OSV News

Since the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization in June 2022 that reversed its previous abortion precedent, voters in Ohio, California, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Vermont and Kansas either rejected new limitations on abortion or expanded legal protections for it as the result of ballot measures.

A lawsuit launched in March has accused Father Thomas Rosica, the national director of World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto, of sexually assaulting a young priest in the lead-up to the event. Rosica, who served as a communications liaison at the 2019 summit on sexual abuse convened by Pope Francis, maintains the allegations should be handled by a church — not secular — court.

The silver coffin of St. Teresa of Ávila was opened in Alba de Tormes Aug. 28 only to confirm her body has remained incorrupt since her death in 1582. The opening of her tomb marks the beginning of a study of her relics, which will be carried out by Italian doctors and scientists — with the approval of the Vatican.

Inspired by Pope Francis' 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si', Archbishop George J. Lucas of Omaha hosted a diverse group of leaders from government, business, education, nonprofit, agriculture and religious organizations from across northeast Nebraska for a day of reflection on how to care for our common home. 

Meghan J. Clark, an associate professor of moral theology at St. John's University in the Queens borough of New York and the author of "The Vision of Catholic Social Thought: The Virtue of Solidarity and the Praxis of Human Rights," pointed to areas of convergence and divergence with Catholic social teaching in both the records of Vance and Walz on a range of issues.

Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, recently spoke with OSV News following his return from the 10th Meeting of Bishops and Migration Pastoral Agents of North America, Central America and the Caribbean, which took place Aug. 19-23 in Panama.

In an Aug. 26 statement, they said the cease-fire should be "resulting in the end of the war, the release of all captives, the return of the displaced, the treatment of the sick and wounded, the relief of those who hunger and thirst, and the rebuilding of all public and private civilian structures that have been destroyed."

The Catholic Church provides more than 50% of the health care needs for people in the Central African country — running and supporting over 2,000 health facilities, the highest number in Africa, followed by Kenya, where it supports more than 1,000, and Nigeria with more than 500 church-run health centers.

Catholics in the Southern Italian city of Enna, Sicily, protested the local church's role in covering up sexual abuse after a court recently ruled that the diocesan bishop sought to protect a priest accused of having abused several minors as a seminarian. Several local news outlets reported that a group of faithful walked out of a Mass Aug. 22 to protest the local church's involvement in covering up abuses committed by Father Giuseppe Rugolo.

In their legal motion, the priests told the Jefferson County Court of Common Pleas that the two had been "significant caregivers" since the child was "approximately two months old." They alleged a pattern of neglect and negligence of the infant by its mother, Jorden Pauley, including referring to the child as "a little bastard," watering down the child's formula due to not having enough supply, and feeding the child age-inappropriate foods, such as chocolate and cantaloupe. The priests claim, "The parents are unstable and do not provide adequate support and care for the child."

In an Aug. 23 press release, the Catholic Medical Association — a professional organization headquartered in Philadelphia representing some 2,600 health care professionals — called for the immediate release of the students, who were traveling from two northern Nigeria universities to the southern city of Enugu for an annual convention by the Federation of Catholic Medical and Dental Students of Nigeria.

In a homily celebrated Aug. 20 in Panama City for a meeting of bishops and migration pastoral agents, Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, told participants, "Pope Francis says that our first two duties toward migrants is to welcome them and protect them."

Indonesian human rights activists criticized a move to offer money to families of victims who disappeared in the 1990s as a ploy to clean up a tainted image of President-elect Prabowo Subianto, who takes office in October.

Bishop James V. Johnston of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, released results of the investigation by medical experts into Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster's incorruptibility in a press release on the diocesan website Aug. 22, the feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The U.S. bishops' Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs conducted a survey of dioceses and archdioceses in the country's 14 episcopal regions and released its results Aug. 21. The survey shows how Hispanic ministry has taken off across the country and that in most dioceses, there is a parish-based pastoral response to Hispanic Catholics.

Catholics in Connecticut are working to help those impacted by what one lawmaker described as "historic, unprecedented flooding" Aug. 18-19 that took two lives and forced hundreds to flee for safety. The southwestern part of the state was deluged by 6-10 inches of rainfall in as many hours Aug. 18, with more rain pummeling the region the following day.

The largest organization of religious leaders in Ukraine is backing a proposal by that nation's president — approved by Ukrainian lawmakers Aug. 20 — to ban the Russian Orthodox Church and its affiliates, which have openly supported Russia's decade-long war on Ukraine.

The Supreme Court Aug. 16 declined to allow the Biden administration to enforce portions of a new regulation expanding Title IX protections from sex discrimination to include students who identify as transgender while legal challenges to the rule proceed.

"The unity created by what was experienced in Paris during this period is important, and we need to emphasize what forges bonds," Notre Dame's rector said. During the Paris Olympic Games, track and field champions rang the bronze bell located close to the finish line at Saint-Denis' Stade de France. In December, that same bell will ring in the newly reopened Notre Dame Cathedral during the most sacred part of the Mass.

The Nicaraguan government has extinguished the legal status of more than 25 Catholic organizations, including religious orders such as the Franciscans, Carmelites and Augustinians, another diocesan Caritas chapter, and lay Catholic groups, as part of an attack on civil society with the closure of 1,500 nongovernmental organizations.