Catholic News Service

A federal judge ruled plaintiffs including Catholic Social Services of the Philadelphia Archdiocese must provide home assessments for same-sex couples wishing to provide foster care.

Catholic bishops in the Central African Republic have distanced themselves from a group that is promising to defend the church and avenge the deaths of priests.

As attacks on Catholic clergy continue and anti-government protesters are besieged by Nicaraguan police and paramilitaries, the bishops said they would pray an exorcism prayer.

An amendment sponsored by a congressman from Alabama and approved by the House Appropriations Committee July 11 aims to protect Catholic and other faith-based agencies that choose, based on their religious conviction, not to place children with same-sex couples for adoption or foster care.

Bishops J. Mark Spalding of Nashville, Richard Stika of Knoxville and Martin Holley of Memphis have written to Gov. Bill Haslam urging him to "use your authority as governor to put an end to the fast-track executions planned" in the state of Tennessee in the upcoming months.

A front-page New York Times article published July 16 detailed the alleged abuse of two seminarians in the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey, by then-Bishop Theodore McCarrick in the 1980s that resulted in settlements to each man.

As his delegates to preside over sessions of the Synod of Bishops in October, Pope Francis has chosen four cardinals from countries where young people are facing special challenges.

All Christians are called to be missionaries, concerned more with sharing the Gospel than with earning money or even with being successful at winning converts, Pope Francis said.

As the Catholic Church in Chile continues to reel from allegations of clerical sexual abuse and cover-ups, police arrested the former chancellor of the Archdiocese of Santiago on accusations he sexually abused minors.

The Jesuits' general postulator said he has begun compiling all of the writings of Jesuit Fr. Pedro Arrupe and seeking eyewitnesses who can attest to the holiness of order's late superior general.

Peru's bishops expressed support for an overhaul of the country's judicial system after phone-tap recordings revealing influence peddling and corruption became public.

Some of migrant children under age 5 separated from their families by the government were reunited with loved ones July 9 with help from Catholic organizations.

Bishop Richard Garcia, who headed the Diocese of Monterey since 2007, died July 11 of complications from Alzheimer's disease. He was 71.

The traditionalist Society of St. Pius X elected 47-year-old Fr. Davide Pagliarani, an Italian member of the society, as its superior general.

Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces, New Mexico, to be coadjutor bishop of San Jose, California.

The Tamadaw, the military of Myanmar, has been attacking the ethnic minority Kachin people in what some observers are calling a genocide.

Ethiopia's Catholic Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel commended the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments for signing a peace accord.

The Vatican is helping organize an international conference meant to help dioceses work with their local communities in finding appropriate uses for decommissioned churches.

The Catholic Mobilizing Network has urged the state of Nevada to spare the life of convicted murderer Scott Dozier, who was scheduled to be executed July 11 at the state prison in Ely, Nevada.

Montana's two Catholic dioceses have reiterated their respective policies on political involvement, saying that support for or opposition to a particular candidate by any representative of the diocese is not permitted.