Catholic News Service

Many Catholic dioceses and archdioceses across the country — which closed their parish doors for a time at the start of the pandemic last year and have gradually opened them to limited occupancy in the past year — are getting ready to fully reopen on the feast of Pentecost, May 23.

Those who overcome distractions or obstacles when praying learn the value of perseverance in times of trial, Pope Francis said.

The new laws include many dealing with clerical sexual abuse and the obligation of bishops and religious superiors to act when allegations are made, but also include the "attempted ordination of women" and acts committed by priests against the sanctity of the Eucharist and against the sacrament of penance.

The annual diocesan celebration of World Youth Day is an important event that emphasizes the role young people play in the Catholic Church, the Vatican said.

Climate, biodiversity, health and Indigenous people's rights are interconnected, church leaders say.

Jesuit Fr. Stan Swamy, 84, was transferred from jail to a hospital May 18 after an outcry from relatives and fellow Jesuits following suspicions that he has contracted COVID-19.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed into law a bill requiring death-row inmates to choose between the electric chair or the firing squad for their executions if lethal injection drugs are not available.

Officials in the Brooklyn Diocese said May 17 they will be "notifying our churches to be on alert" to vandalism and hate crimes directed at Catholic church property following two such incidents in about a three-day period.

Catholic bishops have warned the British government that post-Brexit plans to tighten the asylum system would drive more immigrants into the hands of human traffickers.

A priest from the Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat in Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray says killings, abductions and rape are still occurring in the region where a military offensive launched in November.

In an article published in November in Hong Kong's Ming Pao Weekly magazine, Fr. Chow, who also serves as supervisor of the Jesuits' Wah Yan colleges in Hong Kong, said one of his roles at the colleges is to be "a bridge" between members of the school community who have divergent views on how much autonomy Hong Kong should have from the central Chinese government.

Celebrating a Mass for peace in Myanmar, Pope Francis urged the country's Catholics to "keep the faith" and focus on helping one another.

The injury and death of so many innocent people, especially children, caused by escalating violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip is "terrible and unacceptable," putting the area at risk of sinking into "a spiral of death and destruction," Pope Francis said.

John Kerry, the U.S. special envoy for climate, met privately with Pope Francis May 15, the day after he gave a keynote address at a closed-door meeting of the Pontifical Academies for Sciences and Social Sciences.

If families are not the priority of the present, there will be no future, Pope Francis said as he opened a meeting in Rome on Italy's chronic decline in population growth.

Seattle Archbishop Paul D. Etienne has formed a Racial Justice and Cultural Diversity Commission to guide the archdiocese on issues and initiatives "concerning intercultural competency and the sin of racism."

May 12 saw the heaviest violence, and in Israel's largest mixed city, Haifa, a Jewish gang rioted through the German Colony neighborhood, known for its good relations between its mainly Jewish and Christian residents. Gang members damaged Arab property and set cars on fire, following a similar rampage by an Arab gang two days earlier.

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is marking its 50th anniversary. The bishops who founded CCHD wanted to encourage community organizing so that people could come together and make their concerns heard.

The chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace called on Israelis and Palestinians to end the violence in Jerusalem and Gaza that has claimed dozens of lives and left hundreds of people injured.

Four former students at the minor seminary located in the Vatican testified May 12 at the ongoing trial of Fr. Gabriele Martinelli, who is accused of sexually abusing a younger student at the St. Pius X Pre-Seminary.