Fetal viability faces a Supreme Court test (The New York Times) In 1973, in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court drew a line. The Constitution, it said, did not allow states to ban abortions before the fetus could survive outside the womb. On Wednesday, when the court hears the most important abortion case in a generation, a central question will be whether the court’s conservative majority is prepared to erase that line. The case concerns a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, long before fetal viability…
Suit accuses Kentucky priest of pocketing donations (AP) Parishioners in Kentucky have accused a Roman Catholic priest of converting church funds for his personal use. Current and former parish council members at St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Louisville filed a civil lawsuit in Jefferson County against the Rev. Anthony Ngo, news outlets reported…
Phil Saviano, “Spotlight” sex abuse whistleblower, dies (The Guardian) Phil Saviano, a clergy sex abuse survivor and whistleblower who played a pivotal role in exposing decades of predatory assaults by Catholic priests in the US, has died. He was 69. Saviano’s story figured prominently in the 2015 Oscar-winning film Spotlight, about the Boston Globe investigation that revealed how scores of priests molested children and got away with it because church leaders covered it up…
Pope names veteran Vatican diplomat to Medjugorje post (CNA) Pope Francis on Saturday appointed a longtime Vatican diplomat to be his papal envoy to Medjugorje, following the death of Polish Archbishop Henryk Hoser in August. Hoser had overseen the pastoral situation in Medjugorje, the site of alleged Marian apparitions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, since 2017. He died in Warsaw at age 78 after a long illness…
As COVID surges, Germany and Austria close Christmas markets (CNS) Some of the world’s most iconic Christmas markets in Germany and Austria were forced to close shortly after or just before they opened, as COVID-19 infections surged across Europe…
The story behind Our Lady of Arabia Cathedral in Bahrain (CNA) On Dec. 10, a joyous Catholic event will take place in Bahrain, a predominantly Muslim island nation in the Persian Gulf. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, will consecrate the Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia, an ark-shaped structure seating 2,300 people…
