Catholic News Service

The Boston Globe reported July 29 that police in the Boston suburb of Wellesley have charged former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over age 14 in a criminal complaint filed by Wellesley Police in a district court in nearby Dedham, Massachusetts.

The political, economic and social crisis in Nicaragua "is reaching a flashpoint" and "is more than likely to lead to more violence and destabilization in the country," Rafael Estrada said at a recent hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Central American country's "constant persecution of political opponents and independent journalists is unprecedented," said Estrada, who is president of the Nicaraguans for Security and Prosperity Foundation. He was one of several witnesses at a July 21 hearing sponsored by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on President Daniel Ortega's government and its political prisoners, which the committee described as "the human cost of repression in Nicaragua."

On the first day of his trial at the Vatican, Cardinal Angelo Becciu announced a lawsuit against an old foe: Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui. The move added an unforeseen twist worthy of a modern-day court drama or soap opera.

Reconciliation between Canadian society and the country's Indigenous communities is possible, say two new national Indigenous leaders. While they come at reconciliation with Canada's Indigenous people from two different vantage points -- one is the first female leader of the Assembly of First Nations and the other is the first Indigenous governor general, representing the British monarchy in Canada -- both are new to their roles and say reconciliation will be at the forefront of their efforts going forward.

Catholic bishops in Northern Ireland warned that unilateral moves by the British government to force Northern Ireland's Department of Health to introduce abortion services threaten the region's peace process.

When Father Anthony Li Hui was ordained a bishop July 28 in the cathedral of the Diocese of Pingliang, China, he became the fifth Chinese bishop appointed under the terms of a Vatican-China agreement signed in 2018 and renewed in 2020, the Vatican press office said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced July 26 it would begin "expedited removal" proceedings, or fast-tracking deportations, of some immigrant families who entered the U.S. illegally and do not qualify for asylum. 

On the first day of a Vatican trial involving alleged financial crimes and abuse of office, lawyers for the 10 defendants questioned the Vatican's jurisdiction and insisted on more time to prepare their defense.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI has criticized representatives of the Catholic Church in his home country, Germany. "As long as only the ministry, but not the heart and the spirit, speak in official church texts, the exodus from the world of faith will continue," he told the magazine Herder Korrespondenz.

Defrocked priest Fernando Karadima, at the heart of a sexual abuse case that rocked Chile's Catholic Church, died of natural causes July 25. He was 90. 

It is a 'scandal' that 'we produce enough food for all people, but many go without their daily bread,' Pope Francis says in message to U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

With a surge in the first few months of 2021 of minors entering the United States without a parent or guardian, figures from fiscal year 2020 already have surpassed the total of unaccompanied minors who made border entries during the previous year.

On the eve of a trial for financial malfeasance connected to the Vatican's purchase of a property in London, the office that handles most of the Vatican's investment portfolio, including real estate, made public a summary of its annual budget for the first time. 

The Vatican reported the Roman Curia had a $78 million deficit in 2020, and on the same day, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, which administers Vatican properties and investments, made a summary of its annual budget public for the first time.

Older people are precious nourishment for families, young people and communities, Pope Francis said in the homily he wrote for the Mass marking the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly.

The images of flooded villages and towns in Germany have shocked the world, prompting aid agencies in developing countries more accustomed to dealing with natural disasters to offer words of compassion and concern to one of Europe's most prosperous nations.

News reports say the Biden administration may not roll back at the end of July a policy that keeps migrants out of the country, citing health measures given the rising number of coronavirus cases in the U.S.

Immigrant advocates were already pressuring the Biden administration to end what's known as Title 42 of the Public Health Safety Act, a policy the Trump administration began using in March 2020 as knowledge of rising infections of the coronavirus began to surge in the U.S. — and around the world.

Seventy-six percent of respondents of a recent survey conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate said sexual abuse of minors by clergy has hurt the church's reputation "at least somewhat."

A Catholic school in Lansing, Michigan, and two school parents are suing state officials over the state's requirement that students wear face masks in school, saying this violated the school's religious practices.

A lower court sided with state officials in the suit filed last October when the mandate was in place for school students.

On July 21, this case went before a federal appeals court even though most of the state's COVID-19 restrictions were rescinded in June.

Pastoral workers in Amazon must share what they are doing and stress formation of deacons and lay leaders, Cardinal Hummes says.