OSV News

The church is called to address taboos associated with mental illness both within society and within its own ranks, advocates at the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering said on Jan. 28.

Hailed as a victory by animal welfare groups, new federal legislation now eliminates a long-standing requirement that investigational drugs must be tested on animals before humans receive them in drug trials.

Dolores R. Leckey, who was founding director of the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for the Laity in 1977 and at the time one of the highest ranking women in the U.S. Catholic Church, died peacefully of natural causes Jan. 17 in her home in Arlington. She was 89.

Local Chinese Catholics celebrating the start of the Lunar New Year at Chinatown's Catholic parish also prayed for the victims of the mass shooting in nearby Monterey Park the night of Jan. 21.

The head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church has warned against moves by President Volodymyr Zelensky's government to outlaw Orthodox communities linked to Moscow, and urged his countrymen to "give Russians a chance to repent."

Xavier University of Louisiana, which for decades has placed the most African American graduates into medical schools across the country each year, will open a College of Medicine in a partnership with Ochsner Health, executives of Xavier and Ochsner announced Jan. 17.

As Theodore McCarrick faces criminal charges for allegedly sexually abusing a 16-year-old boy, the disgraced former cardinal's legal defense team is now claiming he is in steep mental and physical decline and therefore not able to stand trial.

Aid organizations warn that increasing attacks by Russian missiles are preventing supply access to Ukraine, after strike in Dnipro killed 44 civilians and after a Catholic volunteer lost a leg delivering food in Bakhmut.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is best honored when people "recall to mind and heart that the issues Dr. King placed before our nation have not been adequately accomplished," and strive to continue his work, Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory said during a Jan. 15 Mass honoring the legacy of the late civil rights leader.

Catholics "must act" for racial justice, starting with personal conversion, to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s struggle and eliminate racial injustices in society, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops stated.

Catholic organizations in California responded quickly to bring aid to those affected by the ongoing brutal winter storms. Since late December, a series of atmospheric rivers have brought record-setting rainfall to the state, leading to flooding, mudslides and evacuations.

Catholic leaders in Illinois are hailing the state's newly enacted ban on assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and switches.

"We were not allowed to go into the ER when [the doctors] were working on him, but after Dr. King was pronounced dead, we were admitted to it, and the authorities gave us the time we needed to pray with him."

Peru's bishops have called on the country's government to stop violence that claimed at least 18 lives in anti-government protests Jan. 9-10 and has left more than 40 people dead and hundreds injured since early December.

A court ruled at a Jan. 10 hearing that a Nicaraguan bishop, who has been detained since August, will stand trial on the charges of spreading false information and conspiracy.

"Lord, I ask that you take me out of here soon … I want to be with my mom and sister soon. Amen."

The National Conference of Brazilian Bishops said in a statement it was "perplexed by the serious and violent occurrences" that erupted Jan. 8 in Brasilia, the nation's capital.

President Joe Biden said Jan. 4 he plans to visit the U.S.-Mexico border, which would be the first visit to the border of his presidency, when he travels to Mexico next week.

The election for speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives bled into a third day when Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., failed to secure a majority of votes to win the office after six rounds of voting over two days Jan. 3 and 4.