The challenge to find new ways for women to be “full participants in the various areas of social and ecclesial life…can no longer be postponed,” said Pope Francis, speaking on Feb. 7 with members of the Pontifical Council for Culture. The pope said a “more widespread and inc

Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador will be beatified in San Salvador “certainly within the year and not later, but possibly within a few months,” said Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the postulator, or chief promoter of the archbishop’s sainthood cause. Speaking to reporters on Feb

Assisted suicide is legal in only four states currently, but several other jurisdictions are considering legislation on the practice. A California bill resembles the Oregon law approved by voters there in 1994, but it has some significant differences. The California proposal does not include a consc

‘The accountability of bishops is a source of great concern” to the 17 members of the Commission for the Protection of Minors, said Cardinal Seán O’Malley, O.F.M.Cap., leader of the Archdiocese of Boston and the president of the body, at a Vatican press briefing on Feb. 7.Marie Co

When the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in on the constitutionality of the executions by lethal injection in Oklahoma, its ruling will probably not be a tipping point toward the elimination of capital punishment in the United States, but some experts say it could be the beginning of the end of this pract

If the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down federal subsidies that have helped millions of people obtain health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act, it will be “an incredible cruelty,” said Carol Keehan, D.C., the president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Associatio