Heidi Schlumpf

Former members of the National Review Board are calling for an independent investigation of sexual abuse of seminarians and other vulnerable adults, including allegations against one of the country's most prominent church leaders, retired Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C.

The Catholics on Call program brought together about two dozen young adults, mentors and others July 25-29 in Chicago, for discussion and community about finding direction in life.

On an American Bar Association panel, Chicago cardinal praises Pope Francis' decision, announced hours earlier, to revise church teaching to forbid the use of the death penalty.

Retired Washington Archbishop Theodore McCarrick has renounced his position in the College of Cardinals, leaving the global Catholic Church's most symbolic and powerful group in the wake of revelations that he sexually harassed or abused several young men during his meteoric rise to become one of the U.S. church's most senior prelates.

The bishop delegate to the synod will encourage improvement in catechetical outreach because he believes young people do not understand church teaching. But young Catholics say they want accompaniment and openness to new ideas.

Kathleen O'Connell Sauline, a member of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, told the the priest and deacon who denied her the Eucharist that she was hungry and thirsty "for that which Jesus called us to share." 

Morning Briefing: Happy birthday, Humanae Vitae, bishops responding to McCarrick allegations and theologians enroute to Sarajevo

Morning Briefing: Trump: Treason or trouble with a double negative? Spadaro and Figueroa critique "prosperity gospel." And nuns and brothers who were not born Catholic.  

A survivors' support group is contending with online attacks and, for some of its leaders, legal action. Some say this retaliation is part of the broad pushback against the Catholic #MeToo movement. 

Morning Briefing: Children reunited — and not — with their parents; questions for Kavanaugh and the conservative Catholic behind his nomination

Reaction to U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh tended to fall along ideological lines and focus on Roe v. Wade; some commentators are raising concerns beyond the "culture war" issues. 

A record number of women have declared their candidacy in 2018, including progressive Catholic women whose campaigns have been informed and inspired by Catholic Social Teaching — but they aren't running as "Catholic candidates."

Morning Briefing: An in-depth look at People of Praise; Cardinal Tauran dies; life in a border parish

Ex-members who criticize People of Praise as authoritarian want Amy Coney Barrett to address her involvement in the group, which grew out of the 1970s Catholic charismatic revival.

Catholic screenwriter and co-executive producer Joy Gregory, who believes the divine speaks through poetry and who has made it her mission to bring stories about "tangling with the big questions" to television. "I like to 'sneak the vegetables in' without people knowing about it," she said.

Morning Briefing: A cardinal steps down, more outcry against family separation at the border, and the church and the Democratic Party

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has announced that he is stepping down from active ministry after allegations of sexual abuse were found "credible and substantiated." He is likely the first cardinal to step down from active ministry for sexually abusing a minor.

The event, which the Chicago parish hosts annually, concluded with a 15-minute reading of the names of 147 young people under 21 who have been shot and killed in the city in the past year. 

For the first time in the 46-year history of the Catholic Theological Society of America's highest award, an African American has been honored for "distinguished theological achievement" — black and womanist theologian M. Shawn Copeland.

Morning Briefing: U.S. bishops meet, Council of Cardinals plans Vatican restructuring, Catholics decry family separation of immigrants, and diocesan newspaper typo goes viral