Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, speaks June 15, 2023, during a news conference at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' spring plenary assembly in Orlando, Florida. Flores chairs the conference's Committee on Doctrine. (OSV News/Bob Roller)

US bishops vote to revise health care directives on transgender patients

News

At their spring meeting, the U.S. bishops unanimously voted to revise the ethical and religious directives that govern Catholic health care institutions to align with a recent doctrinal document that bans transgender care.

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Focus

Pope Francis greets Jesuit Fr. James Martin, author and editor at large of America magazine, during a private meeting at the Vatican in this Oct. 1, 2019, file photo. Francis has sent a message of support to a conference that will discuss LGBTQ ministry in the Catholic Church, being held June 16-18 at New York's Fordham University. Martin released the handwritten letter from Francis June 14. (CNS/Vatican Media)

In Focus

Pope sends support to LGBTQ ministry conference as online petition tries to cancel event

Pope Francis has sent a message of support to a conference that will discuss LGBTQ ministry in the Catholic Church, after right-wing online influencers organized a petition to try and stop the event. The pope is publicly backing the Outreach conference, a three-day meeting set to be held this weekend at New York's Fordham University.

Most Read Stories

Pope Benedict XVI greets an estimated 600,000 youths while standing in front of a huge portrait of Christ in Krakow, Poland, May 27, 2006. (CNS/OSV News/Reuters/Max Rossi)
#1

Pope Benedict XVI's cousins stand to inherit his money. None of them want it.

Any heir takes over any legal claims against the deceased, according to estate laws. "I could get the shakes just thinking about how much I would have to pay out," one cousin told Bavarian Radio.

ByTom Heneghan, Religion News Service
Pope Paul VI proclaims the last decrees of the Second Vatican Council, sitting on his throne before the papal altar under Bernini's bronze canopy in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, Dec. 7, 1965. (AP)
NCR Voices
#2

Nothing really changed after Vatican II. But synodality may make a difference.

The last time the church said it was going to make changes was in 1965, but all the changes to be seen were basically meaningless ones. This time, though, the faithful themselves are part of the agenda-making process.

ByJoan Chittister
A trans pride flag is seen at an April 2022 trans rights protest in London. The trans flag, which dates to 1999, features light blue and light pink to symbolize the traditional colors for baby girls and baby boys, according to Outright International. The white stripe represents people who identify as intersex, gender neutral or transitioning. (Unsplash/Karollyne Videira Hubert)
#3

US bishops to consider banning transgender care at all American Catholic hospitals

The U.S. Catholic bishops will vote on whether to amend their official directives for Catholic health care institutions to mandate that they cannot provide gender-affirming medical treatment.

 

ByBrian Fraga
#4

Theologians carry concerns to US bishops in synod listening sessions

#5

Florida's Catholic bishops again urge DeSantis to stay an execution

#6

Anatomy of a papal health scare — and mixed Vatican messages

Opinion

Georgetown slaves raise questions about how we salve our consciences

NCR Voices

Letters to the editor on Catholic health care for LGBTQ people

Letters to the Editor
In a view from the Empire State Building observatory June 7, New York City is engulfed in a haze of thick, smoky air from Canadian wildfires. (AP/Yuki Iwamura, File)

Editorial: Air quality is a justice issue — and not just when it hurts NYC

Editorial

We say: Catholics are called to care about God's creation — human and non — even when New York's skyline does not look like a caution sign warning of suffocation risks.

Let's hear transgender people tell their own stories

NCR Voices

Catholic bishops don't support Trump's lies. Is silence enough?

Guest Voices
(Dreamstime/Oksana Ryzhinskaya)

Bishops, listen to Catholic health workers, not culture warriors, on transgender directives

NCR Voices

When the U.S. bishops consider new rules for transgender care at Catholic hospitals, Michael Sean Winters suggests listening to the Catholic Health Association, not the ideological National Catholic Bioethics Center.

Vatican

Pope Francis leaves the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic in Rome, Friday, June 16, 2023, nine days after undergoing abdominal surgery. The 86-year-old pope was admitted to Gemelli hospital on June 7 for surgery to repair a hernia in his abdominal wall and remove intestinal scar tissue that had caused intestinal blockages. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Vatican News

Pope Francis leaves hospital 9 days after operation; surgeon says 'he's better than before'

Pope Francis was discharged from the Rome hospital where he had abdominal surgery nine days earlier to repair a hernia and remove painful scarring, with his surgeon saying the pontiff is now "better than before" the hospitalization.

Pope Francis holds the hand of an older woman whose head is wrapped in a scarf as he blesses her with his other hand
Vatican News

Pope: Visit grandparents, elderly, bring joy to their hearts

God wants young people to bring joy to the hearts of the elderly and to learn from their experiences, Pope Francis said.

ByCarol Glatz, Catholic News Service
Francis, the comic strip: Francis and Leo talk about welcoming LGBTQ Catholics.
Francis, the comic strip

Francis, the comic strip

Francis, the comic strip: Francis and Leo talk about welcoming LGBTQ Catholics.

ByPat Marrin
A large group of people, adults and children, many wearing masks or holding cellphones, stand around Pope Francis
Vatican News

Recovering pope visits children's cancer ward ahead of expected release from hospital

Pope Francis visited the children's cancer ward of Rome's Gemelli hospital on the eve of his expected discharge following abdominal surgery, the Vatican said June 15.

