On Dec. 13 a federal judge granted Catholic organizations in the Archdiocese of New York and the neighboring Diocese of Rockville Centre a permanent injunction against the federal contraceptive mandate in the health care law. • In an escalating standoff, Catholic clergymen were taken away for questioning on Dec. 18 by Chinese authorities after China’s Tangshan Diocese announced it would not bury the deceased Bishop Paul Liu Jinghe until the government returns a former church cemetery. • Matthew McGarry of Catholic Relief Services described the situation as “quite bad” as thousands were evacuated after snowstorms and torrential rain in mid-December led to flooding throughout the northern Gaza Strip. • Pope Francis issued a decree declaring one of his favorite Jesuits, Blessed Peter Faber, a founding member of the Society of Jesus, a saint on Dec. 17. • National Migration Week will be observed in dioceses around the country from Jan. 5 to 11. • Archbishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga of Bangui, Central African Republic, joined Imam Oumar Kobine Layama, president of the Islamic Central African community, in a call on Dec. 11 for interreligious dialogue following several days of fighting between Christians and Muslims in the Central African Republic.
News Briefs
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
Cardinal Pietro Parolin told some 200,000 people in St. Peter’s Square that Pope Francis had made the message of God’s limitless mercy the heart of his pontificate.
Francis has always been known as “the pope of surprises.”
“Pope Francis is the pope of the people,” Rosa de los Ríos told America in Spanish before the funeral Mass. “He is very close to the people.... That’s why he was so loved. People felt he was very close to them.”
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy met inside St. Peter’s Basilica ahead of the funeral for Pope Francis on the morning of April 26.