World News

The head of the U.S. bishops is criticizing the state of Massachusetts for what he said was its “shocking” decision to remove any limits to abortion there.State Gov. Maura Healey signed a bill into law on Aug. 10 making Massachusetts the 11th state to impose no limits on abortion. The law removes all of the ... read more

Two parishes in the Diocese of Buffalo, New York, have won reprieves from the Vatican and will not have to close amid a diocesan-wide closure and merger plan. Mary Pruski, the leader of the advocacy group Save Our Buffalo Churches, told EWTN News on Aug. 14 that the parishes of St. Josaphat and Our Lady ... read more

During the regular session of the Council of Ministers on Aug. 12, the government of Peru declared the Nov. 11–17 apostolic visit of Pope Leo XIV to the country to be a matter of national interest.“His Holiness' visit is great news for the entire country,” President Keiko Fujimori stated Aug. 12, according to the official ... read more

Catholics celebrate the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary each year on Aug. 15. The solemnity commemorates the Church’s teaching that Mary, at the end of her earthly life, was taken body and soul into heaven.In 1950, Pope Pius XII confirmed this belief about the Virgin Mary when he defined it formally ... read more

The new Vatican coins are the first in nearly a decade to feature a pope's face since Francis requested in 2017 that his portrait no longer appear on Vatican coins. ... read more

Pope Leo XIV has appealed to all people to recognize the suffering of child migrants, noting that they are often the most vulnerable during mass migration.In a message published by the Vatican on Aug. 14, the pope reflected on the theme for the 112th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, “Even Just One of These ... read more

(See the readings for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time) Pope Francis was elected on March 13, 2013. Less than four months later he made his first trip outside of Rome to the island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea. The island was the destination to which migrants headed after the perilous journey across the ... read more

Pope Leo XIV has emphasized the need for priests to remain faithful to the texts and instructions of the Mass and to receive the proper formation to celebrate the sacred liturgy with dignity.“I have called attention to the respect that all those called to prepare the celebration of the divine mysteries, and priests in particular, ... read more

Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), addressed the loss of federal grant money for refugee resettlement and ongoing deportation efforts from President Donald Trump’s administration during an EWTN interview Aug. 13.In 2024, the USCCB received more than $180 million in funding for government contracts, most of which supported services ... read more

The powerful earthquake that struck western Colombia on Aug. 10 also put to the test those who look after the most vulnerable, such as those working at the Panamericana Clinic in the town of Apartadó where in the urgency to evacuate, a doctor, not thinking of himself first, grabbed up two newborns to carry them ... read more

The surrogate mother who refused to abort her baby after the biological parents allegedly called for an abortion gave birth two weeks early.The child, called Gabriel by his surrogate mother, McKenna West, was born in Dallas on Aug. 12. He was born amid an ongoing legal dispute after his biological parents, identified in court documents ... read more

Thousands gathered in the city of Chennai in southeast India on Aug. 8–9 for the country’s fifth National March for Life, bringing together Catholic bishops, clergy, religious, families, young people, and pro-life advocates for two days of prayer, formation, and public witness to the dignity of human life.Organized by CHARIS India and hosted by the ... read more

For a few years in the 1980s, when I was a graduate student at UCLA and had no stipend, I lived in a tenement near the La Brea Tar Pits and paid $105 a month for a studio apartment. It had no kitchen, only a hot plate and mini fridge on a counter beside a ... read more

A retired priest from Southern California recently published a column on Substack about a very private and personal issue his mother had with the use of contraception. It still appears to me that Arthur Holquin used his mother’s tragic situation as a device to promote his heterodox views on contraception. When called out on it, ... read more

In 2022, the Catholic Church in Poland shared a photo commemorating the 81st anniversary of St. Maximilian Kolbe’s arrest by the Nazis. The image, the last one taken of the saint before his final arrest, was notable for what it didn’t show — his signature long beard.By the time the photo was taken, Kolbe had ... read more