Several U.S. Catholic bishops on Wednesday encouraged the church to boldly share Vatican teachings on a range of hot-button issues, including the condemnation of abortion, euthanasia, surrogacy and gender-affirming surgery.

Hundreds of people have turned out for the burial of Catholic priest Marcelo Pérez, an activist for Indigenous peoples and farm laborers who was killed in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades.

Abortion-rights groups are courting Latino voters through door-knocking and Spanish-language ads.

Pope Francis has taken the unusual decision to expel 10 people from a troubled Catholic movement in Peru after a Vatican investigation uncovered “sadistic” abuses of power, authority and spirituality.

A federal judge is allowing more than 8,000 Catholic employers nationwide to reject government regulations that protect workers seeking abortions and fertility care.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s 2019 conversion to Catholicism helped shape his political worldview.

Archdiocese of Miami's Catholic schools will welcome students on the first day of the 2024-25 school year on Tuesday.

The Knights of Columbus, the world’s largest Catholic fraternal group, has covered up defining features of the mosaics in its Washington D.

Each Holy Week, thousands of residents of the colonial, volcano-fringed city of Antigua participate in some of Guatemala’s oldest and most popular Easter traditions.

While some American cities celebrated St. Patrick’s Day a day early, others, including Boston, one of the most Irish cities in the country, kicked off parades and festivities on Sunday.

A ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court is raising the bar for religions to show that their charity arms deserve tax exemptions.

The sexual abuse of children by Catholic sisters and nuns has been overshadowed by far more common reports of male clergy abuse.

After last year's wave of wins for the so-called school choice movement, some religious schools in those states are seeing enrollment rise and are planning for a fuller future.

Haitian Bishop Pierre-André Dumas was at Jackson Memorial Hospital on Saturday after arriving at Miami International Airport.

A study has found more than 57% of Argentina's people are considered poor, the worst poverty level in 20 years.

Nicaraguan authorities arrested six more Catholic priests.

Hundreds of drivers waited for free food on Wednesday in Miami. The giveaway was part of a 38-year-old charitable tradition to help families prepare for Noche Buena, Spanish for “the Good Night,” a late dinner celebration that spills into Christmas morning.

An Iowa man is under arrest in the death of a Catholic priest who was stabbed in the rectory of his a small Nebraska church.

Researchers have discovered new documentation that substantiates reports that Catholic convents and monasteries in Rome sheltered Jews during World War II.

Spain is set to unveil what is touted as one of Europe’s cultural highlights of the year with the opening in Madrid of The Royal Collections Gallery next month.

A 29-year-old teacher is facing child sex abuse charges involving elementary school-aged girls who were his students at schools in Miami, records show.

Through more than 200 years of service, the Sisters of Charity of New York have nursed Civil War casualties, joined civil rights and anti-war demonstrations, cared for orphans, and taught countless children.

French authorities and media reports say a teacher has been stabbed to death in southwestern France by a high school student.

A 90-year-old Catholic cardinal and five others in Hong Kong were fined after being found guilty of failing to register a now-defunct fund meant to people arrested in the widespread protests three years ago.

In a historic monastery set in the tourist-thronged main town of Santorini, one of the trendiest Greek islands, 13 cloistered nuns live a vocation little understood but central to Catholicism — tireless prayer.

As student anxiety skyrockets, campus ministries are trying to help by not just offering the comforts of faith and community, but also creating collaborations with mental health professionals.

Every Sunday afternoon since last Easter, teens kneel by a makeshift altar at Fort Bliss and pray so hard that tears stream down their faces.

The Vatican this week is hosting a three-day symposium on the Catholic priesthood amid renewed public attention on clergy sex abuse scandals and fresh research into the abuses of priestly power.

A consortium of Catholic women’s groups is calling on the Holy See to join the Council of Europe and sign the European Convention on Human Rights.

The new Texas law that bans most abortions in the state is being welcomed by many of the religious leaders who help bolster the anti-abortion movement.

The organization overseeing Catholic schools in the United States gets a new chief executive this week as it seeks to rebound from its biggest one-year enrollment drop since the 1970s.

It's another victory for religious groups at the Supreme Court.

Divisions have flared up among U.S. Catholic bishops as they opened a national meeting highlighted by a sensitive agenda item: a possible rebuke of Catholic politicians, including President Joe Biden, who receive Communion while supporting abortion rights.

Police in Northern Ireland deployed water cannons for the first time in six years as they tried to disperse protesters who hurled stones, fireworks and gasoline-filled bottles at officers during another night of violence in Belfast.

___ROME — Police in Italy have been cracking down on violators of ordinances aimed at reining in what has been weeks of stubbornly high incidences of COVID-19 cases. North Macedonia has recorded more than 126,000 coronavirus cases and more than 3,600 deaths. ___TIRANA — Albania started a mass inoculation campaign Sunday ahead of the summer tourism season after acquiring 192,000 doses of Chinese coronavirus vaccine Sinovac earlier this week. The church drew media attention after reports it had opened the service to its entire congregation despite a tough coronavirus lockdown and sharply rising infection rate in the Netherlands. ___MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s government is acknowledging that the country’s true death toll from the coronavirus pandemic now stands above 321,000.

The poster, she said, celebrated the recent liberalization of the abortion law in Argentina and expressed hope Poland would be next. Mass nationwide protests have recurred repeatedly since then, growing into the largest protest movement in post-communist Poland. The court's judges argued that allowing abortion when there are congenital defects is unconstitutional because the Polish Constitution protects human life. Suchanow and Marta Lempart, the leaders of the Women’s Strike group that has spearheaded street protests against the law, are now looking for inspiration to Argentina. AdIrene Donadio, a leading strategist with International Planned Parenthood Federation, a group promoting reproductive health and choice, said her organization is appalled that such a restrictive law could be imposed in a European Union member state.

