The Supreme Court will hear from Catholic preschools that say it’s unconstitutional to exclude them from a state-funded program because they won’t admit kids from LGBTQ+ families.

Pope Leo XIV has urged a ceasefire in the Middle East and called on leaders in the Iran war to reopen talks.

At DePaul University, a Catholic school in Chicago, students have created a covert contraceptive delivery network called “the womb service.”.

Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica is ready to raise its immense central tower over the coming months and become the tallest Christian church in Europe.

The Supreme Court is ordering a New York court to take a new look at whether some religious organizations should be excluded from a state regulation requiring health insurance plans to cover abortions.

A new AP-NORC poll finds that just over a month after Pope Leo XIV became the first U.S.-born pontiff, American Catholics are feeling excited about their new religious leader.

A federal judge has ruled that two federal agencies cannot punish Catholic employers and health care providers if they refuse, for religious reasons, to provide gender-affirming care to transgender patients or won’t provide health insurance coverage for such care to their workers.

The Supreme Court has handed down a unanimous ruling in a religious rights case, finding a Catholic charity in Wisconsin can’t be required to pay unemployment taxes when other religious groups are exempt.

Human-caused climate change intensified deadly rainfall in Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and other states in early April and made it more likely to occur.

Here is a live feed of the Sistine Chapel’s chimney as the conclave of Catholic cardinals meets in Vatican City to choose the next pope.

Here is a live feed of the Sistine Chapel’s chimney as the conclave of Catholic cardinals meets in Vatican City to choose the next pope.

Here is a live feed of the Sistine Chapel’s chimney as the conclave of Catholic cardinals meets in Vatican City to choose the next pope.

Every year, crowds fill the streets of the central Mexican town of Atlixco on the Catholic holiday of Good Friday to witness the sight.

Michigan's largest Catholic diocese gets its sixth archbishop.

A series of earthquakes near the Greek island of Santorini have led authorities to shut down schools, dispatch rescue teams with sniffer dogs and sent instructions to residents including a request to drain their swimming pools.

Pope Francis has warned that bullying in schools prepares students for war rather than peace.

A network of faith-based organizations minister to seafarers in hundreds of the world’s ports.

President-elect Donald Trump says he’s nominating the president of the advocacy group CatholicVote to be the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

Several U.S. Catholic bishops on Wednesday encouraged the church to boldly share Vatican teachings on a range of hot-button issues, including the condemnation of abortion, euthanasia, surrogacy and gender-affirming surgery.

Hundreds of people have turned out for the burial of Catholic priest Marcelo Pérez, an activist for Indigenous peoples and farm laborers who was killed in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas.

Catholic priest Marcelo Pérez has been killed in Mexico.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades.

Abortion-rights groups are courting Latino voters through door-knocking and Spanish-language ads.

Pope Francis has taken the unusual decision to expel 10 people from a troubled Catholic movement in Peru after a Vatican investigation uncovered “sadistic” abuses of power, authority and spirituality.

A federal judge is allowing more than 8,000 Catholic employers nationwide to reject government regulations that protect workers seeking abortions and fertility care.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s 2019 conversion to Catholicism helped shape his political worldview.

The Knights of Columbus, the world’s largest Catholic fraternal group, has covered up defining features of the mosaics in its Washington D.

Funeral services for Thomas Gumbleton, a Catholic bishop in Detroit, will be held on Saturday, April 13, at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit.

Each Holy Week, thousands of residents of the colonial, volcano-fringed city of Antigua participate in some of Guatemala’s oldest and most popular Easter traditions.

While some American cities celebrated St. Patrick’s Day a day early, others, including Boston, one of the most Irish cities in the country, kicked off parades and festivities on Sunday.

A ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court is raising the bar for religions to show that their charity arms deserve tax exemptions.

The sexual abuse of children by Catholic sisters and nuns has been overshadowed by far more common reports of male clergy abuse.

After last year's wave of wins for the so-called school choice movement, some religious schools in those states are seeing enrollment rise and are planning for a fuller future.

