A Catholic priest in the Philippines was found unconscious and tied up in his car after being reported missing two days earlier, said police, who suspect he was the victim of a kidnap attempt.

Police in England have produced national guidelines to allow priests to give last rites to Catholics dying at crime scenes.

In the shadow of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the support of the Russian Orthodox Church and Patriarch Kirill, perhaps it’s time for a moral reflection on religion and nationalism, says David Seljak.

The Archdiocese of Vancouver will conduct a review of how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the Church in Vancouver, how the archdiocese responded and what, if anything, should be done to improve responses in future emergencies.

HAMBURG, Germany -- Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx has called for a change in Catholic teaching on homosexuality, reported the German Catholic news agency KNA.

The geopolitical landscape of the war in Ukraine can be difficult to understand, and for many this problem was made even more perplexing by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow’s endorsement of the Russian invasion.

Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) executive director Joanna Baron and litigation director Christine Van Geyn have said that charities are experiencing a financial chill after the federal government instituted the Emergencies Act to deal with the Freedom Convoy snarling the streets of Ottawa.

I was recently asked by a parish to do a (virtual) workshop on “News Literacy.” I was told by the families that invited me: “The confusion goes way beyond just ‘fake news.’ There are so many voices on so many digital platforms, speaking both without and within the Church — we need some guidance!” All sides produce legitimate-seeming data, evidence and documentation. Who and what to believe?

VATICAN CITY -- Catholic journalists need to be able to distinguish good from evil and recognize how their words can shape the world, not just describe what has happened, Pope Francis said.

Fake news. The term is bandied about almost daily and has quickly grown tired and annoying.

VATICAN – The rise of media that call themselves Catholic but seem to exist only to judge others is less about criticizing Pope Francis and more about the misguided notion that to affirm one's own orthodoxy, one must find someone to label a heretic, said a Vatican communications official.

The Catholic Register won 15 awards and was named the No. 1 Christian newspaper in Canada at a gala banquet to recognize excellence in Christian journalism.

TORONTO - Fr. Borna Puskaric has a major project awaiting him when he returns to his home diocese of Zagreb, Croatia.

Earlier this month, the international wire services carried a story involving a fragment of papyrus written in Coptic that suggested Jesus may have referred to “my wife” in speaking to a group of followers.

VATICAN CITY - A 49-year-old Italian man protesting the economic policies of Italy and Europe scaled a fence on top of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica Oct. 2 and remained perched above a window for 28 hours, even during Pope Benedict XVI's weekly general audience in the square below.

With the help of two Vatican firefighters and the rope he had tied around himself, the protester, Marcello Di Finizio, climbed back up to the public walkway on top of the dome about 8 p.m. local time. He was escorted to a nearby Italian police station for what he told The Associated Press were "formalities."

Pope Benedict did not mention the protester, Marcello Di Finizio, during his audience talk.

Di Finizio, who had scaled the fence on the dome in July as well, runs a beachfront business in northern Italy, renting umbrellas and chaise lounges. He has been protesting Italy's plan to obey European Union directives by holding public auctions to distribute licenses to operate such businesses on public beaches.

Shortly after the Pope's general audience ended, Catholic News Service reached Di Finizio on his cellphone. Speaking from the dome, he told CNS: "I'm here to ask for help. Our government, our state, doesn't exist. Sectors of the economy, the beach sector, have been paralysed for years by government policies.

"I ask for political asylum from the Vatican," he said. "The Pope is the highest ethical and moral authority in this country, or at least he should be — let's hope he still is."

Di Finizio, who was wearing an Italian flag around his neck, said he would not come down until government officials and labour union officials promised to sit down with him and resolve the serious economic issues facing Italians who work in the tourism sector.
The protester said he felt forced to take his protest public in a highly visible fashion.

"I want to live; I like living," he said, but "if they want to kill me, let them do it in front of millions of people."

Di Finizio implied he could be willing to jump from the dome. When others are driven to such desperate measures, he said, "these are not suicides, these are homicides."

When a CNS reporter suggested that his message had been heard and he could come down, Di Finizio laughed and said: "In your country, maybe that would work, but we're in Italy. Here they will slap me on the back, kick me in the rear and not listen any more."

Then Di Finizio made a request, "Please ask the Pope to send up an electrical cable so that my phone battery doesn't go dead and I can keep talking to (all of) you."

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said Di Finizio obviously was not mentally stable.

Vatican firefighters and police officers remained on the public walkway around the top of St. Peter's dome throughout the night and into Oct. 3 as Di Finizio's protest continued.

Di Finizio had joined a group of tourists going to the top of St. Peter's Basilica at about 5 p.m. Rome time Oct. 2. Security cameras showed him climbing over the 1.5-metre-high fence, tying a rope around himself and lowering himself down to a large decorative overhang above one of the dome's windows. He also managed to unfurl and tie down a large banner to the dome that said "Help!" and called for an end to policies that were "butchering society."