Green Bay, Wis., Sep 20, 2018 CNA/EWTN News.- Bishop Robert Morneau, Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of Green Bay, has withdrawn from public ministry saying he regrets having failed to report the abuse of a minor, WBAY reported Thursday.
Read moreNew York City, N.Y., Sep 20, 2018 CNA.- The Archbishop of New York said Thursday that while he has confidence in the way Pope Francis is handling the Church’s ongoing sexual abuse crisis, he has grown “impatient” while awaiting a decision from the pope on a request made by U.S. bishops more than one month ago.
Read more
NEW YORK (CNS) -- New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan has named a former federal judge to study archdiocesan policies and procedures with respect to sexual abuse by clergy and recommend enhancements directly to the cardinal.
Read morePITTSBURGH (CNS) -- A class-action lawsuit was filed Sept. 17 against eight Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania demanding the dioceses provide proof that they submitted the names of all suspected predators.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The good news from the U.S. Census Bureau Sept. 12 was that the poverty rate dropped for the third straight year in 2017 and median family incomes ticked up 1.8 percent to nearly $61,400.
Read more
Fort Worth, Texas, Sep 20, 2018 CNA/EWTN News.- As many as 3,000 Catholics of Hispanic background are expected in Texas this week for the National V Encuentro, a culmination of four years of listening to and empowering Catholics of Hispanic background throughout the U.S.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pledging to "heal and protect with every bit of the strength God provides us," the U.S. bishops' Administrative Committee Sept. 19 outlined actions to address the abuse crisis, including approving the establishment of a third-party confidential reporting system for claims of any abuse by bishops.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Francis has appointed Father Juan M. Betancourt, a priest in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut. The appointment was announced in Washington Sept. 18 by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, papal nuncio to the United States.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In response to the sexual abuse crisis in the church, Catholics are praying for victims, talking about their frustration and anger, and being urged to pray and fast for church healing.
Read more
RICHMOND, Va. (CNS) -- In celebrating the Diocese of Richmond's first Mass of Atonement for victims of abuse Sept. 14, Bishop Barry C. Knestout apologized to victims of clergy sexually abuse, likening church leadership to Jesus' condemnation of the Pharisees.
Read moreWashington D.C., Sep 17, 2018 CNA.- Courage International, an apostolate to support people with same sex-attraction in leading chaste lives, has issued a statement on three priests mentioned as credibly accused of sexual abuse in the Pennsylvania grand jury report.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Advocates for refugee admissions into the United States decried what one statement called a historically low cap of 30,000 for fiscal year 2019, which begins Oct. 1, and asked Congress to work with the Trump administration to more than double that number.
Read moreWASHINGTON (CNS) -- California's Stanford University will strip the name of 18th-century Franciscan friar, St. Junipero Serra, from some of its properties but keep a street named after him. Stanford University announced the changes Sept. 13, saying in a statement that the saint, canonized in the U.S. during Pope Francis' apostolic visit in 2015, established a mission system that, while part of California history, it also was one that "inflicted great harm and violence on Native Americans."
Read more
RALEIGH, N.C. (CNS) -- The Carolinas were hard hit with record rainfall and flooding rivers from tropical storm Florence since it made landfall Sept. 14. And although the storm was downgraded from a hurricane to a Category 1 tropical storm, it still caused extensive water damage.
Read more
WHEELING, W.Va. (CNS) -- In his celebration of Mass at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Wheeling Sept. 15, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore said he will be with the Catholics of West Virginia on the journey to "healing and reconciliation."
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A "Season of Healing" for sexual abuse survivors began in the Archdiocese of Washington with a Sept. 14 Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. After the opening liturgical procession, Washington Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl and Auxiliary Bishops Mario E. Dorsonville and Roy E. Campbell Jr. prostrated themselves before the altar.
Read more
Spokane, Wash., Sep 14, 2018 CNA.- When man tries to cling to reason and separate himself from faith, he forgets who he is and loses his source of hope, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia said on Friday.
Read more
ARLINGTON, Va. (CNS) -- It was a Saturday night, and Billy was eating pizza and watching a sporting event in the basement bedroom of his residence, a "sober living" home. He called his mom, Judy, to chat and confirm that they would attend Mass together the next day. As he hung up the phone, he told his mom he loved her. "I love you, Billy," she replied.
