The Holy See has delayed announcing its pick for the next bishop of Hong Kong, CNA has learned, amid concerns that local clergy and lay Catholics will see Rev. Peter Choy Wai-man as too sympathetic to the Chinese Communist government. The Diocese of Hong Kong has been without permanent leadership since January 2019, when Bishop Michael Yeung Ming-cheung died unexpectedly...

There is no greater joy in this world than encountering Jesus. There is no greater peace than being in communion with God. No work is as satisfying as work that you know pleases him. These are three rock-bottom truths that the world, the flesh and the devil continually lie to us about (and that we lie to ourselves about) but the Church brings them into sharp focus in the readings for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time...

In the beginning of the year speech to the diplomatic corps, Pope Francis found words on everything, from Burkina Faso to northern Macedonia. But not on China. This silence was not a surprise, given the fear of the Vatican authorities that any word of theirs in this regard could only irritate the Asian giant, already rather hostile toward “foreign” religions...

The number of babies born in China last year fell to a nearly six-decade low, exacerbating a looming demographic crisis that is set to reshape the world’s most populous nation and threaten its economic vitality. About 14.6 million babies were born in China in 2019, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. That was a nearly 4 percent fall from the previous year...

Next week, Pope Francis will lead the first celebration of the Sunday of the Word of God, which he instituted as a yearly occasion to celebrate and study the Bible. Francis wants to “stimulate all Christians not to place the Bible on the shelf as one of many books, perhaps filled with dust, but as an instrument that awakens our faith...

Franz Jägerstätter’s life and death raise one question above all: why did he do it? Why did this Austrian farmer refuse to fight in Hitler’s army, and why did he stick doggedly to that decision even when told he would face the death penalty for doing so? Jägerstätter’s martyrdom – he was declared Blessed by Pope Benedict XVI – has always resonated with religious believers...

Grocery shopping and Christmas-themed aerobics classes are not part of a typical high school curriculum. But at Marian High School, these are important lessons for particular students. Marian has five additions this year, and principal Mark Kirzeder hopes to see a similar increase next school year. Not new classes, but special new students — students with mild intellectual disabilities...

Precariously resting on the edge of an altar leaning forward from the impact of the earthquake that struck Puerto Rico, a tabernacle was retrieved intact from a church in Puerto Rico and brought to safety. In the early hours of Jan. 7, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck the island, the last of a series of quakes that began Dec. 28...

Christopher Tolkien, the son of Lord Of The Rings author JRR Tolkien, has died aged 95, the Tolkien Society has said. Christopher continued his father's work after his death and was an accomplished author in his own right. He has been credited with keeping his father's legacy alive and spawning the field of 'Tolkien studies'...

Earlier this month, the French general tasked with overseeing the restoration of Notre Dame confirmed some terrible news: Even now, nine months after a catastrophic fire in April destroyed the cathedral’s spire, roof and some of its vaults, its fate remains uncertain. “The cathedral is still in a state of peril,” Jean-Louis Georgelin told the French broadcaster CNews...

The French Catholic bishops’ conference permanent council has approved a recommendation to remove references to the sex of parents on baptismal registry forms. “The increasingly complex situation of families in France makes it extremely difficult to draft Catholic acts, especially regarding baptism,” Bishop Joseph de Metz-Noblat of Langres...

I first met Pope Emeritus Benedict in June 1988; over the next three decades, I’ve enjoyed many lengthy conversations and interviews with him, including a bracing discussion covering many topics last October 19. I first met Pope Francis in Buenos Aires in May 1982, and have had three private audiences with him since his election as Successor of Peter...

In recent years, imprimaturs have been granted to books connected with unapproved private revelations, and this has led to some confusion. It has been argued that imprimaturs and nihil obstats are acts of the Magisterium, and therefore the faithful are obliged to give the religious submission of mind and will that they must to any other act of the Magisterium...

I have said the Traditional Latin Mass for all of my many years of priesthood. Back in the late 1980s, only a few priests were “permitted” to do so and there were few resources available to learn it. About the only visual help was the Fulton Sheen film from the 1940s describing the Mass. So, I trained under a few older priests during my seminary years...

The Second Sunday of OT is one of those “unofficial” feast days in the Church’s calendar, which aren’t given a name, but due to the Readings that always occur on them, have a unique and particular character to them. The Second Sunday of OT might be called “Afterglow Sunday,” and every third year it is the “Feast of the Wedding at Cana...

The history of the Earth from its formation to present day, covering major events throughout its 4-billion-year history. Estimates of average temperature, atmospheric composition, and day length are given...

Bishop Barry Knestout of the Diocese of Richmond has issued a statement responding to concerns that a local parish church is to host an Episcopalian consecration of a female bishop. The online petition, titled “Stop Ordination of Female Episcopalian ‘Bishop’ at Catholic Church” refers to the upcoming consecration of the Rev...

The Two Popes is not so much a picture as it is propaganda. The Netflix original follows the mode of the liberal media, presenting imagined interactions and conversations between Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis (when he was Cardinal Bergoglio) that further an agenda that is bent on denouncing the Catholic Church with slick cinematography...

My dad took me to my first Royals game when I was eight years old. It was 1976. Big John Mayberry hit a home run for us, we beat the Oakland A’s, 7-6, and I was hooked. For the next several years, growing up in a small town in Kansas, I listened to Kansas City Royals games on the radio every night and dreamed of becoming a Major League Baseball play-by-play announcer...

Two celebrities at the Golden Globes this month created quite a stir. One was the talented Ricky Gervais, ruthlessly exposing the bankruptcy and sanctimony of those who were there to celebrate themselves. The other was the talented Michelle Williams, expecting and receiving applause for having aborted her child to become a person on a stage being applauded...