Gina Christian

Several Catholic high schools are mourning former students among the victims of a Jan. 1 terrorist attack in New Orleans.

The Catholic University of America is facing a "structural deficit of $30 million" that the school "must address through both budget cuts and revenue growth," said president Peter Kilpatrick in a Dec. 6 email to alumni. Kilpatrick pointed to a number of challenges in the nation's higher education landscape, citing "rising costs and increased competition for students."

In a Dec. 11 column for the archdiocesan newspaper, the Chicago cardinal wrote that "receiving the Eucharist is not a private action but rather a communal one, as the very word 'communion' implies."

Gayle Benson — owner and CEO of the NFL's New Orleans Saints, and owner and governor of the NBA's New Orleans Pelicans — was presented with the Catholic Near East Welfare Association's Faith & Culture Award at a Dec. 9 gala in New York.

The apostolic nuncio to Syria says he hopes the war-torn nation will "move toward reconciliation" and at least "some prosperity" under democratic rule, following former Syrian President Bashar Assad's ouster in a lightning offensive by rebel groups.
 

Jesuit Father Hans Zollner — the founder and director of the Institute of Anthropology at the Pontifical Gregorian University and a former member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors — joined several safeguarding experts in releasing a joint proposal in Rome Nov. 18 advocating a change in church law on the handling of sexual abuse cases.

The Catholic Health Association of the United States said the national organization, along with the Catholic health community, is "shocked and grieved" by the public killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson at the hands of a masked gunman.

Amid controversy over religious-themed tattoos sported by President-elect Trump's pick for defense secretary, a U.S. office of a Vatican lay institution for the church in the Holy Land has expressed concern regarding the misuse of its historic insignia.

In the wake of recent high-profile cases of financial mismanagement at parishes, experts said transparency, accountability and greater involvement of finance councils in parish business operations can head off losses in money and trust.

As Russia's full-scale invasion reached the 1,000-day mark Nov. 19, Ukraine still stands as "a testament to the miraculous endurance of our people, to God's grace," said Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia.

"This war is really something that we have never seen," said Joseph Hazboun, the Palestine-Israel regional director for the Catholic Near East Welfare Agency-Pontifical Mission. "There is a systematic destruction of the infrastructure and what makes life possible in Gaza."

If approved by the court, the move — which follows the decision by the diocese in May 2023 to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy — would create a survivors' trust totaling between "approximately $160 million and $198 million or more," the diocese said in a Nov. 8 news release.

The poor and vulnerable must be front and center when it comes to climate change policies, said two leading bishops of the Catholic Church in the U.S. and the head of the U.S. church's international humanitarian agency, in a statement issued ahead of the United Nations' annual gathering on climate concerns.

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati has announced it will discontinue its partnership with the Girl Scouts of the USA due to the organization's "impoverished worldview regarding gender and sexuality," which conflicts with Catholic teaching.

A number of U.S. Catholic dioceses and their bishops have issued statements disavowing fake Catholic newspapers that have resurfaced in swing states ahead of the presidential election to target Catholic voters on key issues.

Russia's latest blockage of Western religious websites and social media accounts tightens the Kremlin's chokehold on Russian residents' information access, the editor of a Ukrainian religious news outlet told OSV News.

Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico — who in January 2022 released the pastoral letter "Living in the Light of Christ's Peace: A Conversation Toward Nuclear Disarmament" — said in his Oct. 14 statement that the "well-deserved recognition" of Nihon Hidankyo by the Nobel committee was a wake-up call to humanity.

As Hurricane Milton takes aim at Florida just days after Hurricane Helene, Catholic Charities USA has launched a dedicated disaster relief donation campaign.

At present, the diocese has "very limited unrestricted diocesan funds, little diocesan property to sell, and likely no insurance coverage to help toward these settlements," said Bishop John J. McDermott.