Maria Wiering

"How I would like a church that is poor and that is for the poor," Pope Francis told journalists March 16, 2013, three days after his election. St. Francis, he said, was "the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation."

Long before Catholic writer Flannery O'Connor raised her famous peacocks as an adult in rural Georgia, she kept canaries and chickens at 207 E. Charlton St., her childhood home in Savannah. A century later, it is a museum dedicated to her literary genius and fascinating personality, with big plans to mark the 100th anniversary of O'Connor's birth.

The Holy See has suppressed the Carmelite Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Arlington, Texas, a month after its residents were dismissed from the Carmelite order and religious life. The decree, issued Nov. 28 by the Vatican Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, stated that the monastery "is extinct."

River flooding forced the temporary closure of the famous grotto at the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France. The shrine complex remained open to visitors. A morning Mass, however, was canceled Sept. 7 at the major Catholic pilgrimage site, which has experienced several major floods in recent years.

Pope Francis has replaced Bishop Paul J. Bradley as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Steubenville, Ohio, with Bishop Edward M. Lohse of Kalamazoo, Michigan, the Steubenville Diocese announced June 14.

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.

Several U.S. bishops called for prayers for peace following Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

October's general assembly in Rome for the Catholic Church's Synod of Bishops on synodality aims to address human reality -- not abstractions -- in order to more effectively share Jesus Christ and his Gospel with others, said Bishop Daniel E. Flores, a U.S. member of the global assembly's preparatory commission.

Launched in 2016, the Laudato Si' Animators Program is an initiative of the Laudato Si' Movement that certifies individuals committed to ecological conversion, sustainability and prophetic advocacy to create "a global network of motivated Catholics who are empowered to bring Laudato Si' to life in their communities," its website states.

An Alabama priest disgraced after abandoning his parish to travel to Italy with an 18-year-old woman described himself as "married" to her in a Valentine's Day letter.

On June 30, Texas judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Carmelite nuns against Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson. That same day, police announced they had closed their investigation without recommending criminal charges.

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, said he is "convinced that the church today is in need of an eye-opening experience," similar to the experience of the two disciples who encountered Jesus along the road to Emmaus following the Resurrection, but who did not recognize him until they shared a meal.

Julie Sullivan, president of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, has been named president of Santa Clara University, a Jesuit-run university near San Francisco, where she will be the school's first layperson and first woman president.

Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, encouraged his brother bishops "to work with care, patience, justice and charity" as "these new norms are implemented ... (and) as together we foster a eucharistic renewal in our nation."

A video showing a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed man repeatedly saying "I can't breathe," and who appears to lose consciousness or die while being pinned down, is "gut wrenching and deeply disturbing," Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda  of St. Paul and Minneapolis said in a May 27 statement.

A new executive order from Gov. Tim Walz permits faith-based gatherings at 25% church capacity, with a total limit of 250 people, beginning May 27. The Minnesota governor announced the new order May 23.

Minnesota's bishops are moving ahead with plans to resume Masses at one-third church capacity May 26, a plan that defies current state directives limiting faith-based gatherings to 10 or fewer people.

Catholic educators have a charge to teach that a person's sexual identity is a gift from God that cannot change and resist cultural tides toward "gender theory," according to new guiding principles released by Minnesota's bishops.

A Minnesota pastor has apologized after remarks he made about Muslim immigration and Islam being "the greatest threat in the world" sparked controversy.

Bishop Paul Sirba of Duluth, Minnesota, died at Essentia Health-St. Mary's Medical Center in Duluth Dec. 1. He was 59.