Latest Roman Catholicism News
New Crookston bishop says sexual abuse victims are priority
CROOKSTON, Minn. (AP) — The new bishop of the Crookston diocese said Monday he has learned important lessons about how the Roman Catholic church should respond to abuse by priests. Bishop Andrew Cozzens replaced Bishop Michael Hoeppner, who resigned earlier this year at...
Victims express frustration with archdiocese bankruptcy case
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — It’s been nearly three years since the Archdiocese of Santa Fe filed for bankruptcy, and letters sent to a federal judge reflect impatience with the pace of the proceedings. At least 16 letters have gone to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Thuma...
Jill Biden says SC 'prayer partner' helped change her life
WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — For years, Jill Biden couldn’t bring herself to pray, her faith shattered by the 2015 death of her son Beau from brain cancer at age 46. She felt “betrayed, broken.” Then a face in the crowd at one of her husband's stops in 2019 as he...
City wants to buy vacant church for community center
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (AP) — The city of Northampton wants to buy a shuttered Catholic church building in town that the current owner plans to demolish. The city’s director of planning and sustainability in a letter to O’Connell Development Group of Holyoke this month...
'God have mercy': Tigray residents describe life under siege
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — As food and the means to buy it dwindled in a city under siege, the young mother felt she could do no more. She killed herself, unable to feed her children. In a Catholic church across town, flour and oil to make communion wafers will soon run out....
Ex-Omaha Archdiocese chancellor charged in theft case
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former chancellor for the Roman Catholic Church’s Archdiocese of Omaha has been charged with two felony counts accusing him of stealing a total of more than $285,000 from a former priest and from a Springfield parish. The Rev. Michael Gutgsell,...
KBI say it has opened 122 clergy sex abuse cases in Kansas
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A task force formed three years ago to investigate clergy sexual abuse in Kansas Catholic dioceses has received 215 tips and opened 122 cases, according to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Robert Jacobs, executive officer of the KBI, reported on...
Biden to meet with Pope Francis to discuss COVID-19, climate
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to meet Pope Francis when he visits the Vatican later this month as part of a five-day swing through Italy and the U.K. for global economic and climate change meetings. Biden plans to discuss the coronavirus pandemic, the...
Italy high court nixes arrest warrant for Vatican suspect
ROME (AP) — Italy’s highest court has annulled an arrest warrant for a key suspect in the Vatican’s fraud and extortion trial, his lawyers said Wednesday, putting into question whether and when he might be extradited from Britain. In a decision Tuesday, the Court...
Vatican-backed sex abuse research institute expands mandate
ROME (AP) — The Catholic Church’s foremost research institute studying sexual abuse of minors is expanding its mandate to also include the sexual and spiritual abuse of adults, evidence of the Vatican's increasing awareness that children aren’t the only victims of clergy who abuse their...