Read more
New York City, N.Y., Sep 14, 2018 CNA.- Cardinal Timothy Dolan has spoken about how the extended sexual abuse scandals facing the Church have taken a personal toll on him. The Archbishop of New York said that his own mother is “embarrassed to be Catholic.”
Read more
Washington D.C. (CNA) -- Opponents of Judge Brett Kavanaugh have suggested that a reference to birth control pills as "abortion-inducing drugs" during Senate confirmation hearings last week represented the judge's own view on contraceptives.
Read moreWASHINGTON (CNS) -- Signers of an open letter from Catholic women to Pope Francis urging "truth" and "transparency" on the growing sex abuse crisis expressed hope the pontiff's Sept. 13 meeting with U.S. church officials on the scandal will result in steps needed to move the church toward healing.
Read more
Jefferson City, Mo. (CNA) -- Missouri's health department announced Monday that it will immediately being enforcing state laws regulating abortion clinics and doctors, after a U.S. appeals court ruled that the state may do so.
Read more
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (CNS) -- The Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend welcomed findings by a Pennsylvania district attorney that cleared Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of wrongdoing after an allegation of misconduct was made against him.
Read more
HOUSTON (CNS) -- Two Houston men shared a journey through centuries of history and a decades-long archaeological dig under the Vatican to unveil a story reminiscent of adventurer archaeologist Indiana Jones complete with German Nazis in Rome.
Read more
Vatican City, Sep 13, 2018 CNA/EWTN News.- Pope Francis Thursday accepted the resignation of Bishop Michael J. Bransfield from the pastoral government of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, and asked the archbishop of Baltimore to launch an investigation into allegations of abuse.
Read more
Denver, Colo., Sep 12, 2018 CNA.- A Vatican summit this February will gather the presidents of bishops’ conferences from around the world. While a Sept. 12 statement from the Vatican said the gathering’s theme would be the “protection of minors,” a Vatican spokesperson clarified that the meeting would discuss “prevention of abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.”
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington has told the priests of the archdiocese that he will meet soon with Pope Francis to request that he accept the resignation the cardinal submitted three years ago when he turned 75.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A Pennsylvania religious congregation planned to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether their religious freedom rights are being violated by the construction and pending use of a natural gas pipeline on its land.
Read more
PHILADELPHIA (CNS) -- On a November morning in 2008, Father Marc Capizzi had his rosary in hand when he left the rectory at St. Albert the Great Parish in the Philadelphia suburb of Huntingdon Valley.
Read more
BURLINGTON, Vt. (CNS) -- Bishop Christopher J. Coyne of Burlington pledged to cooperate with state and local officials investigating reports of alleged abuse of former residents of a Catholic orphanage.
Read more
Washington D.C., Sep 7, 2018 CNA/EWTN News.- After four days of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh has progressed closer towards eventual confirmation to the Supreme Court. The hearings, which began Sept. 4, included several disruptions by protestors, seemingly political lines of questioning by senators, and even a cameo appearance by the youth basketball team he coaches.
Read more
Washington D.C., Sep 9, 2018 CNA.- When speaking to their children about sexual abuse scandals in the Church, parents should listen to their children’s concerns and be careful to not to make assumptions, experts told CNA.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The four days of Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh were as heated as the unusually high temperatures in Washington during this first week of September.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A pair of open letters to Pope Francis asking him for answers to charges of cover-ups by him and others over abuse allegations against retired Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington were sponsored by the Catholic Women's Forum, a project of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a Washington-based think tank.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The New York State Office of the Attorney General is the latest to announce that it is launching an investigation of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic Church clergy, sending out subpoenas on Sept. 6 seeking documents from the state's eight dioceses.
Read moreWASHINGTON (CNS) -- The 1983 Code of Canon Law did not anticipate crimes being committed by bishops that could result in their laicization, according to a canon law professor at The Catholic University of America.
Read more
MINNEAPOLIS (CNS) -- Auxiliary Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of St. Paul and Minneapolis said the Catholic Church "desperately needs an independent structure, led by experienced lay personnel, to investigate and review allegations made against bishops, archbishops and cardinals" in an Aug. 31 statement.
Read more
Washington D.C., Sep 6, 2018 CNA/EWTN News.- Pro-life pregnancy centers drew nearly 2 million clients in 2017 and provided more than $161 million in free services, according to a new report released this week.
