OSV News

The drier conditions and warmer temperatures associated with climate change can create the conditions that make it easier for wildfires to start. Landscapes — both soil and trees — are now often more thoroughly damaged, making it more difficult for them to regenerate. The concentration of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere is also raised by wildfire activity.

Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Christopher Coyne of Burlington, Vermont, as coadjutor archbishop of Hartford, Connecticut.

Bishop Lee A. Piché, who eight years ago resigned from the office of auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis amid charges that the archdiocese had ignored warning signs of a priest abusing minors, will return to service in the archdiocese as the archbishop's representative to retired priests beginning July 1.

In western Ukraine, a military hospital's rural campus offers some four-plus miles of walking trails; when soldiers struggle to rest at night, they're given the chance to temporarily encamp with a neighboring army: bees.

People fleeing home due to the impact of climate change do not qualify for refugee status or protection under international law. As such, Catholic Relief Services is urging Congress to fund U.S. international assistance that addresses the impact of climate change.

Mexican Catholic leaders marked the first anniversary of the murders of two elderly Jesuits with special Masses celebrated June 18 in memory of Mexico's thousands of missing persons and the families of the many Mexicans murdered over the past two decades.

Ugandans woke up June 17 to the shock of a school massacre in which at least 39 students and two community members were killed.

A megadrought jeopardizes the Colorado River and, with it, water supplies for major U.S. cities and farms. Catholics in affected states are complementing efforts to prevent disaster with Laudato Si' firmly in mind.

Franciscan priests have returned to pastoral ministry at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, two months after the center decided to end their contract.

Barb Fraze, former international editor for Catholic News Service, is the recipient of the 2023 St. Francis de Sales Award from the Catholic Media Association.

Results of an annual survey on the permanent diaconate of the U.S. Catholic Church show the estimated number of deacons in active ministry was 13,695 in 2022, the lowest since 2011.

Revelations of rampant sexual abuse by deceased Jesuit Fr. Alfonso Pedrajas have prompted dozens of people in Bolivia to come forward with similar accusations of atrocities in the South American country, where the Catholic Church confronts a reckoning over the criminal acts of pedophile priests.

The destruction of a dam and hydroelectric power plant in a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine marks a "dastardly and diabolical act" that "defies imagination," Archbishop Borys Gudziak, metropolitan of Ukrainian Catholics in the U.S., told OSV News.

Pope Francis has appointed Fr. Michael Pham, vicar general of the Diocese of San Diego, and Fr. Felipe Pulido, vicar for clergy and director of vocations for the Diocese of Yakima, Washington, as auxiliary bishops of San Diego.

Catholic bishops in Florida urged Gov. Ron DeSantis to stay the execution of a death-row prisoner as the governor embarks on a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

Government authorities June 4 were working to get rail services back in operation in the district of Balasore after the deadliest train crash in India in decades killed at least 275 people and injured at least 1,000 June 2.

Catholic environmental activists in Africa are expressing grave concern after a group of bishops in Tanzania endorsed a proposed crude oil pipeline project, amid increasing calls to abandon fossil fuels to tackle climate changes.

As U.S. lawmakers considered a bill to address the looming debt ceiling, Catholic and other Christian activists gathered at Georgetown University to discuss how a nation's budget is a moral document detailing its priorities, advocating care for the poor and vulnerable should rank high on that list.

The House of Representatives on May 31 approved a compromise bill brokered by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, just days before a deadline to address the debt ceiling or risk a U.S. government default.

The Holy See has declared Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth to be "pontifical commissary" of the Monastery of Saint Joseph of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, according to a decree from the dicastery for religious life, dated May 31, 2023 and published on the website of the Diocese of Fort Worth. Olson "will assume his office upon communication" of the decree, it said.