OSV News

The apostolic nuncio to Syria says he hopes the war-torn nation will "move toward reconciliation" and at least "some prosperity" under democratic rule, following former Syrian President Bashar Assad's ouster in a lightning offensive by rebel groups.
 

Jesuit Father Hans Zollner — the founder and director of the Institute of Anthropology at the Pontifical Gregorian University and a former member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors — joined several safeguarding experts in releasing a joint proposal in Rome Nov. 18 advocating a change in church law on the handling of sexual abuse cases.

The Catholic Health Association of the United States said the national organization, along with the Catholic health community, is "shocked and grieved" by the public killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson at the hands of a masked gunman.

Sudanese Catholic Bishop Yunan Tombe Trille Kuku Andali of El Obeid Dec. 2 described narrowly escaping execution in his country, where he has remained with the faithful amid a deadly war between the Sudan Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

An uneasy calm hangs over Aleppo, Christian leaders report, following the recent lightning takeover of Syria's second-largest city by Islamist rebels driving out forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Concerns also mount over government airstrikes.

Christmas this season in the Holy Land will be celebratory, despite ongoing bloodshed and war, the patriarchs of the Holy Land said, as Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa encouraged pilgrims to come back to the birthplace of Jesus.

The Holy See has suppressed the Carmelite Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Arlington, Texas, a month after its residents were dismissed from the Carmelite order and religious life. The decree, issued Nov. 28 by the Vatican Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, stated that the monastery "is extinct."

Catholic leaders in Central America expressed alarm over the idea of repealing a national prohibition on extractive activities in El Salvador — putting the church in opposition to the country's popular president.

In a moving letter, Pope Francis expressed his closeness with the people of Nicaragua as Central American bishops called for a day of prayer for the country on the feast of the Immaculate Conception amid constitutional changes that will lead into an even darker dictatorship.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Dec. 4 a challenge to a Tennessee state law banning certain types of medical or surgical gender reassignment procedures for minors who identify as transgender, the high court's first major step toward weighing in on the controversial issue.

The world was left stunned when the first images of the rebuilt Notre Dame were published and spread with viral speed as President Emmanuel Macron walked through the bright, unrecognizably beautiful Parisian cathedral on Nov. 29, a week ahead of the Dec. 7-8 official reopening.

Catholic bishops in England have decried a vote for assisted suicide, with one saying it represented a "dark day" in the history of the country.

Chad Pregracke of East Moline, Illinois, established Living Lands & Waters, an environmental organization, in 1998 in his hometown along the Mississippi River. He and his staff host river cleanups, watershed conservation initiatives, workshops and tree plantings, among other conservation efforts. 

The archbishop of Valencia presided over Mass celebrated by the Spanish bishops in the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid Nov. 19 to pray for all those affected by the tragic end-of-October floods in Valencia, Albacete and Cuenca, where over 200 people lost their lives.

Now the most decorated U.S. female Olympian in history, Katie Ledecky paid a visit Oct. 22 to her high school alma mater, Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, along with her home parish, Church of the Little Flower.

Amid controversy over religious-themed tattoos sported by President-elect Trump's pick for defense secretary, a U.S. office of a Vatican lay institution for the church in the Holy Land has expressed concern regarding the misuse of its historic insignia.

Five years after the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church made national headlines in Poland, victims of abuse met with Polish bishops at the fringes of the plenary meeting of the bishops' conference. 

In the wake of recent high-profile cases of financial mismanagement at parishes, experts said transparency, accountability and greater involvement of finance councils in parish business operations can head off losses in money and trust.

As Russia's full-scale invasion reached the 1,000-day mark Nov. 19, Ukraine still stands as "a testament to the miraculous endurance of our people, to God's grace," said Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia.

Bishop W. Shawn Mc­Knight of Jefferson City called Russ Kremer a witness of how Catholic social teaching can be the foundation of a reform for "agribusiness" in the United States, moving back toward a food supply network that is based on the dignity of the human person.