Gina Christian

A historic place of prayer in Portland sustained significant damage to one of its buildings in a Feb. 28 vandalism attack. Security cameras, religious objects and windows were smashed in the monastery of The Grotto, the National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother, a 54-acre shrine operated by the Order of Friar Servants of Mary.

On Feb. 20, the Ukrainian Catholic bishops of the U.S. announced that their Metropolia Humanitarian Aid Fund has been restructured as the "Healing of Wounds of the War in Ukraine Fund." 

Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak warns that failing to support Ukraine as Russia's war machine relentlessly presses its attack will have a vast impact on religious freedom in the region as well as on global security.

An annual Lenten collection taken up by Catholics across the U.S. provides "life-changing hope," said Archbishop Nelson Pérez of Philadelphia, chair of the board of Catholic Relief Services.

Record-breaking storms in Southern California have damaged several Catholic schools and church properties, while forcing one archdiocese to reschedule its rite of election for catechumens.

The parish serves as a distribution center for needed supplies, such as water, food, diapers and other necessities. In addition, the parish organizes a community meal held on a monthly basis.

As the Israel-Hamas war enters its fourth month, ending hostilities "all around" to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip has become critical, the head of a U.S.-based Catholic aid agency said.

An upcoming webinar series hosted by a U.S. bishop will explore synodality through the prism of Jesus Christ's words at the Last Supper.

With a Wisconsin judge suspending his last remaining criminal trial for sexual abuse, former cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been granted a legal reprieve -- but clergy abuse survivors told OSV News the decision is a kind of "re-sentencing" for them and many fellow victims.

A now-retired Missouri priest has been barred from hearing confessions, months after diocesan tribunal judges found he had abused his ecclesiastical office through financial misconduct.

The firing of a Catholic school teacher in a Long Island, New York, diocese for having an adult same-sex relationship has sparked protests, highlighting tensions between the local church's expectations for employees to abide by church teachings and confusion among rank-and-file Catholics about the Vatican's signals regarding same-sex couples following its decree permitting them non-liturgical blessings.

An Alabama Catholic priest has now been fully returned to the lay state months after he fled the country with a recent Catholic high school graduate whose parents expressed concern she had been groomed by the cleric while she was still a minor.

As Pope Francis seeks to include more women in key church leadership positions, a Catholic social worker has been named to a pioneering post for women in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Two Ohio dioceses are considering a potential merger, according to a joint letter issued Dec. 11 by Bishop Earl K. Fernandes of the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio, and Bishop Paul J. Bradley, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Steubenville, Ohio, who said they "have begun very preliminary discussions regarding the potential merger of the dioceses."

The Diocese of Sacramento, California, has announced it will file for bankruptcy by March in an effort to resolve more than 250 sexual abuse lawsuits filed under a three-year California lookback window.

A Nebraska priest has died after being attacked in the rectory of his parish in the early morning before he was to celebrate Mass for the Second Sunday of Advent.

Archbishop George Leo Thomas of Las Vegas said he is "holding close" those affected by a mass shooting on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus.

Russian occupation authorities have banned the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and other Catholic ministries in occupied areas of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, according to the church's main communications office in Kyiv.

The University of Notre Dame has announced Dec. 4 that Holy Cross Fr. Robert Dowd has been named its 18th president, effective July 1.

Russia's extensive drone attack on Kyiv Nov. 25 damaged the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ.