OSV News

Catholic church leaders in Ethiopia are welcoming a U.S.-funded food security program that will benefit millions of people suffering from the drought in the Horn of Africa country.

Officials of the Nashville Diocese called news of a mass shooting and loss of life at a private Christian school in the city heartbreaking and "deeply sad and shocking."

The "distorted" thought that one person is better than another goes against Catholic teachings and flies in the face of universal principles laid out in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Holy See's United Nations envoy told a U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York.

Malawi is reeling from the consequences of Cyclone Freddy that hit the southeastern African country March 12. The storm system caused flooding and mudslides that have resulted in the deaths of at least 476 people as of March 19.

A political climate hostile to the needs and existence of immigrants is not only morally wrong, it also weakens the structures of democratic governments, said Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley of Boston.

Human composting and alkaline hydrolysis — "eco-friendly" alternatives to burial and cremation — fail to comply with the Catholic Church's teaching on respect for the bodies of the dead, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Doctrine said in a March 23 statement.

The man suspected of killing Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop David G. O'Connell in his Hacienda Heights home pleaded not guilty at an arraignment hearing March 22.

Bishop Fernand (Ferd) Joseph Cheri III, a New Orleans native who had served since 2015 as auxiliary bishop of New Orleans, died March 21 at Chateau de Notre Dame in New Orleans following a lengthy illness. He was 71.

Churches in Asia need to play an active role in addressing pressing realities including migrants, refugees, indigenous peoples, climate change, family issues, women and youth, Asian bishops said in their continental synod document.

U.S. District Court Judge Eric R. Komitee March 15 sentenced a former deacon who once ministered at a parish in the Diocese of Brooklyn to 16 years in prison for enticing three minors to engage in sexual conduct.

Portugal's Catholic Church has reiterated new safeguarding commitments in line with an independent commission on sexual abuse by clergy, although most of its dioceses also reported inconsistencies in the commission's findings.

The Environmental Protection Agency proposed in March the first federal limits on "forever chemicals" in drinking water, a move the Biden administration said will save thousands of lives and prevent some serious illnesses attributed to exposure to these chemicals over time.

The church in Ireland is launching a Year for Vocations as it grapples with a steep decline in seminary numbers and with aging priests.

President Joe Biden announced March 14 he would sign an executive order aiming to increase the number of background checks on prospective gun buyers, as well as measures to promote red flag laws and the secure storage of firearms.

Women leaders from among Canada's Indigenous nations were at the United Nations' New York headquarters, seeking broad support, including from Pope Francis, in their ongoing campaign to stop violence against their communities' women and girls.

The Diocese of Santa Rosa filed for bankruptcy March 13, days after its bishop finally concluded the decision was necessary in order to address potentially 200 new claims brought against the diocese by survivors of child sexual abuse.

Pope Francis has brought a fresh perspective to established Catholic teaching, panelists said March 13 at an event hosted by Georgetown University's Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life to mark the pontiff's 10th anniversary.

The Vatican's United Nations mission condemned in remarks to the U.N. Security Council what it said was a worldwide increase in violence against women, and a decline in women's involvement in the decision-making process.

Marking the first anniversary of the Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and praying that God will "have mercy and save us" and "convert those who foster aggression and war," Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory and Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak, the Ukrainian Catholic Archbishop of Philadelphia, led a March 7 ecumenical prayer service for peace at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

A Catholic university in Ohio is making alternate arrangements for students to attend what is commonly called the "traditional Latin Mass," after the local bishop implemented recently issued restrictions from the Vatican.