OSV News

"This is a devastating loss to this community," Avondale Fire Battalion Chief Steve Mayhew said. "This church is a pillar of this community, so definitely a lot of heartbreak this morning."

Amid severe floods in Kenya, rescue operations were continuing April 29 as the death toll surpassed 120 people due to excessive rains and floods linked to the continuing El Nino phenomenon in East Africa. Archbishop Anthony Muheria of Nyeri appealed for humanitarian support to aid thousands of displaced people.

When Unite Here Local 11, the Los Angeles-based branch of the international labor union representing 300,000 U.S. and Canadian workers, announced March 25 an historic labor agreement with 35 Southern California hotels, the victory came with an asterisk attached.

A New York state appeals court has found that an insurer for the Archdiocese of New York is not required to cover costs for settling hundreds of sex abuse claims — a ruling the archdiocese has called "extremely disappointing" and "wrongly decided."

In response to the public health emergency due to the dengue virus, Archbishop Roberto O. González Nieves of San Juan, Puerto Rico, called on the faithful to take action and "be instruments of everyone's right to health."

Britain's Catholic Church has condemned a government-backed law allowing migrants in the country illegally to be forcibly deported to Rwanda in East Africa.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans had been ordered by a New Orleans criminal court to turn over the records, as part of a long-running criminal investigation involving multiple accused priests.

A new AI priest, launched by a Catholic teaching apostolate to answer questions about the faith, has been "laicized" after sparking more backlash than belief online.

The Spanish government April 23 approved an economic compensation plan for victims of sexual abuse committed by priests and other people linked to the Catholic Church.

The Supreme Court on April 24 weighed a potential conflict between Idaho's abortion restrictions and federal law governing emergency health care.

The Augustine Institute announced April 23 that it has purchased the former Boeing Leadership Center near Florissant and will begin moving its headquarters to the St. Louis area in the coming months.

The number of conflicts over land, water or forest territories grew in Brazil in 2023, reaching 2,203 cases and impacting more than 950,000 people, according to the bishops' conference's Land Pastoral Commission.

"These deportations are unconscionable given the realities on the ground," said Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami in a statement to OSV News April 22.

The Supreme Court on April 22 heard a case concerning the constitutionality of local laws that ban public camping and their impact on people who are homeless.

Professor Samuel Shephard from Ave Maria University suggests that Catholics can contribute a unique perspective to Earth Day, celebrated each April 22, by viewing it as an opportunity to fulfill their role as stewards of creation. Shephard said Catholics can place the importance of practical actions like reducing plastic use and ethical clothing purchases within the context of God's "loving plan for salvation."

Those two questions were asked across the United States during diocesan listening sessions in the first months of 2024. They were drawn verbatim from a Jan. 2 letter from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops conveying a request from the Holy See for further consultation of the faithful ahead of October's second, and final, meeting of the Synod on Synodality.

A bipartisan coalition the U.S. House of Representatives, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., voted April 20 to approve a $95 billion package providing aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and other U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific region, over the objections of some far-right lawmakers who indicated they would attempt to remove Johnson from his role over the deal.

Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the synod, noted that while "the Gospel will not change, my understanding of the Gospel can change" and that over the two millennia of the church's history it had proceeded with this dynamic understanding.

The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has responded to a "devastating" strike by Russia on civilians in a northern Ukrainian city.