Arriving in the late morning on Dec. 2 at the San Bernardino diocesan pastoral center for his job in the diocese’s Office of Worship, Chris Estrella knew something was very wrong.“I could see a police blockade of Waterman Avenue, which is where the Inland Regional Center is located,&rdqu

In El Salvador, North Americans and Salvadorans gathered in the village of San Francisco Hacienda on Dec. 2 at the precise spot where four U.S. churchwomen were killed 35 years ago. “It is important for us to remember that her work for justice and peace lives on,” Terri Keogh told the cr

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development group, Jubilee USA Network, said, "Puerto Rico needs a solution to the debt crisis that prevents austerity and protects the vulnerable," said , "With Congress unwilling to act, courts in Puerto Rico could be a part of that solution."

The U.S. bishops approved a statement on pornography on Nov. 17 at their fall general meeting in Baltimore. “Producing or using pornography is gravely wrong. It is a mortal sin if it is committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent,” said the approved version of “Create in M

The Vatican calendar for the Year of Mercy deliberately set aside Sept. 4, 2016, as a possible date for the canonization of Blessed Teresa of Kolkata, if her sainthood cause is concluded by then, according to Federico Lombardi, S.J., the Vatican spokesperson. The canonization would be celebrated by

Though the quadrennial “Faithful Citizenship” statement was in the end approved during the U.S. bishops’ fall assembly in Baltimore, the normally pro forma vote included a surprise expression of discontent. Several bishops suggested rejecting it and starting over this year. Bishops

The holy doors of Rome’s four papal basilicas will be opened on Dec. 8, beginning the Holy Year of Mercy. • On Nov. 20 a palliative care facility in Quebec became the first to announce that it will be offering medically induced death as the Canadian province’s new end-of-life care l

The former Creighton University president and former president and publisher of America, John P. Schlegel, S.J., died on Nov. 15 in Omaha, Neb., of pancreatic cancer at the age of 72. • “Time is of the essence” to get humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine as winter sets in, a gr

A funeral service was held at St. Sabina Church on the South Side of Chicago for 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee on Nov. 10. The church is about a mile from where Tyshawn was lured into an alley and shot in the head and the back on the afternoon of Nov. 2. The Rev. Michael Pfleger told the congregation that

Using God’s name to try to justify violence and murder is “blasphemy,” Pope Francis said on Nov. 15, speaking about the terrorist attacks in Paris. “Such barbarity leaves us dismayed and we ask ourselves how the human heart can plan and carry out such horrible events,”