Catholic News Service

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of 59-year-old Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, India, who was acquitted last year on charges of raping a nun but may face further legal action since the nun has appealed the verdict.

Dominican Sr. Helen Alford has been a member of the academy since 2020 and will be the third woman to lead the group of scholars.

With a degree of credibility that "seems to be very high," another 14 women and one man have reported to the Jesuits that they were spiritually, psychologically or sexually abused by Jesuit Fr. Marko Rupnik, a well-known mosaic artist and spiritual director.

Young people must be "missionaries of human dignity" to fight human trafficking and all forms of exploitation, Pope Francis said.

Many Christians who died for the faith did so not because they were denied the freedom to worship, but because they were living out their faith and defending freedom, justice and truth, Pope Francis said.

Sr. Margaret Smyth, a fervent advocate for the poor and migrant communities and who led an apostolate serving Spanish-speaking immigrants in eastern Long Island for 23 years, died Dec. 19.

When Nicole Swannack signed up for an online book club with the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton last spring, she thought she might learn more about her faith and the life of America's first native-born saint and maybe make a new friend.

Nigerian sisters and their communities are raising awareness about violence against women and child abuse and spreading their prevention mechanisms among young people in Nigeria.

Rwandan Cardinal Antoine Kambanda beatified Sr. Maria Carola Cecchin,  who served in Kenya about 100 years ago. Beatification is one of the final steps toward sainthood.

A small Catholic school run by the Sisters of St. Joseph the Worker in Walton, Kentucky, is thriving, despite the small student body and the small number of sisters who run the school.

Helen Prejean, a Sister of St. Joseph, shows no signs of slowing down in her long-standing fight to end the death penalty.

At a special Mass, members of the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Merchant Marines and Public Health Service joined others in prayer to thank St. Elizabeth Ann Seton for her protection and to ask for her continued intercession.

In Indianapolis, four sisters of the congregation founded by St. Teresa of Kolkata have lived, prayed and served those in need in a poverty-stricken neighborhood on the near east side of Indianapolis since 2000.

Organizations led by women religious in the U.S. as well as other Catholic institutions denounced those who threaten democracy and efforts that make it difficult for some U.S. citizens to vote.

The humility of silence can help Christians sift through the loud and divisive noise in the world in order to listen to and discern God's will, Pope Francis told a group of Capuchin sisters.

When she was assigned to New Mexico 26 years ago, Maryknoll Sr. Rose Marie Cecchini never expected to spend so much of her ministry helping the state's tribal peoples deal with the literal fallout of uranium mining.

On July 8, Srs. Elizabeth Anne Allen and Jean Marie Warner of the Congregation of Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia didn't just celebrate 50 years of religious profession — they also celebrated a half-century of friendship.

The bees collect nectar from flowers and plants across the sisters' property and over a 3-mile radius, bringing it back to the hives where they transform it into honey.

During nearly five months of captivity in Burkina Faso, Marianite Sr. Suellen Tennyson wondered aloud where God was hiding in the midst of her isolation and loneliness.

A unanimous ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans blocking the Biden administration's transgender mandate "is a major victory for conscience rights and compassionate medical care in America," said the attorney who represented the plaintiffs in the case.