News

The Vatican on July 7 released the full list of participants for its upcoming global synod of Catholic bishops and lay delegates, which includes noted LGBTQ advocate Jesuit Fr. James Martin and all four U.S. cardinals created by Pope Francis.

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.

Cyclone Yaku's path through Peru's northern region in March was so destructive that its direct effects — such as the destruction of homes by floods and landslides — and indirect effects — especially an unprecedented outbreak of dengue fever — are still being felt today.

Cabrini University has announced that it will close at the end of the 2023-24 school year, with Villanova University assuming ownership of the nearby land in the Philadelphia suburbs where the fellow Roman Catholic university is located.

At the U.S. bishops' June assembly, Bishop Michael Olson said he had consulted with Dominican Sister of Peace Luisa Derouen before voting on trans health care issues. In an NCR interview, Derouen, a widely respected minister for transgender Catholics, contended that Olson had used her name in a misleading manner.

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.

In NCR interviews after the announcement that Pope Francis will expand participation in the upcoming synod to include laypersons as voting members, theologians and reform groups praised the move as a substantial change.