Catholic News Service

"Creating a fully accessible parish requires not only the removal of architectural barriers, but above all, helping parishioners to develop attitudes and acts of solidarity and service toward persons with disabilities and their families," the pope said in his message marking the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Dec. 3.

The network, long seen as a Jesuit ministry, supports "the evangelizing mission of the Holy Father through prayers" and should encourage "a mission of compassion for the world," said the preamble to the new foundation's statutes.

Heroic trust in the Holy Spirit and a firm resolve to move forward "on mission" are at the heart of the Archdiocese of Detroit's transition to "families of parishes," Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron said Nov. 22 in a new pastoral note.

While sin may distort and disfigure the image of Christ that every person bears, it does not completely erase it, nor does it remove people from God's abundant mercy, Pope Francis said.

For more than three decades, leaders of the Archdiocese of Montreal failed to properly treat the complaints and the red flags periodically raised about Fr. Brian Boucher, said a report prepared by retired Quebec Superior Court Judge Pepita G. Capriolo. Instead, church authorities seemed intent on covering the priest's behavior to protect his and the church's reputation, she wrote.

Guaranteeing justice for all men and women is not possible while a few people control most of the world's wealth and everyone else's right to a dignified life is disregarded, Pope Francis said.

The approval decades ago of a Zairean rite of the Roman Missal demonstrated that it is possible also to develop a rite for the Amazon region, Pope Francis said in a preface to a new book.

A move by the Department of Justice to expand how it carries out federal death sentences — to include electrocution, gas or firing squads along with lethal injections —was sharply criticized by Catholic anti-death penalty activists.

Pope Francis has named Bishop Michael W. Fisher, an auxiliary bishop of Washington since June 2018, to head the Diocese of Buffalo, New York.

In oral arguments Nov. 30, the Supreme Court weighed in on President Donald Trump's order to exclude immigrants living in the country illegally from the 2020 census for purposes of redrawing congressional districts.

Agencies like Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Paterson are teaming up with other groups to make sure the growing number of families and individuals showing up at their doors are fed during the holidays.

Bishop Chen was the third bishop to be named and ordained within the regulatory framework of the provisional agreement between China and the Holy See regarding the appointment of bishops.

Despite confusion over the morality of using these companies' vaccines, it is not "immoral to be vaccinated with them," the chairmen of the U.S. bishops' doctrine and pro-life committees said Nov. 23.

Iota marked the first recorded Category 5 storm ever to hit the island. The Colombian government estimates that the hurricane damaged 100% of structures, destroying eight of 10 of them.

Pope Francis advanced the sainthood causes of 127 Spanish martyrs, three Italian religious women, an Italian archbishop and three priests. 

An elderly Jesuit priest struggling in an Indian jail with ill health says he still finds happiness in listening to the stories of other inmates and credits his congregation for the training that helps him cope with his situation.

Hamburg Archbishop Stefan Hesse has stepped down from his post as spiritual assistant to the Central Committee of German Catholics, the most important laypeople's organization of the church in Germany, pending clarification of all the allegations about his possible role in covering up sexual abuse cases during his time in Cologne.

Longtime anti-death penalty activist Sr. Helen Prejean tweeted after Orlando Hall's execution by lethal injection that under Attorney General William Barr's leadership, "the Justice Department worked into the early morning hours filing reams of appeals, ultimately succeeding in gaining court approval to execute a Black man who was sentenced to death by an all-white jury. This is not 'Christlike behavior.'"

Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster said he will not "walk away" from leadership of the church amid pressure to resign over his handling of child abuse cases.

The presence of Latin Americans around the world has enriched the Catholic Church with a renewed zeal for the Gospel, Pope Francis said.