CNA/EWTN News — Louisiana law can’t force Catholic priests to violate the seal of the confessional, a judge in the state reaffirmed on Friday. State District Judge Mike Caldwell said in court Feb. 26 that a state law requiring clergy to report sex abuse of minors violated a priest’s religious freedom protections …

IMAGE: CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano v By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Go to confession. Soon. For Pope Francis, the Year of Mercy is all about sharing the experience of God’s mercy with others. But first, he wants people to experience it themselves, in the confessional. Lent is the perfect …

By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — God’s mercy can be understood only by someone who has an open heart and recognizes his or her sins, Pope Francis said. Unfaithfulness to God “hardens the heart, it closes the heart,” the pope said March 3 during the Mass in the …

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Speaking out against exploitation and unfair wages for workers, Pope Francis told benefactors to forget about donating money to the church if their earnings came from mistreating others. “Please, take your check back and burn it,” he said to applause. …

IMAGE: CNS/Nancy Wiechec By ALTOONA, Pa. (CNS) — Hundreds of children were sexually abused over at least 40 years by priests and other religious leaders in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, a statewide grand jury found. At least 50 priests or religious leaders were involved in the abuse and diocesan leaders …

By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Leaders of faith communities in Baltimore, seeking healing and unity a year after the death of Freddie Gray, carried the pain and the hopes of their faithful to the Vatican, asking Pope Francis to bless their work. When Archbishop William E. Lori of …

By SYDNEY (CNS) — For a third consecutive day, a top Vatican official gave testimony to an Australian commission about what he knew of the church’s reassignment of abusive priests. The focus of Cardinal George Pell’s testimony to Australia’s Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse March 2 …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Chaz Muth By Carol Zimmermann BALTIMORE (CNS) — For Father Leo Patalinghug, faith and food go hand in hand, or in cooking terms, they blend; there is no trick to folding one into the other. “The idea of food in faith is implicit in our Scriptures.It’s implicit in …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Jim West By WASHINGTON (CNS) — A new report on U.S. women religious said that religious life is becoming not only more multiethnic but more international as well. The report, “Understanding U.S. Catholic Sisters Today,” said that of all women who entered religious life in the past 10 …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Wu Hong, EPA By Gaby Maniscalco SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (CNS) — Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral was dark as men and women of different faiths walked down the center aisle of the mission-revival-style church. The names of the 14 victims of the Dec. 2 shooting at the …