A study has found more than 57% of Argentina's people are considered poor, the worst poverty level in 20 years.

The archbishop of Port-au-Prince says six nuns kidnapped in Haiti last week along with two other people have been released.

An Iowa man is under arrest in the death of a Catholic priest who was stabbed in the rectory of his a small Nebraska church.

A township in southeastern Michigan has been ordered to allow a Catholic group to post religious displays on a privately owned “prayer trail” depicting the last day of Jesus.

Researchers have discovered new documentation that substantiates reports that Catholic convents and monasteries in Rome sheltered Jews during World War II.

They were told they’d never make it. He was 30 and Catholic and she was 19 and Protestant, but 60 years later, they’re not only making it work, they’re making it work for others.

Spain is set to unveil what is touted as one of Europe’s cultural highlights of the year with the opening in Madrid of The Royal Collections Gallery next month.

Through more than 200 years of service, the Sisters of Charity of New York have nursed Civil War casualties, joined civil rights and anti-war demonstrations, cared for orphans, and taught countless children.

French authorities and media reports say a teacher has been stabbed to death in southwestern France by a high school student.

A Catholic priest is accused of stealing more than $800,000 from three retired priests in the Lansing Diocese.

A 90-year-old Catholic cardinal and five others in Hong Kong were fined after being found guilty of failing to register a now-defunct fund meant to people arrested in the widespread protests three years ago.

A group of families is suing Michigan Catholic school’s over a rule they say discriminates against students from mostly Black areas.

In a historic monastery set in the tourist-thronged main town of Santorini, one of the trendiest Greek islands, 13 cloistered nuns live a vocation little understood but central to Catholicism — tireless prayer.

As student anxiety skyrockets, campus ministries are trying to help by not just offering the comforts of faith and community, but also creating collaborations with mental health professionals.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday dismissed a Catholic school’s challenge to Michigan’s 2020-21 mask order.

Every Sunday afternoon since last Easter, teens kneel by a makeshift altar at Fort Bliss and pray so hard that tears stream down their faces.

A Catholic school in suburban Detroit said it will use a $1.3 million gift to enhance its science and technology programs, including esports.

The Archdiocese of Detroit said all are invited to celebrate Christmas by joining them for the Midnight Mass for the Nativity of the Lord.

A consortium of Catholic women’s groups is calling on the Holy See to join the Council of Europe and sign the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Catholic community is at the forefront of the giving season with the fourth annual Granting Celebration.

More and more Hispanic families are joining the Catholic church. The Archdiocese of Detroit said it has seen a 49% increase since 2016.

The new Texas law that bans most abortions in the state is being welcomed by many of the religious leaders who help bolster the anti-abortion movement.

For many parents, the biggest concern has been how to protect children under 12 who cannot yet receive the COVID-19 vaccine and whether or not they can bring the virus home from school.

For many parents, the biggest concern has been how to protect children under 12 who cannot yet receive the COVID-19 vaccine and whether or not they can bring the virus home from school.

A former priest has been ordered to spend eight to 15 years in prison in connection with the sexual abuse of teens in the 1980s in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The organization overseeing Catholic schools in the United States gets a new chief executive this week as it seeks to rebound from its biggest one-year enrollment drop since the 1970s.

It's another victory for religious groups at the Supreme Court.

Divisions have flared up among U.S. Catholic bishops as they opened a national meeting highlighted by a sensitive agenda item: a possible rebuke of Catholic politicians, including President Joe Biden, who receive Communion while supporting abortion rights.

Mass for the Vigil of Pentecost 2021 will be held on Saturday, May 22 beginning 7 p.m. at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit.

Police in Northern Ireland deployed water cannons for the first time in six years as they tried to disperse protesters who hurled stones, fireworks and gasoline-filled bottles at officers during another night of violence in Belfast.

