St Francis Assisi Catholic Church in southern India’s Bangalore city was desecrated on January 20, with the Blessed Sacrament scattered all over the ground. The local archbishop has called for a day of atonement for the sacrilege.

Dedicating his Catechesis to “hospitality” - the theme of this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity - Pope Francis urges the faithful to be like the people of Malta, who welcomed and accepted St Paul and his companions in their moment of difficulty, as they were shipwrecked on the island.

I had a spiritual director once who told me to pray as if my life depended on it. Make prayer so unequivocally the most important thing in my life, he said, that you treat it as if you might cease to exist without it. 

In his book The Foundations of Christian Faith, theologian Karl Rahner asks us to think about a man engaged in the simple act of buying a banana at the grocery store. For the one making the purchase, everything you need to know is contained in that one transaction. He gives the clerk the money and leaves with the banana. End of story.

This weekend sees a nation-wide collection in US Catholic churches as a sign of solidarity between Catholics of the United States and those in Latin America and the Caribbean.

At the end of his General Audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis greeted all those who mark the new year according to the traditional Chinese calendar. He urged for prayers for peace, dialogue and solidarity among nations.

Pope Francis dedicated his catechesis at the General Audience to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which takes place each year from 18-25 January.

The Copy Desk Daily highlights the latest news and opinion that have crossed copy editors' desks, on the way to readers.

Distinctly Catholic: By lashing itself to President Trump, the mainstream pro-life movement has morally and indelibly compromised its cause. But the Catholic left also appears unequal to the moment.

Ally Kateusz command of early texts does a fine job of uncovering gender balance in second to 10th-century Christian leadership, but her analysis of visual evidence offers only thought-provoking speculation.

2020 election: These parishioners of St. Ambrose in Grosse Pointe Park, a Democrat-leaning suburb in the highly contested state of Michigan, worry that Christian faith has been co-opted into Republican Party politics.

Faith Seeking Understanding: The Eucharist is not simply a means by which humanity receives the sacramental presence of Christ, it is the privileged place where God is now present to our world as part of that world.

January 22 is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and the day established by the Church of penance for abortion, has been formally named as the "Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children." On this day (or January 23rd when January 22nd falls on a Sunday) your parish, school or religious formation program may celebrate the Mass for Giving Thanks to God for the Gift of Human Life. This Mass, found in our newly-translated Missal, may now be used on occasions to celebrate the dignity of human life.

Pencil Preaching for Wednesday, January 22, 2020

In oral arguments tomorrow in the case of Espinoza v. Montana, the US Supreme Court will hear a direct challenge to the constitutionality of the latter-19th century’s notoriously anti-Catholic—nowadays  anti-religion—“Blaine Amendment,” of which 38 states [...]

Ana Lucia Salazar's horrific story, which has been corroborated by other victims and the Legion of Christ itself, has sparked a new credibility crisis for the once-influential order, 10 years after the Holy See took it over after determining that its founder was a pedophile.

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland of Tyler, Texas, said he asked Pope Francis about the Vatican investigation into Theodore E. McCarrick and the release of a promised report on how the former cardinal managed to rise through the church ranks.

Organized by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles' Office of Life, Justice and Peace, OneLife LA was once again held the same day as — and just blocks away from — the Women's March, a demonstration in favor of a so-called "right" to abortion, which, like OneLife LA, is timed to coincide with the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

The climate activist delivered a stern warning: "Our house is still on fire."

The Legion of Christ religious order, already discredited because of its pedophile founder, announced a joint Vatican investigation Monday into the botched handling of a priest who sexually abused girls as young as 6 and suffered no punishment.