(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)WARSAW – A near-total ban on abortion has taken effect in Poland and triggered a new round of nationwide protests three months after the constitutional court ruled that the abortion of congenitally damaged fetuses is unconstitutional. Members of Poland's ruling Law and Justice party, which is aligned with the Roman Catholic Church, had sought the new restriction. The protesters are demanding a full liberalization of the abortion law and the resignation of the government, neither of which seem likely in the short term. Some protesters Wednesday covered their faces with green bandanas, which are the symbol of the abortion rights movement in Argentina. The constitutional court is made up mostly of Law and Justice appointees who ruled on a motion brought by lawmakers from the party.

People gather in Warsaw, Poland Wednesday Jan. 27, 2021 to protest after the country's top court on Wednesday confirmed its highly divisive ruling that will further tighten the predominantly Catholic nation's strict anti-abortion law. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)WARSAW – New anti-government protests broke out in Polish cities Wednesday, shortly after the country's top court confirmed its highly divisive ruling that will further tighten the predominantly Catholic nation’s strict anti-abortion law. The ruling right-wing Law and Justice party is widely seen as having undue influence on the judiciary following reforms it passed affecting the way judges are appointed. It was made in response to a motion from over 100 ruling party lawmakers, whose names have not been made public. A prominent lawmaker for Law and Justice, Marek Suski, said work will begin on an entirely new abortion law that will take into account lethal defects.

(AP Photo/Kemal Softic)MOSTAR – MOSTAR, Bosnia-Long-entrenched ethno-nationalists were projected to win the first local election in Bosnia’s southern city of Mostar in 12 years, but early results of Sunday's vote also indicated multiethnic parties and alliances would be a strong part of the future city council. Mostar is split between Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats, who fought fiercely for control over the city during the country’s 1992-95 war. It hasn’t held a local election since 2008, when Bosnia’s constitutional court declared its election rules discriminatory and ordered them changed. Thus, the lawmakers from multiethnic parties appear set to become tiebreakers in all but certain disputes between the dominant Bosniak and Croat nationalists. Prior to the war, ethnically mixed couples made up 10% of all marriages in Mostar, and the city was markedly cosmopolitan.

The case is a big test of religious rights on a more conservative court. Catholic Social Services, which is affiliated with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, says its religious views keep it from certifying same-sex couples as foster parents. Kavanaugh, for his part, suggested Wednesday there should be a way for Catholic Social Services to continue to work with foster families. Even liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor seemed to recognize the court was sympathetic to Catholic Social Services. Catholic Social Services did not, and the city stopped placing children with the agency, which sued.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – The Archdiocese of Miami reopened Catholic schools Wednesday for in-person learning for some students. It’s kind of bittersweet,” said Eduardo Flor, who is the principal of St. Mary’s Cathedral School. On Wednesday, Catholic school students in Kindergarten through Second grade returned to the classroom for the first time in months. The Broward County School Board, meanwhile, laid out plans on Tuesday for a staggered return for public school students. “The first full day for all classes for all students at all schools will be Oct. 20,” Runcie said.

WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed back Friday against the Catholic archbishop of San Francisco's criticism of COVID-related restrictions, saying he should “follow science” rather than advocate for fuller in-person gatherings for Mass and worship. “With all due respect to my archbishop, I think we should follow science on this,” Pelosi said. Pelosi noted that faith and science are sometimes seen at odds. “Around here, people say to me, You're a person of faith, why do you believe in science?" “I say, I believe science is an answer to our prayers.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Our Lady of Lourdes Academy, an all-girls Catholic school near Coral Gables, showed the power of teamwork on Wednesday during the coronavirus pandemic. To honor the school’s Class of 2020, they set up seven caravans to visit the students’ 188 homes. About 70 drivers participated in the surprise fond farewell parades. Olga Martinez, the school’s director of admissions, said the campus at 5525 SW 84th St. has been closed since March 16th. She said the school’s faculty and staff, students and parents participated.

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican is launching a task force of experts to help Catholic dioceses and religious orders develop guidelines to handle cases of sexual abuse by clergy and tend to survivors. Task force participants said Friday that the aim is to provide legal expertise and help to dioceses and religious orders that simply don’t have the professional resources or have otherwise neglected to comply with the 2011 directive. The Vatican says church leaders must report to police only where civil laws require it. The task force is the latest initiative by the Vatican to underline the global nature of clergy sexual abuse, after the Catholic hierarchy for decades insisted it was exclusively a problem in the English-speaking world. 2 in the Vatican's secretariat of state, an indication of the central importance the Vatican is placing on the initiative.

Google EarthMIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. - Barry University will be closing Florida campuses on Friday ahead of Hurricane Dorian. According to Jeremy Jones, a spokesman for Barry University, one of the largest Catholic universities in the southeast territory, the campuses in Miami-Dade and Orange counties will close at 5 p.m. The closure affects the campus at 11300 NE 2nd Ave., in Miami Shores and the Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law at 6441 E. Colonial Drive, in Orlando. The campuses in Nassau and Freeport, Bahamas, remained closed on Thursday. Copyright 2019 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.

Google EarthMIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. - Barry University will be closing Florida campuses on Friday ahead of Hurricane Dorian. According to Jeremy Jones, a spokesman for Barry University, one of the largest Catholic universities in the southeast territory, the campuses in Miami-Dade and Orange counties will close at 5 p.m. The closure affects the campus at 11300 NE 2nd Ave., in Miami Shores and the Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law at 6441 E. Colonial Drive, in Orlando. The campuses in Nassau and Freeport, Bahamas, remained closed on Thursday. Copyright 2019 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.