MIAMI - Like many things since the coronavirus pandemic took hold, South Florida houses of worship have had to make dramatic changes. In the Miami Archdiocese, parishioners don't hold hands as they recite the Lord's Prayer, pews are emptier and the holy water has been put away.

The archdiocese also says that in the earlier days of the pandemic ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS - A Rapid City, S.D., priest who was set to become the next Catholic bishop of Duluth has resigned following an allegation that he sexually abused a minor in the 1980s in South Dakota.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop-elect Michel Mulloy, the Diocese of Duluth said Monday in a statement posted on its website.

The...Read more

SAN DIEGO - Catholic Masses at San Diego-area Navy bases have ended because the Navy, in what it says is a cost-cutting move, has declined to renew its contracts with Catholic priests, and there are not enough Catholic chaplains on active duty to fill the void.

Protestant services on bases, which are led by active duty chaplains, will continue,...Read more

Pope Francis is preparing to visit Assisi next month, on his first trip outside Rome since Italy was put in a strict coronavirus lockdown in early March.

On Oct. 3, the day before the Feast of St. Francis, the pope will travel to the small central Italy town to sign a new encyclical, the Vatican announced Saturday.

Assisi is located about 110 ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Since the day he stepped off a private jet at Los Angeles International Airport and was arrested last June, Naason Joaquin Garcia, the leader of an international church headquartered in Mexico, has been held on charges of raping children and possessing child pornography, among other felonies.

The case against Garcia, whose ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The Rev. John Stowe has long been critical of President Donald Trump, and the Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Lexington did not hold back in recent comments about what it means to be pro-life.

In a live video chat July 31 with the International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs, Stowe said Trump is "so ...Read more

During the Black Death, which originated in Asia and terrorized Europe from 1347 to 1352, artists captured the macabre zeitgeist with depictions of mocking skeletons wielding scythes and leading townsfolk to their painful deaths.

Between 25 million and 30 million people perished, and, historians say, the medieval mind blamed the plague's boils ...Read more

Citing financial losses resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden in New Jersey said Friday that it would halt payments from a clergy sex-abuse victim fund that has paid out nearly $7.6 million.

In a statement, the diocese said it had suffered a "precipitous decline in revenue" and was rapidly approaching a ...Read more

BEIRUT -- In the best of times, it's hard to land one of the slots Saudi Arabia parcels out for the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that all Muslims are duty-bound to make at least once in their lives. In the worst of times -- cue the novel coronavirus -- it's well-nigh impossible, with the numbers for this year's event, now underway, ...Read more

AMMAN, Jordan -- Muslim pilgrims started performing the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, although Islam's largest gathering has been significantly curtailed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A few thousand people are taking part, a fraction of the usually 2.5 million people from all over the world who usually gather annually ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- The Coptic Orthodox Church in the U.S., shaken by recent accusations of sexual abuse, has vowed to eradicate inappropriate behavior in its cloistered communities following the defrocking of a priest accused of pedophilia for decades.

The 2,000-year-old church, which was started in Egypt by the Apostle Mark and grew in the U.S. ...Read more