World News

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the 92-year-old president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, has commemorated the 60th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council with a lengthy essay in the Vatican newspaper. “Conservative and progressive [interpretations of Vatican II] are not opposites, since, correctly understood, they are part of ... read more

Pope Leo XIV has written an introduction to the Vatican publishing house’s new edition of The Practice of the Presence of God, a spiritual classic written by the Carmelite friar Brother Lawrence (c. 1614-1691). “Together with the writings of Saint Augustine and other books, this is one of the texts that have most ... read more

“The dialogue between religion and diplomacy is not optional, but indispensable in a context characterized by great global challenges, armed conflicts, forced displacement, environmental crises, and a worrying erosion of trust marked by fundamentalism and fanaticism,” Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue said at a recent roundtable discussion on religion ... read more

Vatican City - The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Jasikan, Ghana, presented by Bishop Gabriel Akwasi Ababio Mante.The Holy Father has appointed the Reverend Simon Kofi Appiah, until now lecturer in the department of Religion and Human Values of the University of Cape Coast, as bishop ... read more

Warsaw – More than 12,000 children in the Democratic Republic of Congo received support last year thanks to the initiatives of the Star Singers in Poland. For over forty years, during the Christmas season, tens of thousands of children, young people, and adults throughout Poland have participated in this traditional Christmas activity. Bringing the Gospel, ... read more

Kinshasa – A city suspended in limbo. This is the situation in Uvira, a city in South Kivu, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on the border with Burundi, which was captured on December 10 by M23/AFC guerrillas . The M23/AFC recently claimed to have withdrawn from Uvira, but in reality, according to local sources ... read more

A wooden statue of Our Lady of Hope has been brought from the southern Italian town of San Marco to St. Peter’s Basilica, where it will be venerated during the Christmas season. The 2025 jubilee year, whose theme is hope, concludes in the world’s dioceses on December 28, and in St. Peter’s Basilica ... read more

The Diocese of Phoenix has surpassed the Archdiocese of New York and the Archdiocese of Chicago to become the nation’s second-largest diocese, according to the recently released 2025 edition of The Official Catholic Directory. ... read more

One by one, as though on a conga line for the Democratic National Committee, our bishops last November recited a scripted Instagram paean to illegal immigration. Moreover, at the end of their recent November meeting, it was reported that they also, by overwhelming majority, huffed and puffed: “We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of peoples.” ... read more

Recently, I had occasion to pull down from the shelves a copy of John Donne’s collected poetry, republished in 2012 by a major press, with a new introduction and notes. I was going to discuss one of the stanzas in Donne’s “La Corona,” a crown-poem, as the last line of each of the seven stanzas ... read more

Pope Leo XIV has named Msgr. Peter Dai Bui, a Vietnamese refugee to the United States and a former Vatican official, as auxiliary bishop of Phoenix, one of the nation’s largest dioceses. ... read more

In a meeting with the leaders of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Pope Leo XIV emphasized the importance of peace and the centrality of missionary work. ... read more

The Salesians of Don Bosco are poised to surpass the Society of Jesus as the Church’s largest male religious institute, according to the newly released online edition of the Annuario Pontificio. ... read more

The New York Archdiocese is seeking a universal settlement with abuse survivors, with a deal that could break legal gridlock involving the archdiocese and its insurer Chubb, which has refused to cover abuse claims. ... read more

Students at the Jesuit-run school experience how environmental stewardship becomes spiritual practice — where caring for creation is seen as inseparable from caring for neighbors and the oneness in community.  ... read more