Roman Catholic Church

The election of the first American gained worldwide attention in early May, not just among the faithful, but also among collectors who sought to capitalize on the fact that the new pontiff is not just an American, but an avid baseball fan.

Pope Leo XIV reaffirmed the call for priests to remain celibate while commanding bishops to take “firm and decisive” action in cases involving sexual abuse in remarks delivered to the Catholic hierarchy on Wednesday.

A cloud formation resembling Jesus Christ appeared above a Basilica in the Philippines just after Mass earlier this month, stunning worshippers and causing a video of the heavenly cloud to go viral on social media.

Pope Francis will be released from the hospital on Sunday, after 38 days battling a life-threatening case of pneumonia in both lungs, his doctors said.

Pop singer Sabrina Carpenter’s use of a Roman Catholic church in Brooklyn as a backdrop for parts of a music video, with her dancing next to pastel-colored coffins, led to its pastor being stripped of his administrative duties after its release and officials holding a Mass to restore the church’s “sanctity.”

Pope Francis has been taken by ambulance to a hospital in Rome on Wednesday after suffering from alleged respiratory issues. 

The Catholic Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) has reiterated its opposition to surrogacy, likening the practice to renting a woman’s womb while treating the children born of surrogacy as objects.

Police in Paris are searching for an “African type” man accused of vandalising and desecrating a Roman Catholic church in central Paris, who they say has a prior history of church attacks.

Yasin Kanjaa, a radical Muslim accused of murdering one and injuring several others after attacks in two churches in Spain, has claimed he sees “devils” as authorities look into the state of his mental health.

A Canadian Catholic school pupil who was suspended last November for saying there are only two genders was arrested this week after attempting to return to class without renouncing his beliefs.

Court said last week’s stabbings at two churches in Algeciras were likely a jihadist terrorist attack and remanded the suspect in custody. 

Two churches in the city of Paris have been subjected to arson attacks over several days as police have yet to arrest any suspects. 

A French church in the commune of Champagne-au-Mont-d’Or in the suburbs of Lyon was vandalised this week, with paintings and statues smashed.

A teacher in the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) has bragged on social media about having a pride flag and depictions of Jesus Christ as transgender in a prayer space in his class.

VATICAN CITY (AP) – The public can now visit the tomb of Pope Benedict XVI in the grottoes under St. Peter´s Basilica.

Pope Benedict XVI, laid to rest at the Vatican on Thursday, stirred controversy early in his pontificate by quoting a Byzantine emperor critical of Islam.

Pope Benedict XVI warned in a 2006 book that “Western self-hatred” had become “pathological”, and that the decline of marriage, the family, and depopulation could be the death knell for European identity. 

A French “anti-hate” website has listed several Roman Catholic symbols, including various crosses, alongside well-known Nazi symbols. 

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI ‘s body is lying in state in St. Peter’s Basilica as thousands of people lined up hours before dawn on Monday to pay their respects.

Benedict did more to tackle predator priests than any of his predecessors combined, and especially more than John Paul, according to the Associated Press.

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis on Wednesday said his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, is “very sick,” and he asked the faithful to pray for the retired pontiff so God will comfort him “to the very end.”

Two churches in the cities of Bordeaux and Paris were attacked, with the latter seeing the vandals write far-left slogans on the doors.

Arson is suspected by investigators after a fire broke out at the cathedral of Saint-Pol-de-Léon on Thursday evening in what could be just the latest arson attack on a Roman Catholic church in France. The fire is believed to have broken

Over a year after his arrest for the murder of a French priest, Rwandan migrant Emmanuel Abayisenga has been indicted by a French prosecutor.

The tomb of St. Nicholas, who inspired the Christmas legend of Santa Claus, was recently discovered underneath a church in Turkey.

Queen Elizabeth II, praised by England’s leading Catholic cardinal for her faith, said her sense of “personal accountability before God” underpinned her entire life.

A Muslim male interrupted mass in a French church in the suburbs of Paris over the weekend, attacking a parishioner and screaming.

Pope Francis told a Buddhist delegation from Mongolia Saturday that Jesus and Buddha shared a common commitment to peace and nonviolence.

Unidentified gunmen stormed a Catholic parish church in northern Nigeria in the early hours of Wednesday and kidnapped four people, two of whom were priests.

Pope Francis warned again of Europe’s “demographic winter” on Friday, caused by a dangerously low birthrate far beneath replacement levels.

The Latin Mass Society of England and Wales has expressed dismay at Pope Francis’s latest crackdown on conservatives and traditionalists by further restricting the use of traditional liturgy.

ROME (AP) – Pope Francis doubled down Saturday on his efforts to quash the old Latin Mass, forbidding the celebration of some sacraments according to the ancient rite in his latest salvo against conservatives and traditionalists.

A group of French Catholics in Nanterre faced death threats from a group of Muslims as they engaged in a torchlight procession to celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception last week.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Pope Francis was heckled by an elderly Greek Orthodox priest on Saturday as he arrived for a meeting with the head of the country’s Orthodox Church, evidence of the lingering distrust between some Orthodox and Catholics centuries after Christianity was cleaved in half.

Cardinal Sarah called on Europe to develop Africa to stop the flow of illegal immigrants, warning Europe is on a path to “self-destruction.”  

Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester, has defected from the established Church of England to Roman Catholicism after complaining of the obsession with woke “identity politics” in Anglicanism.