The Associated Press

The Supreme Court said Feb. 24 it will hear a dispute over a Philadelphia Catholic agency that won't place foster children with same-sex couples.

The 156 young men who call St. Charles Borromeo Seminary home are deeply aware of both the sacred and the profane. They appear unflinchingly optimistic, reverent and committed, yet they prepare to enter ministry at a time when scandals have driven the faithful from pews.

Fr. Joshua Whitfield is a husband, a father of four and a relentlessly good-natured priest beloved by the parishioners. He is, he says, "an ecclesiastical zoo exhibit," one of the tiny community of married priests — men who slipped through a clerical loophole created 40 years ago — that even most Catholics don't know exist.

Schools were shuttered, churches told worshipers to stay away and some mass gatherings were banned as cases of a new virus swelled Feb. 21 in South Korea, the newest front in a widening global outbreak.

An attorney for New Orleans' Roman Catholic archdiocese Feb. 20 strongly defended the New Orleans Saints' public-relations help in dealing with the clergy sex abuse crisis, saying the legal effort to unseal hundreds of confidential emails between them is aimed at trying to shame those "who had the audacity" to back the church.

More than 150 historians and researchers have signed up to access the soon-to-open Vatican archives of Pope Pius XII, evidence of the intense scholarly interest into the World War II-era pope and his record during the Holocaust, officials said Feb. 20.

The presidential election is shaping up to be a tough one for those who see it literally as a matter of life and death.

Three deaf victims of sexual abuse by priests in Argentina wrapped up a string of meetings with United Nations human rights officials in Geneva Feb.19, hoping to build pressure on the Vatican — and Pope Francis himself — to come clean about the crimes committed against them.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, six months after disclosing it had paid millions of dollars to people sexually abused as children by its clerics.

Barraged by hundreds of sex-abuse lawsuits, the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy protection Feb. 18 in hopes of working out a potentially mammoth victim compensation plan that will allow the 110-year-old organization to carry on.

Yolanda Martínez's son had been sexually abused by a priest of the Legion of Christ, a disgraced religious order. But when she called Cardinal Valasio De Paolis — the Vatican official appointed by the pope to lead the Legion and to clean it up — to report the settlement the group was offering and to express her outrage, he laughed.

The restrictions and dwindling crowds in religiously diverse places of worship underscore the extent of the scare over the outbreak that has permeated many aspects of life in the hard-hit Asian region.

A Roman Catholic bishop in Rhode Island responded to the controversy created by a priest who said he'd deny communion to state legislators who support abortion and then defended his stance by saying abortion is worse than pedophilia.

Two children were sexually abused by Catholic priests about 40 years ago in an Arizona parish and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix covered up the problem, according to newly filed lawsuits.

Why would an NFL team, even one called the Saints, strike a behind-the-scenes alliance with the Roman Catholic Church on an issue as emotionally fraught as clergy sex abuse?

The owner of the New Orleans Saints said Monday that the NFL team played no role in determining which priests would be named in the list of "credibly accused" clergy published by the area's Roman Catholic Church.

Rhode Island's attorney general said Feb.6 he expects to release a public report later this year with findings from his review of allegations of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clerics in the state.

Exulting in his impeachment acquittal, President Donald Trump took a scorched-earth victory lap Feb.6, unleashing his fury against those who tried to remove him from office while looking ahead to his reelection campaign.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Parliament on Feb. 6 that Indian Muslims had nothing to fear from a new citizenship law and accused opposition parties of toeing rival Pakistan's propaganda to create fear.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo announced Feb. 4 it will "cease operations" at its seminary at the end of the academic year, citing annual operating losses and low enrollment.