News
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Nelson Mandela, who led the struggle to replace South Africa's apartheid regime with a multiracial democracy, died on Dec. 5 at his home in Johannesburg.
Mandela, 95, became the country's first black president in 1994. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
One of the world's most revered statesmen, Mandela had a touch of humanity rarely seen in political leaders, said Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban, South Africa in an interview with Catholic News Service earlier this...
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Pope Francis accepted a proposal to set up a special commission on the sexual abuse of children, which will advise him on ways to prevent abuse and provide pastoral care for victims and their families.
Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, a member of the pope's advisory Council of Cardinals, announced the decision at a Vatican briefing for reporters on Dec. 5, during a break in the council's meetings with the pope.
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Church leaders in the Central African Republic are hoping the arrival of French and African troops will help settle a situation that has effectively left people barricaded in their homes in the capital, Bangui.
"It's tense and dangerous on the streets and everyone is afraid," said Msgr. Cyriaque Gbate Doumalo, secretary-general of the Catholic bishops' conference.
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When Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick went to Buenos Aires a few years ago to visit his "classmate," Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, from the same group of bishops who became cardinals in 2001, he was first surprised that the archbishop personally met him at the airport.
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Lawyers for a woman who claims she suffered a miscarriage because of the way a Michigan Catholic hospital handled her case have filed suit on her behalf against the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops over its "Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care."
The lawsuit was filed on Nov. 29 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan/Southern Division by the American Civil Liberties Union.
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December 9-16, 2013
In a world where profit reigns over human dignity, solidarity has become a “dirty word” and risks being removed from the dictionary, Pope Francis said in a video message aired on Nov. 21 during the third Festival of the Social Doctrine of the Church in Verona, Italy. • Alec Reid, the 82-year-old Redemptorist priest praised for his role in ending the decades-long sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, died on Nov. 22 in a Dublin hospital.
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December 9-16, 2013
A questionnaire to gather feedback for next year’s Synod of Bishops on the family has been the source of some confusion since it was delivered to bishops’ conferences around the world in October. In preparation for the international meeting, the synod’s secretary general, Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, sent out a preparatory document that included a 39-item questionnaire asking about the promotion and acceptance of Catholic teachings on marriage and the...
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December 9-16, 2013
Climate change represents an “ethical challenge to civilization,” said the Vatican’s lead representative to a U.N. conference reviewing the phenomenon’s worldwide impact. Archbishop Celestino Migliore said that the Vatican would help “form consciences and ethical perspectives” on climate change in line with Catholic social teaching and encourage “fairness, impartiality and mutual responsibility,” when it came to action to address the environmental threat.
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December 9-16, 2013
Weeks after Typhoon Haiyan tore through the central Philippines, Catholic aid workers were continuing their emergency response. “The needs are basically huge,” said Sandra Harlass, an emergency relief coordinator for Malteser International, after returning to Manila from communities across the strait from the worst-hit city of Tacloban.
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December 9-16, 2013
Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta and Bishop Gregory J. Hartmayer of Savannah called on lawmakers in Washington to listen to the needs of the hungry at home and abroad as they negotiate the 2013 farm bill. One of the most contentious issues is the bill’s nutrition provision, which includes funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The Senate version of the farm bill would cut $4 billion from the program over the next 10 years...