World News

The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development has presented a pastoral aid or kit on Magnifica Humanitas with the aim of making the new encyclical by Pope Leo XIV more easily understood.On May 27, the dicastery explained on social media how the pastoral kit is structured and provided a link to it. The material includes ... read more

There is much good in our Holy Father’s new encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. The media has made a big deal about his comments on Artificial Intelligence, but the encyclical is broader than that: it reiterates the perennial Catholic teaching on human dignity. It is a needed clarion call about what makes us human and why no ... read more

As the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence approaches, more and more considerations of what it is to be an American and what the country is all about are being offered. This is in contrast to the relative quiet of the celebrations heretofore, in comparison to those of the Bicentennial 50 years ago (which ... read more

Social and technological changes point to the need for a new social contract. If the Democrats would turn to the pope for inspiration, they'd shed their image as cultural libertarians with a preference for big government. ... read more

"This teaching document draws from and supports a more fundamental Christian doctrine: the inherent goodness of creation generally and our own materiality in particular," writes Daniel P. Horan. ... read more

The brainchild of WOC Executive Director Kate McElwee, the "Not if, But How — Reforming Institutions" panel gathered two sociologists and a political scientist to explore concrete strategies for changing institutions.   ... read more

At the 50th anniversary celebration of the Women's Ordination Conference, attendees dared to celebrate the Catholic Church's commitment to synodality and the bit of hope it brings them that women could someday be ordained priests.  ... read more

We are Christians and Catholic not because we worship a key, but because we have passed a door and felt the wind that is the trumpet of liberty blow over the land of the living. — G.K. Chesterton ... read more

On the first Thursday after Pentecost, the Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest is observed on the particular calendars in Spain, Poland, Netherlands, Czech Republic and England and Wales. Approval for this feast was first granted by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 1987. In ... read more

The president of the Cuban Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Marcelo González Amador, said people are coming to parishes in Cuba saying "they’ve gone days without eating.”In a conversation this week with Aid to the Church in Need/Spain, the 70-year-old prelate expressed his anguish over the crisis afflicting the country, saying that “Cuba is hurting.” González, the ... read more

Two brothers in Brazil were ordained priests together on the same day.The brothers, Anderson Carlos Ramos, 35, and Emerson Luiz Ramos, 38, were ordained priests in Guarapuava in the Brazilian state of Paraná on Saturday, May 23 — Emerson’s birthday.The ordination took place at Holy Cross and Our Lady of Sorrows Parish, where both men ... read more

Charles Zech, a long-serving economics professor at Villanova University who founded and led the schoolʼs pioneering Church management institute, died on May 17. He was 79 years old. His death was announced in an obituary that described him as a “doting father and husband” who “prioritized spending time with his family” even as he spearheaded ... read more

A Pew Research Center report found that most Americans who regularly attend religious services hear about political or social issues from their clergy.The May 27 report, “What Political Issues Do Americans Hear About in Church?” found two-thirds of U.S. adults who regularly attend religious services have heard their clergy speak about at least one political ... read more

Pope Leo XIV is inviting Catholics around the world to join him in praying a rosary for peace on May 30.The Holy Father is set to pray the rosary live from the Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican Gardens at 7 p.m. Rome time. Monsignor Walter R. Rossi, rector of the Basilica of the National Shrine ... read more

The Trump administration's vast cuts to refugee services have led some religious congregations to fill in gaps. ... read more