Catholic News Service

A new study conducted for the bishops by Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate found that among seminarians slated for ordination this year the percentage who are white is 63%, down from 65% last year.

In a video message released May 3, Pope Francis encouraged young men and women to look to Mary as a model of courage in listening and fulfilling God's will.

The Supreme Court appears set to overturn its Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion for nearly 50 years, according to a leaked initial draft of a court opinion obtained by Politico and published online the evening of May 2.

A Mexican border diocese has issued an urgent appeal for assistance as hundreds of Haitian migrants arrive in the oft-violent city of Nuevo Laredo, hoping to apply for asylum in the United States.

The Vatican has permanently removed from priestly ministry a retired priest of the Toledo Diocese who was accused of multiple allegations of sexually abusing a minor.

Bishops and church delegates from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Afghanistan attended the meeting of the new Catholic Bishops' Conference of Central Asia in late April.

Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory wore a white hard hat instead of a bishop's miter as he processed to the altar April 26 for the second annual Building Trades' Workers Memorial Day Mass at St. Camillus Church in Silver Spring.

The bishops of Spain have asked forgiveness for sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, while defending the Catholic Church's right to oppose laws which violate Christian teaching.

Families play an important role in a society's development when ideologies are not imposed upon them, Pope Francis said.

Mundelein Seminary celebrated its 100th anniversary April 21 at the Sheraton Grand Chicago.

The cost of food in the United States has been going up as of late, but that's not the biggest problem as this year's growing season begins. What's a bigger problem than high prices? You name it: dry weather, climate change, war and spot food shortages around the world.

Pope Francis praised members of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation for helping the Catholic Church build "a culture of solidarity and peace," including by providing assistance to victims of the war in Ukraine.

Pope Francis and his international Council of Cardinals met in-person at the Vatican April 25, discussing the war in Ukraine, the Vatican press office said.

Deirdre McQuade, who for more than a decade shared perspectives of U.S. bishops' and the Catholic Church's teaching on the sanctity of life, died April 21 after a bout with metastatic breast cancer. She was 53.

Speaking in a conference with Mexico's foreign relations secretary, the Vatican secretary of state lauded church-state relations in Mexico as exemplary.

 A federal judge at an April 25 hearing said he would grant the requests of three states to force the federal government to keep in place a public-health order at the U.S.-Mexico border.

After nearly two hours of oral arguments April 26, the Supreme Court justices had mixed views on the Biden administration ending a Trump-era immigration policy called "Remain in Mexico."

If young people recognize all that they have received with gratitude and older people take the initiative of relaunching hope in young people for their future, then nothing can stop the flourishing of God's blessings among people, Pope Francis said.

The chairman of a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' committee welcomed a White House action that will restore regulatory provisions that were in place for decades as part of a key environmental protection law.

Catholic leaders were thankful that death-row inmate Melissa Lucio was granted a last-minute stay of execution April 25.