Pope Francis has asked Bishop Egidio Miragoli, to carry out a visitation of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy, which has oversight of the more than 410,000 Catholic priests around the world. He did not reveal why the pope chose him to do this work.

“My fragility, the fragility of each one of us, is a theological place of encounter with the Lord. The ‘superman’ priests end up badly, all of them,” Pope Francis said.

An Italian nun who was stabbed 19 times more than two decades ago by three teenage girls apparently fascinated by Satan was honored Sunday with beatification as a martyr of the Roman Catholic Church.

Adoption and foster care, free speech and church vandalism are some of the topics of concern chosen by the U.S. bishops for Religious Freedom Week, which is set for June 22-29.

“Canadian political and religious authorities may continue to cooperate with determination to shed light on that sad situation and to commit themselves humbly to a path of reconciliation and healing,” Pope Francis said.

If the people are in the streets in protest, then the church has to be in the streets in protest, too.

In the fall, Mar Qardakh School, a kindergarten through ninth grade Catholic institution, will open a high school, the Chesterton Academy of St. Thomas the Apostle, in the northern Iraq city.

There is much within Sohrab Ahmari's new book that can and should speak to all Catholics, traditionalist or otherwise. More troubling from a Catholic perspective are Ahmari’s chapters on politics and on sex.

This week, Zac and Ashley talk with Eve Tushnet about her recent feature article for America magazine, “Conversion therapy is still happening in Catholic spaces—and its effects on L.G.B.T. people can be devastating”.

The cardinal’s decision comes at a time when there is a major crisis in the other large German diocese of Cologne linked to the abuse scandal and pastoral management of the archdiocese.