News & Commentary
Attacks on Nicaragua’s Catholic entities must stop, says Human Rights Watch head
Nicaragua's assaults on Catholic and other educational institutions, its stripping political opponents of citizenship, and its arrest of political opponents must stop, said Human Rights Watch's acting executive director, Tirana Hassan.
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Nicaraguan president who jailed bishop is ‘unbalanced,’ pope says
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who has strongly persecuted the church in the country and jailed a prominent bishop, is "unbalanced," Pope Francis said.
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Vatican accepts ‘positio’ in Mother Lange’s cause; dicastery to review documents on her life
ARBUTUS, Md. (OSV News) — The canonization cause of Mother Mary Lange, founder of the world’s first sustained women’s religious community for Black women, has taken a step forward. Sister Rita Michelle Proctor, superior general of the Baltimore-based Oblate Sisters ...
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Polish experts reject claim JPII ‘covered up abuse,’ urge all church records be opened to give full context
KRAKOW, Poland (OSV News) — The fact that Cardinal Karol Wojtyla — the future Pope John Paul II — knew about abuse when he was an archbishop of Krakow, Poland, is neither new nor surprising, experts say. What remains to ...
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Delaware bill would break seal of confession, require priest to report what penitent says
WILMINGTON, Del. (OSV News) — The Delaware General Assembly is taking aim at a basic tenet of the Catholic Church and wants to break the seal of confession between a priest and penitent. House Bill 74 would do away with ...
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McCarrick admits knowing victim as a child, denies sexual assaults
(OSV News) — Disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, whose attorneys have argued he should not stand trial due to “progressive and irreparable cognitive deficits,” recalled the name of the man he allegedly sexually abused as a child, although he denied ...
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Catholic, labor leaders raise concerns as Arkansas revises child labor law
In a legislative development that has drawn concern from both Catholic and labor leaders, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, R-Ark., signed into law March 8 the Youth Hiring Act of 2023, which eliminates state age verification for children younger than 16 seeking a job.