Catholic Church | featured news

Pope Francis suggested in an interview last year that the Catholic Church's rule that priests be celibate "can change" and admitted he was tempted by a woman as a young seminarian.

Church records show Cardinal Roger M. Mahony’s personal involvement in keeping evidence of child molesting by priests from the police.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino is squaring off against his country's powerful Catholic church in a bid to give people free access to the means to limit the size of their families. The predominately Catholic country has one of Asia's fastest-growing populations together with significant levels of chronic poverty. While neighbors have accelerated towards prosperity, the Philippines has lagged.

An American nun’s book on sex has put Catholics at risk of “grave harm,” the Catholic Church announced Monday.

After decades of fierce opposition to the use of all contraception, the pontiff will end the Catholic Church's absolute ban on the use of condoms.

Pope Benedict XVI, beginning a controversial state visit to Britain, acknowledged Thursday that the Catholic Church failed to act decisively ...

Nicolaus Copernicus, the 16th-century astronomer whose findings were condemned by the Roman Catholic Church as heretical, was reburied by Polish priests as a hero on Saturday, nearly 500 years after he was laid to rest in an unmarked grave....

The recent scandal over handling of child abuse in the Catholic church has again focused attention on celibacy.

A controversial cardinal who was scheduled to deliver an elaborate Latin Mass this weekend in Washington at one of the nation's most prominent Catholic churches is being replaced after clergy sex-abuse victims and activists expressed ...

Reports that the Vatican intends to force the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland to resign are denied.