“Each individual case of sexual abuse is appalling and irreparable,” Pope Benedict wrote. “The victims of sexual abuse have my deepest sympathy, and I feel great sorrow for each individual case.”

Akash Bashir, a 20-year-old volunteer security guard who was killed by a suicide bomber in 2015, is the first Pakistani to be given the title “servant of God,” an initial step on the path to sainthood.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich said it was time for a fundamental revision of church teaching, and the way Pope Francis had spoken about homosexuality in the past could lead to a change in doctrine.

Mercy Sister Janet Mead, who earned gold records for her 1974 hit version of the Our Father, died Jan. 26 in her native Adelaide, Australia. She was 84 and had been battling cancer.

For the first time in modern church history, women have been formally installed as lectors and catechists, by a decree of Pope Francis.

A new Knights of Columbus/Marist Poll shows that 71% of Americans support legal limits on abortion and a majority of Americans — 54% — oppose taxpayer funding of abortion.

A law firm’s report on how abuse cases were handled in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising faualted retired Pope Benedict XVI, with lawyers accusing him of “misconduct” in four cases during his tenure as Munich archbishop.

In the first testimony ever given by a German Catholic bishop in a court case on abuse, Archbishop Stefan Hesse admitted having made mistakes in the case of an offending priest on trial.

Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer criticized the Synodal Path for postponing a debate on gender-neutral language.

The pope sent a telegram to New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan offering “heartfelt condolences and the assurance of his spiritual closeness” to those affected by the blaze, which killed at least 19 people, including nine children.