Catholic News Service

A 23-23 tie vote in the Maryland Senate March 27 led to a defeat for a bill that would have legalized physician-assisted suicide.

A Chilean appeals court ruled in favor of three survivors of abuse by former priest Fernando Karadima and ordered the Catholic Church to pay damages.

Five dioceses from the province of Quebec will allow an external audit of their files regarding sex abuse cases, the Archdiocese of Montreal announced March 27.

Pope Francis has made it more than obvious that he does not like people kissing his ring.

The Field Hospital: Fr. Kevin Finnegan said he didn't know what to expect when he arrived at St. Peter in Mendota. He was responding to an invitation Archbishop Bernard Hebda had extended to priests of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis: to join him for an evening to reflect on the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

The Vatican confirmed that Pope Francis will visit the eastern African nation of Mozambique and the island nations of Madagascar and Mauritius in the Indian Ocean Sept. 4-10.

Historically, it is a policy that is completely at the mercy of whichever party currently controls the White House.

Despite a busy schedule, Pope Francis made a surprise, early morning stop to offer a Lenten reflection for university students, encouraging them to build up their immunity against individualism with the Gospel.

On March 21, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican, signed into law S.B. 2116, a "heartbeat bill" which will prohibit abortions in the state after the point a fetal heartbeat is detected.

The Australian Catholic Church has completed the first phase of its 2020 Plenary Council, in which laypeople will be allowed to vote and decisions could be binding on the nation's Catholics, once ratified by the Vatican.

In indigenous Kichwa communities, women like Patricia Gualinga have traditionally taken on the role of wife, mother and cultivator of the crops that families use to survive in Ecuador's Amazonian region of Sarayaku.

Visiting Romania May 31-June 2, Pope Francis will stop at six destinations, including a popular Marian shrine in the Transylvanian region.

Unborn children would face greater health risks if the Environmental Protection Agency moves to rescind a rule regulating hazardous air pollutants, said the chairmen of two U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' committees.

God is patient and merciful, but people should not put off their conversion because they never know how long they will live, Pope Francis said.

Signing his document dedicated to young people, faith and discernment, Pope Francis said Mary, the mother of God, is a source of inspiration and strength for everyone who seeks to understand their vocation.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a Chilean cardinal who has faced widespread criticism for his handling of cases of clerical sexual abuse in the country.

Retired Bishop Francis Quinn of Sacramento, California, who headed the Northern California diocese from 1980 to 1994 and later spent 13 years ministering to Native Americans in the Diocese of Tucson, died March 21 at age 97.

A new piece of legislation endorsed by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos could put Catholic or other religious schools within reach of many families who would otherwise not be able to afford them.

Access to clean, fresh water is a fundamental human right that must be defended, especially in poor areas where men, women and children are suffering the deadly effects of climate change, Pope Francis said.

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna announced he has prostate cancer, will undergo surgery in May and will be out of public view for several weeks.