The Associated Press

Pope Francis urged European bishops on Sept. 18 to listen to survivors of clergy sexual abuse and consider them partners in reform, warning that their failure to do so risks the very future of the Catholic Church.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Sept. 16 criticized some in the judiciary for veering into the role of legislators and politicians, saying it is not the role of judges to make policy or to base decisions on their personal feelings or religious beliefs.

Three sex abuse lawsuits filed against a New Jersey diocese and announced Thursday include claims that defrocked Cardinal Theodore McCarrick abused a young man in the 1980s.

Pope Francis has rejected the resignation of the archbishop of Hamburg, who offered to step down in March after a report faulted him for his handling of sexual abuse allegations in his previous diocese.

Poland's top political leaders attended the Sept. 12 beatification of a cardinal who led the Polish Catholic Church's resistance to communism and a blind nun who devoted her life to helping others who couldn't see.

Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley met with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Sept. 9 and visited a Cuban COVID-19 vaccine laboratory at a time of tense relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

The Catholic diocese of Wuhan, China — where the coronavirus was first detected — has a new bishop who was nominated by the pope according to the Vatican’s controversial accord with China, the Holy See said Wednesday.

Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that it is unconstitutional to punish abortion, unanimously annulling several provisions of a law from Coahuila — a state on the Texas border — that had made abortion a criminal act.

Pope Francis on Sunday asked for prayers for his visit later this month to “the heart of Europe,” a four-day pilgrimage to Hungary and Slovakia, which will be his first travels since surgery earlier this summer.

A gay substitute teacher was wrongfully fired by a Roman Catholic school in North Carolina after he announced in 2014 on social media that he was going to marry his longtime partner, a federal judge has ruled.

Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the once-powerful American prelate who was expelled from the priesthood for sexual abuse, pleaded not guilty Sept. 3 to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy during a wedding reception in Massachusetts nearly 50 years ago.

The Vatican has concluded that allegations of sexual abuse dating back a half century against the Roman Catholic bishop of Brooklyn do “not have the semblance of truth," but an attorney for the accusers said they will continue to pursue their civil cases.

The first new Catholic school built in Baltimore in roughly 60 years opened its doors Aug. 30, a somewhat anomaly in the national education landscape as the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the shuttering of many Catholic schools.

Pope Francis will visit Cyprus in December, making him the second Roman Catholic pope to ever travel to the eastern Mediterranean island nation, a Cypriot official said Aug. 31.

A Brazilian bishop resigned on Wednesday, less than a week after a video spread on social media that featured someone, purported to be him, masturbating.

Germany's health minister has criticized the Roman Catholic Church for its refusal to bless same-sex unions but says his religious faith remains strong.

New York's one-year window to allow victims of childhood sexual abuse to file civil lawsuits was originally supposed to end Aug. 14, 2020. It was extended twice amid concerns that the coronavirus pandemic and resulting court disruptions were keeping survivors from coming forward. The extension ends Aug. 14.

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe will be auctioning nearly 140 parcels of property next month as it seeks to settle a raft of sex abuse claims.

Maybe heaven can wait, but a phone call for the pope could not.

The social media giant Facebook has rolled out a new prayer request feature, a tool embraced by some religious leaders as a cutting-edge way to engage the faithful online. But others are eying it warily.