A prominent Catholic pro-lifer and former congressman has been found guilty of "gender-based political violence" for social media posts referring to a gender-dysphoric politician as a biological male. On Wednesday, Mexico's highest court for electoral issues convicted Rodrigo Iván Cortés for posts on Twitter and Facebook describing Salma Luévano, a member of the Chamber of Deputies — Mexico's lower house — as a "man who self-ascribes as a woman." Read more
Twelve traditional Catholics could face up to a year in prison for protesting an LGBT Mass during World Youth Day in Portugal. Last Thursday at 3 p.m., Fr. José Manuel Valente da Silva Nunes, ex-prior of the Dominicans in Portugal, called police to evict traditionalists from the Church of Our Lady of the Incarnation in Ameixoeira, a district of Lisbon, as a Mass for "sexual minorities" was in progress. Read more
A young pro-lifer is drawing attention to the disrespect shown to the Blessed Sacrament after consecrated hosts were stored in stacked boxes for adoration at the World Youth Day (WYD) celebrations last week. Savannah Dudzik from Florida, who flew to Lisbon to participate in the global Catholic youth event, said she was "infuriated" when she saw "God in a box" on Saturday evening after returning from a "praise session" featuring "liturgical dancing" at the Campo da Graça. Read more
The bishops' conference of El Salvador has begun the process for the canonization of Marxist liberation theologian Fr. Ignacio Ellacuría and his fellow Jesuits, who were murdered by the Salvadoran military junta three decades ago. "Our episcopal conference has begun the process of canonization of a large group of our martyrs who suffered the atrocities of the recent armed conflict in the country," the archbishop of San Salvador, José Luis Escobar Alas, announced during Holy Mass on Sunday. Read more
Police were summoned to a church in Lisbon after a band of traditionalist Catholics picketed an LGBT Mass celebrated to welcome homosexual and transgender pilgrims at World Youth Day in Portugal. Carrying crucifixes and rosaries, a dozen traditionalist Catholic youth entered the Church of Our Lady of the Incarnation in Ameixoeira on Thursday around 3 p.m., chanting a "prayer of reparation" for the "mortal sins" that result from "an LGBT ideology in the Catholic Church." Read more
A Brazilian priest who specializes in psychological and pastoral approaches to preventing suicide and self-harm is raising the alarm at the Vatican following the suicides of at least 40 priests in Brazil over the past seven years. Loneliness, stress and excessive demands are driving priests to kill themselves, concludes Fr. Lício de Araújo Vale, from the diocese of São Miguel Paulista, after his extensive research into the ministries of the 40 priests who took their own lives between 2016 and 2023. Read more
India's prominent cardinal, a key advisor to Pope Francis, is minimizing the Hindu nationalist persecution of Christians in India's northeastern state of Manipur by attributing the violence to ethnic rivalries. "This is a tribal conflict," Cdl. Oswald Gracias categorically asserted in a video statement released by the Archdiocese of Bombay on Wednesday. He added, "It is given a religious twist, but it is not a religious conflict between two religions. It is between two tribes." Read more
Evangelical missionaries are planting churches in a remote Amazonian tribe while an Italian Catholic missionary order boasts it had not baptized a single indigenous person for 60 years. The Yanomami people practice infanticide, shamanism, and ritual cannibalism, but Italian missionary Fr. Corrado Dalmonego insists that the indigenous community could "help the Church to cleanse itself of schemes or mental structures, which may have become obsolete or inadequate." Read more
Vatican State prosecutor seeks prison term, fines, asset confiscation, and penalties for 10 defendants in "mother of all trials." Promoter Alessandro Diddi calls for permanent ban on public office, fine, and confiscation of assets. Read more
Outrage over the violence against Christians in the tribal belt of India's northeastern state of Manipur has peaked after multiple Christian women were paraded naked and gang-raped by Hindu mobs. Horrific video footage of two Christian women, ages 20 and 24, being stripped, paraded naked, molested and gang raped on May 4 by radical Hindus armed with knives and sticks went viral last week on social media. Read more
Pope Francis' chosen Latin patriarch of Jerusalem is accused of involvement in a multimillion-dollar money-laundering racket and suspicious property sales in Nazareth and Jordan. Complaint filed by Jordanian-American entrepreneur Benjamin Seryani raises concerns about the Church's financial practices. Read more
The untimely demise of a much-loved priest, who was found dead after spending a night at a hotel with his lover, has reignited a debate on celibacy among Kenyan Catholics. Read more
The decree from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines contradicts a June 16 directive from the bishop of Dumaguete forbidding laity to use the "orans posture" while the priest extends his hands during the Lord's Prayer in the Eucharistic celebration. Issued Sunday, the Filipino bishops' circular states that both gestures of congregants' holding one another's hands or raising hands are "liturgically accepted to accompany the praying of the Lord's Prayer." Read more
Archbishop Luis José Rueda Aparicio, one of the 21 prelates the pontiff will elevate to the cardinalate in September, refused to respond to a "right to petition" asking for details of 927 abuser priests and claimed that the archdiocese of Bogotá has no "secret files." Read more