Defining Blessed Junípero Serra as a “working-class missionary,” Archbishop José H. Gómez of Los Angeles said the 18th-century Franciscan deserves to be made a saint and to have his record as a defender of native peoples made known. Pope Francis’ announcement that he will canoni

The U.S. bishops on April 17 released an annual audit tracking the church’s response to the abuse of children by members of the clergy. During the 2014 audit year (July 1, 2013, through June 30, 2014), 37 allegations of abuse were current and 620 were made by adults who had been abused in the

Stefanie Tiefenbacher, 87, of the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood, was robbed and murdered in her bedroom in the small town of Ixopo, near Durban, South Africa. • An appearance by Sister Jeannine Gramick, censured for positions on homosexuality and same-sex marriage, at a Catholic chur

National attention was drawn to the Archdiocese of San Francisco in mid-April after a group of about 100 area Catholics placed a full-page advertisement in The San Francisco Chronicle criticizing the leadership of Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone and asking Pope Francis to remove him.Among those w

The president of the Latin American bishops’ conference called Pope Francis’ planned visit to Cuba an opportunity for the church to play a larger role in a country experiencing reforms and re-embracing institutionalized religion.“Whether we want to accept it or not, Cuba is undergo

The Jesuit Refugee Service expressed disappointment on April 24 with the measures announced by the European Union to respond to the accelerating migrant crisis in the Mediterranean, describing the outcome after meetings in Brussels as “a lost opportunity.” James Stapleton, the internatio