OSV News

The Nashville Diocese said Jan. 6 that the associate pastor at a Franklin Catholic parish, Fr. Juan Carlos Garcia, has been removed from his parish post and from public ministry while the Franklin City Police Department investigates reports of sexual misconduct allegedly involving the priest.

The firing of a Catholic school teacher in a Long Island, New York, diocese for having an adult same-sex relationship has sparked protests, highlighting tensions between the local church's expectations for employees to abide by church teachings and confusion among rank-and-file Catholics about the Vatican's signals regarding same-sex couples following its decree permitting them non-liturgical blessings.

An Alabama Catholic priest has now been fully returned to the lay state months after he fled the country with a recent Catholic high school graduate whose parents expressed concern she had been groomed by the cleric while she was still a minor.

Bishop David O'Connell of Trenton, 68, suffered a heart attack Jan. 4 while in Rome and was taken to Santo Spirito hospital where he had emergency surgery to open a completely closed artery, according to a Jan. 5 diocesan statement.

A multiyear investigation overseen by the Catholic Church into Archbishop John Nienstedt, who resigned from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 2015, has ended with the Vatican finding that he acted "imprudently" in several instances but not criminally under canon law, Archbishop Bernard Hebda said in a statement Jan. 5.

Gov. Caleb Mutfwang of Nigeria's Plateau state declared a week of mourning Jan. 1-8 to honor the deaths of at least 200 Christians killed over Christmas by Fulani Muslim herders, targeting Christians in the country. Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto, Nigeria, said the attackers are "children of darkness" and come "from the deepest pit of hell."

In 2006, the U.S. bishops, along with other groups, founded Catholic Climate Covenant. This nonprofit offers a pledge you can take, and what better New Year's resolution to make than a commitment to our common home?

The U.S. Department of State has demanded the release of Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa and other imprisoned Nicaraguan religious leaders following a wave of detentions targeting Catholic clergy over the Christmas season.

Dublin, Ireland Archbishop Dermot Farrell has expressed concern over the "significant numbers" of people in Ireland "seeking to foment disinformation, suspicion and hatred" towards refugees and migrants.

Since Christmas, Nicaraguan police and paramilitaries have detained more than a dozen priests, including an archdiocesan vicar, as the Sandinista regime escalates a campaign of terror against the Catholic Church -- an institution it has struggled to subdue.

As Pope Francis seeks to include more women in key church leadership positions, a Catholic social worker has been named to a pioneering post for women in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Caritas Dairy was inspired by Pope Francis' call for a more inclusive and sustainable food system, which supports farmers in producing and improving their capacities and resilience, said Archbishop Philip Subira Anyolo of Nairobi.

Six lay staff members from a now-closed diocesan Cáritas chapter were convicted on money laundering charges in Nicaragua on Christmas Eve as the Sandinista regime stepped up its crackdown on the Catholic Church over the Christmas season. The Nicaraguan government has also forbidden the enactment of traditional "posadas," the living Nativity scenes created in the streets in the days leading up to Christmas.

People who have looked closely as their order was passed to them through a drive-in window may have noticed a sticker or sign announcing the location serving them is a franchise of a national, or even international, brand.

While faith cannot change anything in moments of great darkness such as the one Israelis and Palestinians are currently living through in the Israeli-Hamas war, it can, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa said, create "a small light" which will give "orientation."

Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, signed an immigration bill into law Dec. 18 that makes it a state crime for unauthorized migrants to cross into Texas from Mexico. Catholic organizations including the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops have opposed the legislation.

Following a series of attacks on Christians in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces Dec. 16, including the killing of a mother and daughter at a Catholic church, the Israeli Defense Forces said that it "takes claims regarding harm to sensitive sites with the utmost seriousness." However, the statement did not make any mention of the shooting deaths of the two women in the Holy Family Parish premises.

In an unwelcome revelation for American Catholics, the federal government announced in a March 2023 Federal Register notice a procedural change in how it processes green cards for foreign-born religious workers.

Pope Francis has downplayed the discourteous comments toward him from Argentine President Javier Milei -- who previously accused the pope of preaching "communism" -- attributing the remarks to electioneering in his home country.

Two Ohio dioceses are considering a potential merger, according to a joint letter issued Dec. 11 by Bishop Earl K. Fernandes of the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio, and Bishop Paul J. Bradley, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Steubenville, Ohio, who said they "have begun very preliminary discussions regarding the potential merger of the dioceses."