Read moreWASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Archdiocese of Omaha said it intends to cooperate with a request from the Nebraska Attorney General's office to review its "investigative records" as state officials pursue information concerning sex abuse in the state's three Catholic dioceses. State officials made similar requests of the Diocese of Lincoln and Grand Island.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A Sept. 4 letter signed by more than 1,500 Catholic nuns, priests and other church leaders from around the country addressed to U.S. senators voiced concerns about Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, a fellow Catholic, as he faced confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill in early September that may result in a seat for him on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Read more
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (CNS) -- The Catholic Church in the United States is living through two storms, a U.S. cardinal observed. He said there is the policy of "zero tolerance" toward undocumented immigrants, which has plunged communities into fear, and the Holy Spirit working "like a hurricane" to smash structures of clericalism through the current clergy sexual abuse crisis.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- During the second day of his Supreme Court confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee Sept. 5, U.S. Appeals Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh said his experience serving the homeless with Catholic Charities and tutoring at Washington Jesuit Academy has influenced him as a judge because of the importance of "standing in the shoes of others."
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick, the retired archbishop of Washington, is not the first U.S. prelate to have been accused of abusing seminarians under his care, only the most recent.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Addressing the clergy abuse crisis in the church will require "wider lay engagement, more realized accountability and evident transparency," said Washington Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl at the end of a Sept. 2 Mass in Washington.
Read moreWASHINGTON (CNS) -- In Nebraska, the state's Attorney General is said to be looking at decades-old allegations of sex abuse by priests in the Diocese of Lincoln. In Illinois, the Diocese of Joliet announced in late August it was settling, for $1.4 million, a lawsuit brought about by men who said they were molested as boys by a priest. And in Texas, the Diocese of Dallas said on Aug. 30 it had reached a settlement, but did not say for how much, with men who said they were abused more than a decade ago by one of its priests, who has recently gone missing.
Read more
PHILADELPHIA (CNS) -- Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput is asking Pope Francis to call off the Synod of Bishops on young people this October to focus instead on the life of the bishops. "I have written the Holy Father and called on him to cancel the upcoming synod on young people. Right now, the bishops would have absolutely no credibility in addressing this topic," the archbishop said at an Aug. 30 conference at Philadelphia's St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, according to a report by the website LifeSiteNews.
Read more
DALLAS (CNS) -- Dallas Bishop Edward J. Burns has asked Pope Francis for an extraordinary synod to address issues in the latest Catholic clergy sex abuse crisis, including "abuse of power, clericalism, accountability and the understanding of transparency in the church."
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In an Aug. 30 letter to priests in the archdiocese, Washington Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl asked for "forgiveness for my errors in judgment (and) for my inadequacies." He asked the priests to accept his "contrition for any suffering I have caused, as well as the grace to find, with you, ways of healing, ways of offering fruitful guidance in this darkness."
Read more
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (CNS) -- The Archdiocese of San Juan filed for bankruptcy protection Aug. 29 over unpaid teacher pensions. Civil officials on the island territory embargoed $4.7 million from various archdiocesan accounts after retired teachers from the archdiocese's school filed a lawsuit seeking their pensions.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- San Jose Bishop Patrick J. McGrath said he won't move into a five-bedroom home he was set to live in when he retired after news reports in California revealed its price tag: $2.3 million.
Read more
PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) -- Catholic churches and homes in southern Oregon are safe so far amid wildfires, but persistent smoke has suppressed activities -- and spirits. "It is horrible. It is absolutely grim," said Ann Brophy, pastoral associate at Sacred Heart Church in Medford.
Read more
HOUSTON (CNS) -- Despite the nearly 100-degree temperatures, Jaime Reyna found purpose in his four-hour drive from Corpus Christi to Houston. With five teens from the Diocese of Corpus Christi, where Reyna serves as diocesan youth ministry director, he made a pilgrimage to the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston, which hosted the World Youth Day Cross and Marian icon Aug. 23.
Read more
MAGNOLIA, Del. (CNS) -- Wonder Woman may have helped Joanna Wicks advance to the Miss America pageant, but the reigning Miss Delaware will rely on a higher power to help her stay calm during the competition.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- After recent reports describing clergy sex abuse, Paul Peloquin, a Catholic clinical psychologist and a clergy abuse survivor, shared advice for victims and their families. "For Catholics who have been abused by a priest or clergy, it's doubly difficult because they have not only been psychologically traumatized, but spiritually traumatized," Peloquin told Catholic News. "Unless that is addressed, healing is very difficult."
