A former Methodist minister has sought a blessing on her same-sex union from a priest at a parish within the Archdiocese of Chicago, months after the Vatican issued a document on the possibility of giving spontaneous, non-liturgical pastoral blessings to couples in irregular situations.

The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church recently met with Ukrainian military officials to discuss a range of issues, including Russia’s detention of two Ukrainian Catholic priests whose fate remains unknown.

More than 15 million visitors are expected to descend upon the city of Paris this summer for the 2024 Olympics. The French capital will serve as the stage for over 300 events in 32 sports — including, for the first time, breakdancing — to test participants’ adherence to the time-honored Olympic creed: “The important thing in life is not the triumph, but the fight; the essential thing is not to have won, but to have fought well.”

Seminarians and religious men and women need well-rounded formation throughout their lives, not only at the onset of their religious training, Pope Francis said.

Taylor Swift grapples with the weight of her words in her latest offering “The Tortured Poets Department,” a 31-track double album that explores heartbreak, fame and longing.

For the rector of the world’s second largest church after St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil, May 11 will be a day of celebrating the inauguration of the southern facade’s mosaics, all created by Father Marko Rupik.

The collaboration of laity and priests in the life of a parish and in outreach to the surrounding community “is not a strategy,” but the result of taking the sacraments of baptism and confirmation seriously rather than allowing it to remain “a beautiful principle, a virtuous and pious intention,” a Canadian theologian told hundreds of pastors.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced new regulations April 26 that restore Obama-era protections for patients who identify as transgender that the Trump administration rolled back in 2020. The new rule follows another controversial rule adding gender identity to Title IX protections.

Catholic groups in Peru have been planning their reaction to two cases involving judicial authorizations for euthanasia in the South American nation. They argue the country’s law doesn’t allow such procedures and hope to halt what they see as a surreptitious process to advance a pro-death agenda.

Pope Francis urged the future pastors of “empty Spain,” the Spanish regions known for their historical richness but currently facing depopulation and economic challenges, to remember that “Jesus wants me in these empty lands to fill them with God.”