From that would come increased dialogue and synodality within the church, and greater lay participation.

As legislators in multiple states push hard to expand access to abortion, claiming that doing so will give women the control they need over their lives, some Kentucky lawmakers are taking a different tack.

The summit began Feb. 21 with the harrowing stories of survivors of sexual abuse, cover-up and rejection by church officials.

Opening the Vatican summit on the clerical sexual abuse crisis, the pope said, “The holy people of God are watching and are awaiting from us not simple, predictable condemnations, but concrete and effective measures.”

The Catholic high school student at the center of an encounter with a Native American tribal leader in Washington filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit Feb. 19 against The Washington Post claiming the newspaper's coverage of the incident was biased.

British government inquiry into the sexual abuse crisis that continues to shake the Catholic Church has focused on the actions of the Vatican’s diplomatic service — its network of papal nuncios around the world.