VATICAN – Despite many positive and joyful moments during the Synod of Bishops on young people, bishops also have set aside the agenda to discuss the serious scandals and unfolding allegations affecting the church, two synod fathers said.
Published in International

ROME – The Catholic Church is on trial and what happens next will define its place in the world to come, said one of the Vatican’s foremost experts on clergy sex abuse.

Published in International
PHILADELPHIA – Archbishop Charles Chaput offered Friday on First Things a critique by a theologian of the working document for the upcoming Synod on Youth, which highlights five principal theological difficulties in the document.
Published in International

Frustrated by the Church’s inability to defuse long-running clergy sex scandals, Pope Francis has summoned the worldwide presidents of Catholic bishops conferences to the Vatican in February to find better ways to protect children and eradicate predatory priests.

Published in Register Columnists
NAIROBI, Kenya – Due to its impact on young Catholics in Africa, fundamentalism will be a topic that bishops from East Africa prioritize in their talks with other delegates during the synod's intervention sessions.
Published in International
VILNIUS, Lithuania – For the first time in decades, all of the Catholic bishops in China are in full communion with the Pope, the Vatican announced.
Published in International

VATICAN – The Vatican has announced that five more Canadians — a cardinal, two priests and two laity  — have been selected to participate in the upcoming Synod of Bishops on youth.

Published in Canada
VATICAN – The Synod of Bishops increasingly should be a structure for listening to the Catholic faithful, demonstrating a local bishop's concern for the entire church and a means of expressing all the bishops' unity with the pope, Pope Francis said.
Published in International
MONTREAL – The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued stricter rules for media who want to cover its annual plenary assembly to be held in Cornwall, Ontario, Sept. 24-28.
Published in Canada
VATICAN – To the list of members of the Synod of Bishops elected by national bishops' conferences, Pope Francis added cardinals from 14 countries, bishops from another 10 nations, as well as 10 priests who be full voting members of the gathering.
Published in International

The call to cancel the upcoming Synod of Bishops on Young People to focus instead on the life of bishops is “short-sighted” and not in the best interests of the Church or youth, says a Canadian Catholic who helped shape the pre-Synod document for next month’s meeting in Rome.

Published in International
VATICAN – The leaders of the U.S. bishops' conference said they shared with Pope Francis how the church in the United States has been "lacerated by the evil of sexual abuse."
Published in International

VATICAN – The Catholic Church needs bishops who promote unity, “not soloists singing their own tune or captains fighting personal battles,” Pope Francis told new bishops from the Church’s mission territories.

Published in Faith
VATICAN – Pope Francis is calling the presidents of every Catholic bishops' conference in the world to Rome Feb. 21-24 to discuss the prevention of the abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.
Published in International
ROME – The concern of now-retired Pope Benedict XVI and the promises made by the majority of church leaders were not able to stop the evil of clerical sexual abuse, which has been the 9/11 of the Catholic Church, the retired Pope's personal secretary said.
Published in International