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- More committees are not the answer to stop the abuse of children and vulnerable adults by clergy, said an Aug. 28 statement by the National Review Board, which is charged with addressing clerical sexual misconduct in the Catholic Church.
Read more
Washington D.C., Aug 27, 2018 CNA/EWTN News.- Multiple bishops have responded to a testimony published over the weekend by a former apostolic nuncio to the United States, which called for the resignation of Pope Francis and several cardinals and bishops, who are alleged to have covered-up of sexual abuse allegations against former cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
Read more
Buffalo, N.Y., Aug 27, 2018 CNA/EWTN News.- Adoption and foster services through Catholic Charities of Buffalo are ending because state rules do not allow the agency to maintain its practice of only placing children in homes with a mother and a father.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Several American bishops responded quickly upon hearing of the charges leveled by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former Vatican ambassador to the United States, that church leaders -- including Pope Francis -- had been told years ago of the abuse allegations lodged against retired Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo, New York, acknowledged that even though his efforts in handling sex abuse claims in the diocese seem to have "fallen short," he would not resign despite being asked to do so by several local leaders, including Catholics.
Read more
TUCSON, Ariz. (CNS) -- Retired Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson praised Arizona Sen. John S. McCain, who died at age 81 of brain cancer Aug. 25, for his service to the nation. "He was a very principled man who had a passion for service," Bishop Kicanas told the Catholic Outlook, newspaper of the Tucson Diocese, Aug. 27.
Read more
ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- Archbishop Robert J. Carlson of St. Louis said Aug. 23 he has invited Missouri's attorney general to conduct a review of the archdiocese with regard to clergy sexual abuse. In a letter to Attorney General Josh Hawley, the archbishop said he was aware of the public's requests to his office "to investigate" the church in Missouri and its handling of clergy abuse.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Nearly a year ago, Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico as a category 4 storm, and afterward 11-year-old Marco Lebron's first thought was about the monks who teach at his school, Benedictine-run San Antonio Abad School and Abbey in Humacao.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said he was "eager for an audience" with Pope Francis to gain his support for the bishops' plan to respond to the clergy sexual abuse crisis.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A religion professor from New York is one of 22 recipients of a federal $60,000 grant for scholars and writers that will allow her to study and write about Catholic families affected by the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As the Sunday Mass crowd left the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle Aug. 26, Judy Lorenz held a large poster board just outside its front steps, imploring Washington's Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl to resign.
Read moreWashington D.C., Aug 25, 2018 CNA.- Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington has denied a report that he was informed about restrictions apparently placed by the Vatican upon his predecessor, Archbishop Theodore McCarrick.
Read moreSt. Louis, Mo., Aug 23, 2018 CNA.- Archbishop Robert J. Carlson has invited the Missouri attorney general’s office to conduct an inspection of its files related to allegations of sexual abuse and to produce an independent report.
Read more
Orange, Calif., Aug 23, 2018 CNA/EWTN News.- Returning from Bishop Robert Barron's conference held this week on preaching, several priests said the experience was a grace-filled time to focus on one of the most important roles with which they are tasked.
Read more
CHICAGO (CNS) -- When more than 100,000 young people gather with Pope Francis in Panama this January for World Youth Day, on prominent display will be two symbols that visited the Archdiocese of Chicago Aug. 20.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A new documentary, "John Paul II in Ireland: A Plea for Peace," makes the case that the pope's trip to Ireland in 1979 played a key role in ending the Troubles and bringing about peace in Northern Ireland.
Read more
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (CNS) -- Seton Hall University officials have opened an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick and others. University President Mary J. Meehan announced the action in a letter published on the school's website Aug. 22.
Read more
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- What became known following a New York Times investigation into two seminarians who said they had been abused by Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick is that settlements were reached with each man in the mid-2000s.
Read moreFRESNO, Calif. (CNS) -- U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd on Aug. 13 sentenced Michael Galloway, owner and operator of the Catholic Online website, to 21 months in prison for tax evasion, according to an announcement by U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott.
Read more