___ROME — Police in Italy have been cracking down on violators of ordinances aimed at reining in what has been weeks of stubbornly high incidences of COVID-19 cases. North Macedonia has recorded more than 126,000 coronavirus cases and more than 3,600 deaths. ___TIRANA — Albania started a mass inoculation campaign Sunday ahead of the summer tourism season after acquiring 192,000 doses of Chinese coronavirus vaccine Sinovac earlier this week. The church drew media attention after reports it had opened the service to its entire congregation despite a tough coronavirus lockdown and sharply rising infection rate in the Netherlands. ___MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s government is acknowledging that the country’s true death toll from the coronavirus pandemic now stands above 321,000.

The pandemic has ended so many lives and vaccines are in high demand, but the J&J vaccine is born out of research that the church has long spoken out against. AdMichigan COVID-19 vaccinations: How to find appointments, info on phasesWhile the Archdiocese of Detroit recognizes the need for more vaccines, the J&J vaccine emerged from research dating back to the 1970s that proves controversial for Catholics. “If no other vaccines are available, certainly take the J&J vaccine,” Smetanka said. The vaccines developed by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca are more morally problematic, however. If one does not have a choice of vaccine and a delay in immunization may bring about serious consequences for one’s health and the health of others, it would be permissible to accept the Johnson & Johnson or AstraZeneca vaccine.

DETROIT – The Archdiocese of Detroit is urging Catholics to return to mass on Sundays and Holy Days starting March 13, when dispensation from the obligation will expire. The dispensation from the obligation to attend mass was first issued when coronavirus pandemic swept into Michigan in March 2020. The Archdiocese of Detroit has extended that dispensation several times in the past 10 months, most recently in November when it was announced it would be extended until Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021. Now, Catholics in the Detroit area are being advised to “to return to the heart and foundation of their faith” as they resume other activities. These individuals should also prepare to return to Mass in recognition of its preeminence in our lives as Catholics,” Archbishop Vigneron said in a letter to the faithful.

The poster, she said, celebrated the recent liberalization of the abortion law in Argentina and expressed hope Poland would be next. Mass nationwide protests have recurred repeatedly since then, growing into the largest protest movement in post-communist Poland. The court's judges argued that allowing abortion when there are congenital defects is unconstitutional because the Polish Constitution protects human life. Suchanow and Marta Lempart, the leaders of the Women’s Strike group that has spearheaded street protests against the law, are now looking for inspiration to Argentina. AdIrene Donadio, a leading strategist with International Planned Parenthood Federation, a group promoting reproductive health and choice, said her organization is appalled that such a restrictive law could be imposed in a European Union member state.

The women lived at the campus of the Adrian Dominican Sisters in Adrian, 75 miles (120 kilometers) southwest of Detroit. Eight nuns in suburban Milwaukee died of virus complications in one week in December, including four in one day. AdNine of the 12 deaths of Adrian Dominican sisters this month were linked to COVID-19, Siemen said. After more than nine months without a COVID-19 case among residents, the Adrian Dominican Sisters announced an outbreak on Jan. 14. That's the heartache of this virus,” Siemen said.

(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)WARSAW – A near-total ban on abortion has taken effect in Poland and triggered a new round of nationwide protests three months after the constitutional court ruled that the abortion of congenitally damaged fetuses is unconstitutional. Members of Poland's ruling Law and Justice party, which is aligned with the Roman Catholic Church, had sought the new restriction. The protesters are demanding a full liberalization of the abortion law and the resignation of the government, neither of which seem likely in the short term. Some protesters Wednesday covered their faces with green bandanas, which are the symbol of the abortion rights movement in Argentina. The constitutional court is made up mostly of Law and Justice appointees who ruled on a motion brought by lawmakers from the party.

People gather in Warsaw, Poland Wednesday Jan. 27, 2021 to protest after the country's top court on Wednesday confirmed its highly divisive ruling that will further tighten the predominantly Catholic nation's strict anti-abortion law. The Constitutional Tribunal published the justification of its decision, which means it can now be officially printed and take immediate effect. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)WARSAW – New protests broke out in Polish cities Wednesday, shortly after the country's top court confirmed its highly divisive ruling that will further tighten the predominantly Catholic nation’s strict anti-abortion law. Last year's marches — some of which led to clashes with police — were highly critical of the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party. It was made in response to a motion from over 100 ruling party lawmakers, whose names have not been made public.

