The Associated Press

When his bishop demanded his resignation – after a series of divisive remarks about politics and the pandemic – Altman refused to oblige and has since raised more than $640,000 from his conservative supporters to defend himself.

Pope Francis on June 6 expressed pain over the discovery in Canada of the remains of 215 Indigenous students of church-run residential schools, but didn't offer the apology sought by the Canadian prime minister. 

A judge on June 4 ordered a dozen Australian media companies to pay fines from 1,000 Australian dollars ($766) to AU$450,000 ($345,000) for breaching a gag order by publishing references to Cardinal George Pell's since-overturned convictions in 2018 for child sexual abuse.

Saying Attorney General Josh Kaul lacks the authority to initiate an investigation, the Milwaukee Archdiocese is refusing to turn over documents related to sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

Canada's Indigenous services minister said Pope Francis needs to apologize for the role the Catholic Church played in Canada's residential school system, days after the remains of 215 children were located at what was once the country's largest such school. 

Lebanon, a Mediterranean nation of 5 million, has the largest percentage of Christians in the Middle East and is the only Arab country with a Christian head of state. Christians make up a third of the population.

Pope Francis has changed church law to explicitly criminalize the sexual abuse of adults by priests who abuse their authority and to say that laypeople who hold church office can be sanctioned for similar sex crimes.

An increasingly influential Polish Catholic legal institute on Friday inaugurated a university in Warsaw that aims to educate a new generation of conservative lawyers in central Europe who it hopes will also shape wider European culture.

One night in early 2019, Rome street artist Alessia Babrow glued a stylized image of Christ she had made onto a bridge near the Vatican. A year later, she was shocked to learn that the Vatican had apparently used a reproduction of the image, which featured Babrow's hallmark heart emblazoned across Christ’s chest, as its 2020 Easter postage stamp.

A proposal to decriminalize abortion in Malta has stirred up a polarized debate on an issue long considered taboo in the country with the strictest abortion laws in the European Union.

An internal investigation into an apparent bureaucratic blunder by Gov. Tom Wolf's administration that scuttled a statewide voter referendum sought by victims of childhood sexual abuse found no evidence of a deliberate attempt to derail it.

An archbishop of Newark groomed a 5-year-old girl by delivering food to her struggling family and regularly babysitting her, then sexually abusing her on multiple occasions in the 1970s, a lawsuit alleges. 

In agreeing to hear a potentially groundbreaking abortion case, the Supreme Court has energized activists on both sides of the long-running debate who are now girding to make abortion access a major issue in next year's midterm elections.

Hong Kong's incoming Roman Catholic bishop Stephen Chow called for respect for different views as he prepares to lead a diocese that has been polarized by the city's deteriorating political situation.

Pope Francis met May 13 with Argentine President Alberto Fernandez, months after Argentina legalized abortion despite a personal appeal from the pontiff and opposition from the Catholic Church.

A Polish bishop resigned following a Vatican investigation into alleged negligence in addressing cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests under the bishop's authority.

he main suspect in the Vatican's corruption investigation into a London real estate venture was taken into custody May 11 in London after he appeared for his first extradition hearing, his lawyers said.

A Kansas priest who is being considered for sainthood will be laid to rest in Wichita in September, his family and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wichita announced May 11. 

A magistrate slain by mobsters in Sicily and praised by two popes has been beatified by the Roman Catholic church on May 9 in the last formal step before possible sainthood. 

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee filed a lawsuit on May 7 demanding state corrections officials relax COVID-19 protocols and allow ministers to visit incarcerated people.