibly accused of sexual misconduct with minors.

German police and prosecutors are launching investigations into clergy sexual abuse following the Sept. 12 leak of a report containing evidence of 3,700 alleged child sex abuse cases in the Catholic Church over a 68-year-period.

Welcoming the finalization of global compacts on migration and on refugees, the Vatican urged nations to adopt the nonbinding agreements to protect people who are on the move and to promote their orderly acceptance in new countries.

The bishops leading Tennessee's three Catholic dioceses said the planned Dec. 6 execution of a man convicted of brutally killing of a young mentally handicapped woman fails to serve the "common good of advancing toward a more just society."

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles Dec. 6 released an updated list of priests accused of sexual abuse of minors, with the report showing two cases of alleged abuse of current minors in the archdiocese since 2008.

Pope Francis approved a new set of laws concerning the structure and governance of Vatican City State in an effort to simplify its many offices and activities and to boost oversight, transparency and budgetary controls.

A proposal by the Trump administration to deny green cards to legal immigrants using public assistance "will dramatically change the process of legal migration and make it increasingly difficult for low-income and working-class individuals to legally migrate to the United States."