Pope Francis has changed church law to explicitly allow women to do more things during Mass, Monday Jan. 11, 2021, while reaffirming they cannot be priests. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, FILE)DETROIT – The role of women in the Catholic Church is expanding and it’s no longer based on the decision of an individual Bishop. “It’s a really welcome change from the Pope,” Katie Lacz, of Women’s Ordination Conference, said. Advocates for gender equality in the Catholic Church are praising the decision by Pope Francis. Pope Francis has now made it canon law.

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)Michigan members of a Catholic religious institute are calling on lawmakers to immediately remove President Donald Trump from office following the deadly riot that shook the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. The Adrian Dominican Sisters -- who founded and sponsor Siena Heights University in Michigan -- specifically singled out senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow and Rep. Tim Walberg on Friday to take action to remove President Trump from office. Several Cabinet members and White House employees have resigned from their posts following the deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol. President Trump has since publicly condemned the violence in Washington, and even conceded to President-elect Biden for the first time on Thursday evening. Pelosi told Democrats that the top military official assured her steps are in place to prevent a Trump nuclear launch.

DETROIT – Join the Christmas Midnight Mass virtually this year streaming from Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit. Watch live here at 12 a.m. Dec. 25, 2020:

(AP Photo/Kemal Softic)MOSTAR – MOSTAR, Bosnia-Long-entrenched ethno-nationalists were projected to win the first local election in Bosnia’s southern city of Mostar in 12 years, but early results of Sunday's vote also indicated multiethnic parties and alliances would be a strong part of the future city council. Mostar is split between Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats, who fought fiercely for control over the city during the country’s 1992-95 war. It hasn’t held a local election since 2008, when Bosnia’s constitutional court declared its election rules discriminatory and ordered them changed. Thus, the lawmakers from multiethnic parties appear set to become tiebreakers in all but certain disputes between the dominant Bosniak and Croat nationalists. Prior to the war, ethnically mixed couples made up 10% of all marriages in Mostar, and the city was markedly cosmopolitan.

DETROIT – The Archdiocese of Detroit has announced plans to form 51 new families of parishes in an effort to better serve worshippers. The idea to form 51 families of parishes was conceived years ago amid a priest shortage, and is designed to help the diocese become more missionary. The Deacon says the transition will help spread resources and keep the doors of the churches open. “This allows us to keep the parishes open with fewer clergy and that’s our goal,” Houghton said. Officials say the transition will happen in two waves: one in January 2021 and the second in July.

DETROIT – For months, mass at St. Clare Montefalco Parish in Grosse Pointe Park has been different in many ways, but still celebrated weekly. Allen Vigneron, extended a blessing. Announced on Friday, the dispensation from the obligation to attend mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation was extended to Ash Wednesday, Feb, 17, 2021. Those who stay at home should keep holy the Lord’s Day by reading scripture or watching mass virtually. You can read the full letter from Reverend Allen H. Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit here.

DETROIT – The Archdioceses of Detroit announced Friday that mass dispensation for Catholics will be extended until Ash Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2021. DispensationAfter carefully considering these and other factors, I am extending the dispensation from the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation for people living in or visiting the Archdiocese of Detroit until Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2021. At the same time, one should not take advantage of the dispensation without a true need. To that end, many of our parishes have been broadcasting their services over the internet during these last several months. With assurances of my prayers for you, I remain,Sincerely yours in Christ,The Most Reverend Allen H. VigneronArchbishop of Detroit

The case is a big test of religious rights on a more conservative court. Catholic Social Services, which is affiliated with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, says its religious views keep it from certifying same-sex couples as foster parents. Kavanaugh, for his part, suggested Wednesday there should be a way for Catholic Social Services to continue to work with foster families. Even liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor seemed to recognize the court was sympathetic to Catholic Social Services. Catholic Social Services did not, and the city stopped placing children with the agency, which sued.

WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed back Friday against the Catholic archbishop of San Francisco's criticism of COVID-related restrictions, saying he should “follow science” rather than advocate for fuller in-person gatherings for Mass and worship. “With all due respect to my archbishop, I think we should follow science on this,” Pelosi said. Pelosi noted that faith and science are sometimes seen at odds. “Around here, people say to me, You're a person of faith, why do you believe in science?" “I say, I believe science is an answer to our prayers.

UTICA, Mich. A Metro Detroit Catholic priest got an unwelcome and startling bit of news earlier this month. After emailing the question to one of his seminary instructors about the situation the word came back it was invalid. Because the deacon who did the baptism did not use the properly approved words the rest of the priests spiritual life has been deemed non-existent. But in a couple of weeks time the Archdiocese of Detroit saw to it that he received all the sacraments officially. Anyone concerned about their own personal situation is encouraged to contact the Archdiocese of Detroit.

WARREN, Mich. The Warren De La Salle football team has forfeited its playoff game amid allegations of hazing in the team locker room, school officials announced. The announcement to end the season comes on the even of the Michigan high school football playoffs. Officials at the high school learned this week of a hazing incident involving the varsity football team and its players. De La Salle Collegiate is a Lasallian Catholic school, De La Salle President John M. Knight said. And what is right according to our Lasallian Catholic values.The De La Salle football team has won three state championships in the last five years, including two in a row.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - A federal judge has denied Michigan's request to halt his preliminary injunction that preserved a Catholic adoption agency's ability to refuse to place state wards with LGBT couples. Judge Robert Jonker in Grand Rapids declined the stay Tuesday. It had been sought by state Attorney General Dana Nessel and the state Department of Health and Human Services, while the case is appealed. Nessel has denied having hostility toward faith-based agencies that contract with the state. She says Michigan law allows child-placing agencies to turn away families in private cases based on their sincerely held religious beliefs, but not when they place state-supervised children.

CNNLANSING, Mich. - Prosecutors have added a sexual assault charge against a former Catholic priest, accusing him of abusing a 5-year-old boy after a family funeral in Genesee County in 1987. MORE: 5 priests charged with 21 criminal sexual conduct charges in sex abuse investigationVincent DeLorenzo, who worked at several Michigan churches, was charged in May with criminal sexual conduct in other alleged incidents. The attorney general's office said Tuesday that it filed an additional charge. Michael Manley, an attorney for the 80-year-old, says DeLorenzo "maintains his innocence." He wasn't charged at the time.

LANSING - A Catholic priest in Michigan has been charged with false imprisonment after holding a teenage boy against his will in a janitor's room of a church by wrapping him tightly in plastic wrap and using masking tape over his eyes and mouth, according to the attorney general. Stanley is accused of imprisoning the boy against his will in the fall of 2013 at St. Margaret's Catholic Church in Otsego. Officials said Stanley immobilized the boy by wrapping him tightly in plastic wrap and using masking tape as additional binding and over his eyes and mouth. Stanley left the boy bound and alone in the room for longer than an hour before letting him go, according to authorities. Authorities said it is apparent from Kalamazoo diocesan records that Stanley had used binding materials in this way for decades.

But one church leader has now gone one step further, becoming likely the first Catholic bishop in the United States to publicly accuse Trump of racism. Some of the language in the manifesto reflects ideas from President Trump, Fox News and the modern Republican party. "The shooter in El Paso posted a manifesto online, consumed by racist hate," Trump said in remarks from the White House. A number of progressive pastors and bishops in the United States have already denounced the President's actions and rhetoric, particularly on Twitter. But Garcia-Siller's tweets are different, for two reasons: First, he represents the country's largest religious group, Catholics, who have about 71 million members in the United States.

Attorney General Dana Nessel held a news conference Friday to update her office's investigation into possible sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Michigan. Five men have been charged with criminal... Copyright 2019 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit - All rights reserved.