Catholic Church

The Bridgeport Diocese has released guidance to its parishes on how to offer Mass outdoors with social distancing guidelines beginning on May 21. The diocese is offering two options. The first allows worshippers to attend Mass outside seated on chairs spaced appropriately for social distancing. Groups will be limited to no more than 50 congregants, and if the chairs are…

The Vatican says Pope Francis has created a new commission of experts to examine whether women can be deacons, an ordained role in the Catholic Church currently reserved for men

Father Stephen Tilley, a Catholic priest in Utah, started holding drive-up confessions sessions to help people during the coronavirus pandemic.

Pope Francis has left the Vatican to make a surprise visit to two churches

Churches across the United States are making changes in their worship services due to the coronavirus outbreak

The Orange County Register reports that Santa Ana police officers fatally shot an armed man Sunday afternoon inside a Catholic church.

Roman Catholic priests, deacons and bishops across the Amazon are voicing surprise, resignation and reluctant acceptance of Pope Francis’ refusal to allow married men to be ordained priests.

In the past few decades religious leaders and communities of faith have shifted how they deal with suicide.

Why would the NFL’s New Orleans Saints strike a behind-the-scenes alliance with the Catholic Church on an issue as emotionally fraught as clergy sex abuse?  It’s a question even die-hard fans are asking in a Catholic city where football is a religion of its own

NBC Owned Television Stations across the country conducted an anonymous survey of Catholic Church employees. The results provide a unique perspective on how Catholics in America are served by their dioceses, parishes, schools and other ministries.

The administrator of the elite Catholic school in Cancun, Mexico, used to take the girls out of class and send them to the chapel, where the priest from the Legion of Christ religious order would sexually abuse them.

The Vatican cardinal who co-authored a bombshell book with Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI reaffirming priestly celibacy on Tuesday strongly denied he manipulated the retired pope into publishing.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI has broken his silence to reaffirm the value of priestly celibacy, co-authoring a bombshell book at the precise moment that Pope Francis is weighing whether to allow married men to be ordained to address the Catholic priest shortage.

The Samples were a black Chicago family, with six children and few resources. The priest helped them with tuition, clothes, bills. He offered the promise of opportunities — a better life. He also abused all the children. They told no one. They were afraid of not being believed and of losing what little they had, said one son, Terrence Sample….

Thousands of mourners, including many firefighters, lined the streets of Worcester Monday to pay their final respects to fallen fire Lt. Jason Menard, who died while saving others during a fire last week. Firefighters from as far as California and Canada were among a sea of first responders who came to salute the fallen lieutenant under drizzly skies as his...

The Associated Press has found that more than 900 clergy members accused of child sexual abuse are missing from the lists of credibly accused priests released by the Roman Catholic dioceses and religious orders. Victims advocates had long criticized the church for not making public the names of credibly accused priests. Now, despite the release of nearly 5,300 names,...

The Associated Press has found that more than 900 clergy members accused of child sexual abuse are missing from the lists of credibly accused priests released by the Roman Catholic dioceses and religious orders. Victims advocates had long criticized the church for not making public the names of credibly accused priests.

Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses have paid nearly $84 million to 564 victims of sexual abuse, a tally that’s sure to grow substantially in the new year as compensation fund administrators work through a backlog of claims, according to an Associated Press review.

Pope Francis offered a Christmas message of hope Wednesday against darkness that cloaks conflicts and relationships in large parts of the world from the Middle East to the Americas to Africa. The pope told tens of thousands of tourists, pilgrims and Romans gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the annual Christmas Day message that “the light of Christ is...