“The expectations, the preparations for the reopening are a magnificent sign of hope in a difficult world,” the Rev. Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, Notre-Dame’s rector, said.

Rev. Dowd will succeed Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., who announced in October that he will step down at the end of the 2023-24 academic year after serving as president for 19 years.

Speaking International Theological Commission at the Vatican, Pope Francis told theologians that "One of the great sins we have witnessed is ‘masculinizing’ the church.”

Gloria Branciani alerted church authorities about Father Rupnik's behavior years ago, but her fight with the church system was, as she recalled, a lost battle.

Black survivors have been nearly invisible in the Catholic Church sexual abuse crisis — even in Baltimore, home to a historic Black Catholic community that plays an integral role in the nation’s oldest archdiocese.

As Pope Francis grapples with defiant bishops in Germany and the United States, a high-ranking Vatican official who oversees church law clarified the protocols for disciplining a bishop.