By

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Vatican News

Jesuits expel prominent priest Rupnik after allegations of abuse against adult women

Vatican News

Benedict XVI's long-time aide, Archbishop Gänswein, relieved of Vatican duties, sent back to Germany

Vatican News

'Wars are not just,' pope tells U.N. Security Council

An elevated view shows the dramatic decline of water levels at Lake Mead near Boulder City, Nevada, March 13. The nation's largest reservoir has reached its lowest water levels on record since it was created by damming the Colorado River in the 1930s, as growing demand for water and climate change shrink the Colorado River and endanger a water source millions of Americans depend on. (OSV News/Reuters/Bing Guan)
Faith

Catholics in states affected by ever-shrinking Colorado River draw on Laudato Si'

A megadrought jeopardizes the Colorado River and, with it, water supplies for major U.S. cities and farms. Catholics in affected states are complementing efforts to prevent disaster with Laudato Si' firmly in mind.

Solar panels are seen on the campus of St. Meinrad Archabbey and its seminary in Spencer County, Indiana, Sept. 11, 2021. (CNS/Courtesy of Saint Meinrad Archabbey via The Criterion)
Justice

At Catholic climate conference, Paris Agreement architect challenges US church to commit to net-zero emissions

Christiana Figueres, the United Nations official who brokered the 2015 Paris Agreement, , outlines the moral, technological and economic imperatives to commit to net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

 

ByBrian Roewe
A hummingbird heart can beat more than 1,200 times per minute. (Unsplash/Bryan Hanson)
Viewpoints

The symphony of God's creation is the steady beat of sacred hearts

I've been thinking about hearts, their great diversity of shapes, sizes and sounds. My thoughts turn to God's creative whimsy. And when a heart ceases to beat, a piece of what God envisioned fades away and is lost.

BySteven Salido Fisher
A marble statue depicts a naked man and two smaller men wrapped in snakes
Justice

Vatican judges order activists to pay $30,000 in damages

The Vatican's criminal court ordered two climate activists to pay more than $30,000 in damages after they glued themselves to an ancient sculpture in the Vatican Museums to draw attention to the effects of climate change.

ByJustin McLellan, Catholic News Service

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Justice

We need a political ecology of repair that rejects 'business as usual'

Science

As tourists flock to view volcano's latest eruption, Hawaii urges mindfulness, respect

Viewpoints

New science on ecological justice demands united response from US Catholics

Culture

A photo taken at sunset of a family gathered by the shore (Unsplash/Tyler Nix)

As memory fades, a father's life becomes clearer

This Father's Day, NCR publisher Joe Ferullo reflects on the experience of caring for his father-in-law in a time of crisis.

In this image from the PBS documentary series "Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland," Anne Marie, 10, throws bottles at British troops during a riot in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1981. (PBS/Courtesy of Magnum Photos/Peter Marlow)

PBS documentary 'Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland' tells brave, important stories

The people interviewed for "Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland" bear witness to war's damaging impact on youth and how the Troubles irrevocably altered their individual lives as well as their families and communities.

 

ByRené Ostberg
Eight men and one woman stand facing St. Peter's Basilica at the end of Pope Francis' weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican May 17.
Book Reviews

In 'Doing Theology,' a chorus of theologians imagine a better future for the church

The co-edited volume Doing Theology and Theological Ethics in the Face of the Abuse Crisis joins a growing body of literature seeking to envision a different future for the Catholic church

 

 

ByBernard G. Prusak
Then-Pastor Carl Lentz leads a Hillsong NYC church service in New York City on July 14, 2013. (AP/Tina Fineberg)

'The Secrets of Hillsong' serves as warning to Catholics, too

The FX documentary "The Secrets of Hillsong" chronicles the rise and downfall of "influencer pastor" Carl Lentz and serves as a sober caution to us Catholics, who have our own influencers to reckon with.

ByPatty Breen

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Book Reviews

'Lincoln's God' holds magnifying glass to Civil War president's faith

What the Catholic Church can learn from Taylor Swift

Book Reviews

'War by Other Means' highlights 4 pacifists who resisted World War II

Salt shaker on a wooden table (Pixabay/KatineDesign)

Salting the fleas

From A Nun's Life podcasts - Sr. Pat Johannsen describes one of her favorite adventures with housemate (and podcast host!) Sr. Rejane Cytacki, with a bonus Earth-friendly household hack from these Charity sisters

(Unsplash/Wesual Click)

Let us 'be bread for the world'

Horizons - I attended the zonal assembly of my religious community, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. What kept me contemplating during the assembly was the theme: "Together be bread for the world."

By
A view shows a flooded area in Kherson June 7 after the Nova Kakhovka dam breached, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine. (OSV News/Reuters/Vladyslav Smilianets)

With flooding, Ukrainian villages near war's front lines 'are really suffering'

ByChris Herlinger
In Kaduna state, Nigeria, Sr. Rita Schwarzenberger works to promote peace. She also runs Hope for the Village Child Foundation, a local nonprofit organization Schwarzenberger told GSR that the nonprofit organizes routine health outreach programs in rural communities. (Provided photo)

Dominican Sisters promote peace in Nigeria's conflict-prone communities

Sr. Rita Schwarzenberger helps communities resolve conflict through training. With another sister's help, she also runs a nonprofit to improve health in rural communities. The sisters have survived being targeted by bandits.

ByPatrick Egwu

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Communal contemplation for healing the world

Nuns join workshop to boost interreligious harmony in Bangladesh

Could consecrated virgins and religious institutes accompany each other?

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