OSV News

The Maryland Supreme Court ruled Aug. 14 that the religious exemption in the state's Fair Employment Practices Act "bars claims (of) religious, sexual orientation, and gender identity discrimination against religious organizations by employees who perform duties that directly further the core mission(s) of the religious entity."

An Alabama priest disgraced after abandoning his parish to travel to Italy with an 18-year-old woman described himself as "married" to her in a Valentine's Day letter.

The Colombian bishops' conference has welcomed the beginning of a six-month ceasefire between the nation's military and the largest remaining rebel group in the country, and began to train dozens of priests and lay workers from different parts of the country on how to help monitor the truce.

Fr. Michael Murphy, pastor of St. Joseph's Monastery in Baltimore's Irvington neighborhood, is not sure how much of a dent an Aug. 5 gun buyback effort will make in the deadly violence that plagues cities such as Baltimore.

Washington Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjívar, the first Salvadoran-born bishop in the United States, celebrated a Mass in honor of the Divine Savior of the World -- the patron of El Salvador -- urging the faithful to get attuned to God, listen to others, walk together and transform themselves to fulfill the mission to which God has called us.

Nicaragua appears to have frozen the bank accounts of the country’s Jesuit university -- marking yet another attack on the Catholic Church and its educational and charitable projects.

While the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio shocked Ecuador Aug. 9, the bishops' conference in the South American country expressed its solidarity with Villavicencio's family and condemned growing rates of violence.

On the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle and Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, joined three Japanese bishops in a formal pledge to concretely work toward "a world without nuclear weapons."

Maui County officials confirmed late Aug. 9 that at least 36 people have died and dozens more were injured; by the evening of Aug. 10, the death toll had risen to at least 53, according to Hawaii Gov. Josh Green. About 11,000 others have evacuated as wildfires burned the historic town of Lahaina "to the ground," as numerous news outlets reported. More than 271 structures were damaged or destroyed.

Catholics marked the 78th anniversary of the United States' 1945 atomic bombings in Japan with calls for nuclear disarmament, prayers for peace and a protest at the White House.

Ohio voters Aug. 8 rejected a measure that proposed raising the threshold to make changes to the state's constitution.

On the 78th anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle and Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Pilgrimage of Peace delegation from their archdioceses participated in an interfaith prayer ceremony and a peace memorial ceremony.

A Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization could be an inevitability for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, according to a statement released Aug. 4 by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone.

The chairman of the U.S. bishops' international policy committee called on Catholics and all people of goodwill to pray that the leaders of the United States and other nations around the globe "who govern the control" of nuclear weapons "will earnestly seek to make critically needed progress on arms control."

Mergers for several Archdiocese of St. Louis parishes are temporarily on hold pending an appeal to the Vatican by parishioners.

The community of Highland Falls in southeastern New York is still reeling after a July 9 rainstorm caused widespread devastation. Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish has served as an impromptu aid center and shelter for those hit hard by the storm.

More than 80 million Americans are currently under dangerous heat advisories. Temperatures in California's Death Valley hover around 120 degrees Fahrenheit at midnight. Phoenix as of July 31 had seen 31 straight days of heat over 110 F, the cause of 25 deaths. Spain, Greece and Italy have recorded all-time high temperatures. In several Middle Eastern countries, the heat index mid-July reached 152 F, considered almost at the limit for human survival.

The organization that oversees the Catholic Church's English-language translations for the Mass and other liturgies of the Roman Rite has a new leader as of Nov. 1.

Priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have called for breaking ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, following a Russian attack on Odesa that destroyed a historic cathedral while killing two and injuring at least 22, including four children.

Catholics in Greece have called for lessons to be learned after a wave of fires devastated parts of the country amid highest summer temperatures for half a century. "The pope has talked many times about how we all need to collaborate in reversing climate change," said Archbishop Josif Printezis of Naxos, Andros, Tinos and Mykonos, secretary-general of Greece's Catholic bishops' conference.