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.

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.

Pope Francis formally approved for priests to bless same-sex couples.

For many, Tuesday is a day to honor the Virgin Mary, also known as Our Lady of Guadalupe and Virgen de Guadalupe, on what is believed to be the 492th anniversary of her apparition in 1531.

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.

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

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.

Twenty-five years ago, the Good Friday Agreement halted much of the violence of Northern Ireland’s Troubles.

Houston-area Catholics may eat meat on a Friday during Lent, as it is St. Patrick’s Day on March 17.

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

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.

Dozens of people gathered for a pro-life prayer vigil on Wednesday evening, which took place outside of a Planned Parenthood facility in Houston.

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 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 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.

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.

U.S. Catholic bishops have debated heatedly over how to address concerns about Catholic politicians, including President Joe Biden, who continue to receive Communion despite supporting abortion rights.

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

When U.S. Catholic bishops convene virtually for a national meeting this week, they will be divided ideologically as well as physically.

Houston-area Catholics can worship without social distancing and masks if they would like following a letter this week from Archbishop of Galveston-Houston Cardinal Daniel DiNardo.

The Vatican has officially named the new bishop-elect for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco and Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego share Roman Catholicism as a faith and California as their home base.

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 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.

(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. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)WARSAW – New anti-government 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. The ruling right-wing Law and Justice party is widely seen as having undue influence on the judiciary following reforms it passed affecting the way judges are appointed. It was made in response to a motion from over 100 ruling party lawmakers, whose names have not been made public. A prominent lawmaker for Law and Justice, Marek Suski, said work will begin on an entirely new abortion law that will take into account lethal defects.

Whether you’re choosing for your child to learn in-person or remotely, the region’s Catholic schools want you to know one thing: They’re here for you. Parents are continuing to make important decisions about how their children will learn this year — not to mention, Jan. 31 - Feb. 6 marks National Catholic Schools Week. “Your child’s academic journey should be a meaningful experience that promotes the continuity of learning,” the school system said. The Archdiocese is hosting “A Pattern of Hope” virtual event to celebrate and support Catholic Schools on Feb. 5. To learn more or find a Catholic school near you, visit ChooseCatholicSchools.org.

(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.

"If not, I understand because of what [El Paso] is going through, and I understand what [the church] is going through as well." The pandemic has disproportionately affected El Paso compared to cities of similar or larger sizes. As of Wednesday, there had been more than 91,000 cases recorded in El Paso County, the fourth-highest total in the state. Her family and hundreds of others in El Paso have applied for financial assistance to help pay for funerals. But it allotted an additional $350,000 in CARES Act funding this year as the deaths started to mount, said Irene Valenzuela, the executive director of El Paso County’s Community Services Department.

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed likely to side with a Catholic social services agency in a dispute with Philadelphia over the agency’s refusal to work with same-sex couples as foster parents. 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.

MEXICO CITY – Mexico City was alive Friday night with the arrival of Pope Francis. From the crowd of supporters, to Mexico's president, to the mariachi performers Pope Francis was welcomed with open, loving arms to Mexico City. Channel 2's Keith Garvin is in Mexico City covering the Pope's trip and has run into several groups of Houstonians there to see Francis. One group planned their tour of Mexico around the Pope's visit once they learned he was coming. Pope Francis will spend every night in Mexico City on his visit and will take a helicopter to travel to the other cities on his itinerary.