NY governor vows to fight lawsuit over vaccine mandate

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed this week to fight a lawsuit launched by a group of Christian health care practitioners who argue that New York’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for many health care workers is unconstitutional because it lacks a religious exemption. ...

As COVID-19 vaccine mandates rise, religious exemptions grow

An estimated 2,600 Los Angeles Police Department employees are citing religious objections to try to get out of the required COVID-19 vaccination. In Washington state, thousands of state workers are seeking similar exemptions. And in Arkansas, a hospital has been swamped...

Pope rejects German archbishop's resignation over abuse

BERLIN (AP) — Pope Francis has rejected the resignation of the archbishop of Hamburg, who offered to step down in March after a report faulted him for his handling of sexual abuse allegations in his previous diocese. The papal nuncio's office in Berlin said in a...

Pope: No place for politics in Biden Communion flap

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis said Wednesday that Catholic bishops must minister with “compassion and tenderness,” not condemnation, to politicians who support abortion rights and warned that clerics shouldn’t let politics enter into questions about receiving Communion. ...

Pope questions vaccine skeptics, including cardinals

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis said Wednesday he didn’t understand why people refuse to take COVID-19 vaccines, saying “humanity has a history of friendship with vaccines,” and that serene discussion about the shots was necessary to help them. “Even...

Pope Francis questions vaccine skeptics, says 'humanity has a history of friendship with vaccines'

Pope urges compassion as he wraps Slovakia pilgrimage

SASTIN, Slovakia (AP) — Pope Francis urged Slovakians on Wednesday to look out for the neediest among them as he ended his first post-surgery trip with a huge open-air Mass that drew tens of thousands of people amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Cheering, maskless...

Pope visit a sign of inclusion for Slovakia's excluded Roma

KOSICE, Slovakia (AP) — Pope Francis on Tuesday urged Slovakia’s Roma to integrate better into the mainstream as he met with the country’s most socially excluded minority group, who have long suffered discrimination, marginalization and poverty. But in some ways...

Your suffering is ours: Pope honors Slovak Holocaust victims

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Pope Francis honored Slovakian Holocaust victims and atoned for Christian complicity in wartime crimes as he sought to promote reconciliation Monday in a country where a Catholic priest was president of a Nazi puppet state that deported tens of thousands of its...

Polish nun, cardinal who defied communism are beatified

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's top political leaders on Sunday attended the beatification of two revered figures of the Catholic church — a cardinal who led the Polish church's resistance to communism and a blind nun who devoted her life to helping others who couldn't see. ...