Catholic News Service

Recalled as "man of character" and "loving father," Officer Eric Talley was the first of 10 people to be killed in a mass shooting at a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, March 22.

With the need to reduce costs, Pope Francis has approved pay cuts for cardinals, clergy, religious and upper management officials who work in the Roman Curia and other Vatican entities.

Mary, the mother of God, has been present during the COVID-19 pandemic, and she was by the side of all those who died alone, Pope Francis said.

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.

The Supreme Court's March 22 announcement that it would hear a government appeal to reinstate the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev brings the death penalty issue in front of the Biden administration.

The Legionaries of Christ received seven new allegations of sexual abuse against members of the congregation in 2020 and released the names of four additional members who ministered in the United States and had substantiated sexual abuse allegations made against them.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, 64, said he won't resign following the publication of the report on the handling of clerical sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Cologne.

The coronavirus pandemic, as declared last March by the World Health Organization, was not even two weeks old when then-President Donald Trump said he wanted to see "packed churches" on Easter. That didn't happen. It won't happen this year, either.

In a major address on confronting the sin of racism and working for racial justice, Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, the nation's first African American cardinal, said a "healing of America's soul" is needed.

The redress hearing is one of several involving the Catholic Church in the overall royal commission, which is looking primarily at abuse from 1950 to 1999, although experiences outside these years may also be heard. Abuse being investigated includes sexual, physical, emotional, psychological abuse and neglect.

Conflict is driving four countries — Yemen, South Sudan, Burkina Faso and northeastern Nigeria — into famine, the World Food Program warned.

Like St. Joseph, who had other plans for his life but lovingly embraced his role as Jesus' foster father, a priest assigned to a new parish cannot impose his own ways on that community, Pope Francis said.

The Brazilian bishops' conference and five civil society groups criticized the federal government response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As security forces in Myanmar have increased their crackdown on civilians, with disappearances, detentions and the killing of peaceful protesters, Pope Francis appealed for an end to violence and the start of dialogue.

A former student of the minor seminary located at the Vatican said he was sexually abused over a six-year period despite having told the rector that an older student was "bothering" him.

Every Christian is unique because the Holy Spirit inspires something new and original in each person, creating "an endless field of holiness," Pope Francis said.

A note on COVID-19 vaccines from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops triggered nearly immediate responses from many bishops in Quebec, who felt it was "untimely" and lacked some clarity. Some Catholics also were concerned about the moral permissibility of receiving some of the currently approved COVID-19 vaccines, so the CCCB issued a clarification.

The Jesuit order is pledging to raise $100 million for descendants of people their order once enslaved and sold as a way to make reparations.

Legislation introduced in the Senate and the House aims to protect "the cherished freedom of religious liberty" of faith-based foster care and adoption providers who believe children "deserve to be placed with a married mother and father," the chairmen of three U.S. bishops' committees said March 15.

A Polish cardinal, former secretary to St. John Paul II, could face jail time after a Polish state commission accused him of ignoring sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.