As migration increased in 2023, so did pressures on the church’s ministry December 28, 2023By OSV News OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Immigration and Migration, News, World News Unauthorized border crossings increased in 2023, fueled in part by shifts in U.S. policy and global migration trends. The year saw increasingly heated anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions that also put Catholic Charities agencies — and the church’s religious freedom to minister to migrants — in the crosshairs.
U.S. bishops issue flurry of responses to Vatican blessings document December 22, 2023By OSV News OSV News Filed Under: Bishops, Feature, Marriage & Family Life, News, Vatican, World News Following the Dec. 18 release of the Holy See’s declaration permitting blessings of those in irregular relationships, and the ensuing reaction from media and Catholics around the country, U.S. bishops have been responding with their own statements supporting and/or clarifying the document, known as “Fiducia Supplicans.”
‘Beware of reading too much too quickly’ into same-sex blessings document, say global bishops December 21, 2023By OSV News OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Marriage & Family Life, News, World News While several Western European bishops praised the Dec. 18 declaration of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on blessing same-sex couples as “a major breakthrough in pastoral care,” reactions elsewhere have been mixed, with African bishops offering explainers for “confused” faithful or banning same-sex blessings.
Backed by Catholic clergy, Buffalo Bills chaplain provides rare full-time pastoral care December 17, 2023By OSV News OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Sports, World News Now in his seventh season as the Buffalo Bills’ team chaplain, Vanden Bos is a rare breed in the NFL: He is a full-time chaplain.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is ‘mother of all mothers,’ bishop says on her feast day December 13, 2023By OSV News OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, World News Our Lady of Guadalupe is “the mother of all mothers — a loving bridge between worlds and peoples who unifies through her maternal embrace,” the U.S. bishops’ migration chairman said in a statement issued on the Dec. 12 Marian feast.
Texas Supreme Court rules abortion petition failed to meet ban’s exception standards December 12, 2023By OSV News OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Respect Life, World News The Texas Supreme Court on Dec. 11 overruled a district judge’s order allowing a pregnant mother to obtain an abortion under an exemption to the state’s abortion ban.
Despite losing leg in Ukraine explosion, volunteer returns to war-torn country December 8, 2023By OSV News OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, War in Ukraine, World News As the world celebrated International Volunteer Day Dec. 5, Grazyna Slawinska, a young Polish volunteer who left her comfortable job to aid people with disabilities in Ukraine, was in eastern Ukraine to spend another December in the war-torn nation.
Annual collection to help elderly men, women religious to be held Dec. 9-10 December 4, 2023By OSV News OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Giving, News, World News Most U.S. dioceses will take up an annual collection Dec. 9-10 to help approximately 24,000 elderly religious sisters, brothers and religious order priests pay for retirement necessities, including health care.
‘I had Indi baptized to protect her,’ says father of 8-month-old British girl at her funeral December 1, 2023By OSV News OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Respect Life, World News Indi Gregory, a British girl who died Nov. 13 because her life support was not extended, had a Catholic funeral Dec. 1 in the British Nottingham Cathedral, celebrated by Bishop Patrick McKinney.
Indiana bishop asks Catholic women’s college to correct transgender admissions policy November 29, 2023By OSV News OSV News Filed Under: Colleges, Feature, News, World News Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend urged the board of trustees of St. Mary’s College to correct a new admissions policy that “departs from fundamental Catholic teaching on the nature of woman.”
Israel-Hamas truce has been extended by two days; more hostages scheduled to be released November 27, 2023By OSV News OSV News Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, Feature, News, World News Qatar’s foreign affairs ministry said Nov. 27 that an agreement has been reached to extend the Israel-Hamas truce for another two days. The announcement was made by a ministry’s spokesperson on X on the final day of a four-day cease-fire in which hostages abducted by Hamas in October have been released in exchange for Palestinian […]
German bishop denounces Polish archbishop for letter to pope protesting Germany’s reform course November 27, 2023By OSV News OSV News Filed Under: Bishops, Feature, News, Synodality, World News Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, Germany, has written a letter to his Polish counterpart, Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan, accusing him of “unbrotherly behavior” and of an “enormous overstepping of his authority.” The Polish daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita published Bishop Bätzing’s letter, dated Nov. 21, on Nov. 27.
