Catholic News Service

Catholic chaplains in parishes across Germany plan to invite lesbian and gay couples to participate in "blessing services for lovers" on and around May 10.

The sainthood causes of seven men and women — including the hermit Blessed Charles de Foucauld and the Indian martyr Devasahayam Pillai — cleared their final hurdle May 3.

Pope Francis is scheduled to open a meeting discussing the challenges posed by Italy's low birthrate. "For more than a decade, Italy has become an increasingly elderly and less populated country, suffering from structural and legislative shortcomings at the fiscal, economic and social level," which have all exacerbated a drop in births, according to a press release about the meeting.

Under the gaze of a seventh-century icon of Mary, Pope Francis launched a monthlong, global recitation of the rosary, pleading for Mary's intercession for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Francis Malooly — President Joe Biden's 77-year-old bishop in Delaware — on April 30 and named Msgr. William Koenig of the Rockville Centre Diocese to succeed him.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of 76-year-old Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and named as his successor Fr. James Golka, vicar general of the Diocese of Grand Island, Nebraska.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said April 27 that fully vaccinated people who wear masks can safely attend many indoor events such as worship services.

"Nothing has changed — the great bulk of Russian forces are still here, as fighting flares intermittently and people still die," said Bishop Stanislav Szyrokoradiuk of Odessa-Simferopol.

"The deaf community has been overlooked for such a long time. I hope this heightens awareness of the bishops throughout the world," said Fr. Len Broniak, chaplain and program director of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston's deaf ministry.

Meditation is more than just a method of stress relief for the body, it is a way of encountering Christ in one's soul, Pope Francis said.

A recent analysis by The New York Times found evidence for what many Catholic organizations and other entities warned about at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States—the faster spread of the coronavirus among those detained in facilities for immigration violations.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice is opening a statewide investigation of abuse by clergy and faith leaders within the state's five dioceses.

Shortly after midnight on April 2, unidentified gunmen broke into the home of Christian Carlassare, the bishop-designate of Rumbek, South Sudan, shot him in both legs and fled, according to church news reports.

"The pandemic did not only affect those who live on the streets. It has hit even those who have homes." Catholic entities in Brazil are ramping up efforts to feed the increasing number of people going hungry.

Archbishop Franco Coppola, papal ambassador to Mexico, recently traveled to a town besieged by warring drug cartels to reiterate the church's commitment to serving populations suffering violence.

The priesthood "is not a career, it is a service," Pope Francis told nine men just before ordaining them to the priesthood for the Diocese of Rome.

Catholic hospital directors in India told Catholic News Service they did not have enough facilities to treat patients as India set records for the number of COVID-19 deaths — numbers many people believe were underreported.

Celebrating his name day, the feast of St. George, Pope Francis was serenaded by hundreds of Rome's most vulnerable residents and the people who assist them.

Thomas Sternberg, 69, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics, announced April 23 he will not seek reelection to the post in November.