OSV News

Results of an annual survey on the permanent diaconate of the U.S. Catholic Church show the estimated number of deacons in active ministry was 13,695 in 2022, the lowest since 2011.

Revelations of rampant sexual abuse by deceased Jesuit Fr. Alfonso Pedrajas have prompted dozens of people in Bolivia to come forward with similar accusations of atrocities in the South American country, where the Catholic Church confronts a reckoning over the criminal acts of pedophile priests.

The destruction of a dam and hydroelectric power plant in a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine marks a "dastardly and diabolical act" that "defies imagination," Archbishop Borys Gudziak, metropolitan of Ukrainian Catholics in the U.S., told OSV News.

Pope Francis has appointed Fr. Michael Pham, vicar general of the Diocese of San Diego, and Fr. Felipe Pulido, vicar for clergy and director of vocations for the Diocese of Yakima, Washington, as auxiliary bishops of San Diego.

Catholic bishops in Florida urged Gov. Ron DeSantis to stay the execution of a death-row prisoner as the governor embarks on a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

Government authorities June 4 were working to get rail services back in operation in the district of Balasore after the deadliest train crash in India in decades killed at least 275 people and injured at least 1,000 June 2.

Catholic environmental activists in Africa are expressing grave concern after a group of bishops in Tanzania endorsed a proposed crude oil pipeline project, amid increasing calls to abandon fossil fuels to tackle climate changes.

As U.S. lawmakers considered a bill to address the looming debt ceiling, Catholic and other Christian activists gathered at Georgetown University to discuss how a nation's budget is a moral document detailing its priorities, advocating care for the poor and vulnerable should rank high on that list.

The House of Representatives on May 31 approved a compromise bill brokered by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, just days before a deadline to address the debt ceiling or risk a U.S. government default.

The Holy See has declared Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth to be "pontifical commissary" of the Monastery of Saint Joseph of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, according to a decree from the dicastery for religious life, dated May 31, 2023 and published on the website of the Diocese of Fort Worth. Olson "will assume his office upon communication" of the decree, it said.

A recent video that has gained traction on social media purportedly shows a McDonald's in Kiev bustling with people, prompting some to argue that perhaps the conflict is not as grim as the media and the country's government has reported.

Pope Francis has created the ecclesiastical province of Las Vegas, comprised of the Archdiocese of Las Vegas and the suffragan dioceses of Reno, Nevada, and Salt Lake City.

As Canada copes with wildfires from western Alberta province to eastern Nova Scotia, among the more than 3,000 men and women combating the flames is Fr. Gerald Mendoza.

A parish priest was shot dead as he drove on a rural Mexican highway May 22, marking yet another attack in what has become the most murderous country for Catholic clergy.

Victims of clerical sex abuse have bitterly criticized plans by France's Catholic bishops for all clergy to include a scannable QR code on their identity cards certifying whether they face restrictions for crimes or misdemeanors.

The Catholic Church has dispatched aid materials to the hardest-hit regions of Myanmar after deadly Cyclone Mocha battered the southeast Asian country May 14.

Fr. John W. Crossin, an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales, who was an expert in the field of Christian ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, died May 12 after a brief illness. He was 75.

Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry of Chicago has been named chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism.

Ukrainian church leaders have cautiously welcomed news of a Vatican visit by their country's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after a fresh wave of Russian missile attacks in anticipation of a counteroffensive by Kyiv's forces.