The Associated Press

A suspect has been arrested in the killing of a Catholic bishop who was fatally shot over the weekend in Southern California in a crime that shocked the Los Angeles religious and immigrant communities.

A $50 million shrine built to honor Stanley Francis Rother — killed by three masked assassins who entered his rectory during Guatemala's civil war — is expected to draw thousands of pilgrims to his home state.

More than 4,800 individuals may have been victims of child sex abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church and 512 alleged victims have already come forward to speak out, an expert panel looking into historic abuse in the church said Monday.

The umbrella group of Catholic religious orders in France is demanding church authorities assume responsibility for horrific evidence of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse in L'Arche.

Pope Francis hopes Cuban authorities will release and grant amnesty to people arrested and sentenced after the historic protests that took place in 2021, Cardinal Beniamino Stella, who traveled to the island as the pontiff’s special envoy, said February 8.

A Nicaraguan court has sentenced four Roman Catholic priests to 10 years in prison on conspiracy charges stemming from long-standing government allegations that the church backed illegal pro-democracy protests.

President Joe Biden delivered a message of unity at the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 2, the first time the annual event has been held since its leadership and structure were overhauled to distance it from a controversial private religious group.

For the lone pastor in this fragile, starkly beautiful environment, the challenge is to fulfill the church's historical mission of ministering to those in crisis while addressing the pressing and divisive contemporary challenge of climate change.

Australian police plan to ask a judge to ban gay rights protesters from demonstrating outside the funeral of Cardinal George Pell in Sydney on Feb. 2 due to public safety concerns.

Pope Francis has clarified his recent comments about homosexuality and sin, saying he was merely referring to official Catholic moral teaching that teaches that any sexual act outside of marriage is a sin.

The Colorado baker who won a partial U.S. Supreme Court victory after refusing to make a gay couple’s wedding cake because of his Christian faith lost an appeal Jan. 26 in his latest legal fight, involving his rejection of a request for a birthday cake celebrating a gender transition.

Auschwitz-Birkenau survivors and other mourners commemorated the 78th anniversary Jan. 27 of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp, some expressing horror that war has again shattered peace in Europe and the lesson of Never Again is being forgotten.

A machete-wielding man killed a sexton and injured a priest at two Catholic churches in the city of Algeciras on Jan. 25 before being arrested, Spain’s interior ministry said. Authorities are investigating the attacks as a possible act of terrorism.

Pope Francis on Jan. 22 made an impassioned plea, delivered partly in Spanish, for an end to widening violence in Peru over demands for the resignation of the country's president.

The Church of England formally apologized Jan. 20 for its treatment of LGBTQ people, even as it said that same-sex couples still won't be allowed to marry in its churches.

The archbishop of Vienna, a longtime friend and former student of Pope Benedict XVI, has confirmed that it was he who wrote a letter to his former teacher urging him to accept election as pontiff in 2005 if the votes went his way.

The Vatican has ordered a prominent French priest who advised the Holy See for years on matters of sex and homosexuality to cease his psychotherapy practice following allegations he sexually abused men in his therapeutic care.

The Church of England said Jan. 18 it will allow blessings for same-sex, civil marriages for the first time but same-sex couples still will not be allowed to marry in its churches.

In dramatic testimony in the Vatican mega-trial on financial corruption. Jan. 13, a former Vatican diplomat admitted to influencing the deposition of  a key prosecution witness.

Australian Cardinal George Pell, who was the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of child sex abuse before his convictions were overturned, died Tuesday in Rome.