WASHINGTON – Statistically, there are few surprises in the 2009 Official Catholic Directory.Read More

VATICAN CITY – Vatican officials met with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Saud Al Faisal, to discuss ideas that came out of a major interreligious meeting in Spain last year.Read More

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Sick Zimbabwean refugees in Johannesburg are being turned away from South African hospitals, despite an official policy that outlaws discrimination against noncitizens, a priest said.Read More

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Father John Groner’s service dog, Lilly, accompanies him everywhere.Read More

CHIMBOTE, Peru – Rachel Roa had visited Peru before, but on a trip with fellow U.S. university students she discovered her parents’ homeland in a new way.Read More

OXFORD, England – Officials in the Diocese of Regensburg, Germany, have said plans by the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X to ordain new priests without Vatican consent at a local seminary will lead to their excommunication.Read More

DUBLIN, Ireland – One of Ireland’s most vocal advocates of justice for abuse survivors said a June 3 meeting with the Irish prime minister was “the first time the government had listened” to the story of victims who suffered under the care of religious orders and their campaign for redress.Read More

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI has granted the Congregation for Clergy new powers to dismiss from the priesthood and release from the obligation of celibacy priests who are living with women, who have abandoned their ministry for more than five years or who have engaged in seriously scandalous behavior.Read More