Dennis Sadowski

Church membership in 2020 dropped to 47% of the more than 6,100 respondents to a Gallup Poll. It is the first time since the polling firm started measuring church membership in 1937 that a minority of adults said they belonged to a formal religious institution.

A group of Catholic peacemakers who acted to symbolically disarm nuclear weapons at a Georgia naval submarine base in 2018 are the first recipients of a new award for Christian nonviolent action established by DePaul University.

The world needs to rethink personal security and move away from the idea that complex weapons systems can protect people, said speakers at a Vatican-led webinar.

Catholic Charities agencies adopted emergency measures as below-zero temperatures left families without heat and electricity in Texas and Oklahoma.

While COVID-19 was the "great equalizer because it really turned the world upside down," poor communities have lagged in gaining much attention from the world, said Anta Gueye-James, Catholic Relief Services' representative for Senegal, Gambia and Guinea-Bissau during the annual Catholic Social Ministry Gathering.

The U.S. Bishops' Conference president said he was praying God will help Biden "heal the wounds caused by the pandemic, [and] to ease our intense political and culture divisions." 

President Donald Trump's decision to ask Congress to rescind billions of dollars in foreign aid spending is "extremely ill-advised," said a senior Catholic Relief Services official.

Democrat Joe Biden became the second Catholic elected president Nov. 3, outpolling Donald Trump by calling for national unity and determination to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.

Extreme global temperatures, wildfires and hurricanes continued to plague the planet during 2020, prompting U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to urge an end to global "war on nature."

Msgr. Jeffrey D. Burrill, a priest of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, is the new general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Two of the seven Kings Bay Plowshares peace activists received prison sentences Nov. 12 for entering a Georgia naval base and symbolically damaging weapons systems in 2018.

A large majority of Catholic voters believe climate change is a serious or somewhat serious concern and that governments at all levels as well as corporations and individuals must take stronger action to address it, according to results of a new poll released Oct. 22.

The treatment that President Donald Trump has received to fight COVID-19 has turned the focus on an experimental drug that shows promise in combating the coronavirus but is raising ethical questions about the cell line that helped researchers develop the medicine.

The president of Catholic Charities USA said the agency would turn to Capitol Hill to get a pandemic relief bill passed after it called President Donald Trump's decision to suspend talks on the legislation "heartless."

Among the most pronounced differences between presidential candidates Donald Trump, the Republican incumbent, and Joe Biden, the Democratic challenger, are their stances on the environment.

Officials reported that at least 12 people had died as Tropical Storm Laura lashed Haiti and the Dominican Republic with strong winds and torrential rains, causing widespread flooding in low-lying communities.

Prayers offered by a pair of prominent Catholics during the closing night of the Democratic National Convention focused on addressing the needs of people on the margins of society and a planet facing environmental catastrophe.

The coronavirus relief measures put in place by President Donald Trump Aug. 8 are not expected to provide significant relief to people most in need of assistance because of the pandemic-induced recession, political observers said.

Archbishop Joseph Mitsuaki Takami of Nagasaki, said, "I have the impression that most Americans believe that arms are necessary to protect oneself, one's families and the nation. The history, however, demonstrates how arms brought about tragedies. I want the Americans to work for peace without the possession and use of weapons."

The Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by atomic bomb explosions 75 years ago this August, hastening the end of World War II. And while a nuclear arms race emerged during the 1960s, such weapons have not been deployed in warfare since. Nuclear disarmament advocates want to keep it that way.