By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Opening the Vatican summit on child protection and the clerical sexual abuse crisis, Pope Francis said, "The holy people of God are watching and are awaiting from us not simple, predictable condemnations, but concrete and effective measures" to stop abuse. The summit meeting …

By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — U.S. Msgr. Joseph R. Punderson, a senior official of the Vatican’s highest court, was instructed by his bishop to resign his Vatican post late in 2018 and then was removed from ministry 15 years after he was found to be credibly accused of …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Stephanie Keith, Reuters By Dennis Sadowski WASHINGTON (CNS) — For the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the order’s religious freedom claims in a legal challenge to a natural gas pipeline through their land in Pennsylvania came as no real …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Karen Callaway, Chicago Catholic By Joyce Duriga CHICAGO (CNS) — The canonization cause for Father Augustus Tolton is just one step away from going to Pope Francis for the priest to be declared "venerable." On Feb. 5, the feast of St. Agatha, a nine-member Vatican theological commission unanimously …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Paul Haring By Carol Glatz ROME (CNS) — People must stop using homosexuals as scapegoats for the sexual abuse of children, two male survivors of abuse by priests told reporters. "To make this link between homosexuality and pedophilia is absolutely immoral, it is unconscionable and has to stop," …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Paul Haring By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When speaking to God as a father, Christians experience a love that goes beyond human love and affection, which can be unpredictable and mired by selfishness, Pope Francis said. While often compared to the love of parents, the …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Greg Shemitz By Beth Griffin NEW YORK (CNS) — In a robust demonstration that actions speak louder than words, New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan Feb. 18 introduced representatives of six church-related organizations that help pregnant women in need. Standing in the modest living room of a convent …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Paul Jeffrey By Paul Jeffrey KALOOKAN, Philippines (CNS) — A Catholic bishop in the Philippines said his government’s controversial war on drugs is really a war against the country’s poor. "There is no war against illegal drugs, because the supply is not being stopped. If they are really …

IMAGE: CNS By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Twisted ideas of power and authority in the Catholic Church have contributed to the clerical sexual abuse crisis, leaders of religious orders said, but sometimes the positive "sense of family" in their own communities also made them slow to act. "Pope …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Paul Haring By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When presented with an accusation that a priest has sexually abused a child, "whether it’s criminal or malicious complicity and a code of silence or whether it is denial" on a very human level, such reactions are no longer …