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In what could be the closing chapter in a landmark legal battle, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades in the largest settlement involving the Catholic Church. Attorneys for 1,353 people who allege that they suffered horrific abuse at the hands of local Catholic priests reached the settlement after months of negotiations with the archdiocese. The agreement caps a quarter-century of litigation against the most populous archdiocese in the United States. The settlement leaves only a few lawsuits pending against the church in Los Angeles, attorneys for the victims say. Advertisement The archdiocese had previously paid $740 million to victims in various settlements and had pledged to better protect its church members,...

God or nothing? Modern science points only one way, says French author Skip to content Michel-Yves Bolloré is the co-author of “God: The science, the evidence,” a new book that aims to lay out the scientific evidence for the existence of God.  In a text spanning nearly 600 pages, he and his co-author Olivier Bonassies, argue that factors such as the thermal death and expansion of the universe, as well as its fine-tuning, make the existence of a creator the most rational explanation for its existence. Rendering of the universe at less than a billion years old. Image via NASA. The book’s foreword is written by Nobel prize winner and physicist Robert Wilson, and around 30 other scientists, from a variety of fields, contributed to the book, which also delves briefly into the historical, p...

Angelus Angelus Dómini nuntiávit Mariæ.Et concépit de Spíritu Sancto.Ave Maria… Ecce ancílla Dómini.Fiat mihi secúndum verbum tuum.Ave Maria… Et Verbum caro factum est.Et habitávit in nobis.Ave Maria… Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei génetrix.Ut digni efficiámur promissiónibus Christi. Orémus.Grátiam tuam, quǽsumus, Dómine,méntibus nostris infunde;ut qui, Ángelo nuntiánte, Christi Fílii tui incarnatiónem cognóvimus, per passiónem eius et crucem, ad resurrectiónis glóriam perducámur. Per eúndem Christum Dóminum nostrum. Amen. Gloria Patri… (ter)Requiem aeternam… Benedictio Apostolica seu Papalis Dominus vobiscum.Et cum spiritu tuo.Sit nomen Benedicat vos omnipotens Deus,Pa ter, et Fi lius, et Spiritus Sanctus. Amen. The Angelus Prayer The Angel of the Lord d...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican’s doctrine office has mandated the laicization of an Argentine priest accused of sexually abusing minors, overturning a surprise ruling from the Vatican Secretariat of State that imposed limitations on the priest’s activities. In an Oct. 8 communiqué published via the news service of the Argentine bishops’ conference, Archbishop John Kennedy, head of the disciplinary section of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that the information regarding the restrictions placed on a priest specified by the Secretariat of State were “voided” and confirmed previous rulings for his laicization. The case involves former Argentine priest Ariel Alberto Príncipi, who was accused in 2021 of sexually abusing minors while performing “healing prayers” associated wi...

Nearly 150 Catholic hospitals across the United States provided children with hormone therapy or performed gender-transition surgeries on them between 2019 and 2023, contradicting Church teaching and the U.S. bishops’ prohibition on Catholic health-care providers offering such interventions, according to data published this week by a medical watchdog group. In all, more than 520 minors received treatments in Catholic hospitals in about 40 states over the five-year period, an analysis of the data from Do No Harm by EWTN News shows. Of those patients, more than 150 had surgeries to alter their appearances to resemble the opposite sex, while more than 380 children were given puberty blockers or hormone therapies. Puberty blockers stop a child’s natural development during puberty, and hormone ...

Prime minister Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) has summoned the papal nuncio to Belgium in response to the Pope’s recent remarks regarding abortion. Following his visit, the Pope referred to abortion doctors as “hired assassins” and described the country’s abortion law as “murderous.” De Croo denounced these comments as “unacceptable” during a session in the Chamber of Representatives on Thursday. “It is absolutely unacceptable for a foreign head of state to make such statements about democratic decision-making in our country,” he asserted. “We do not need lessons on how our parliamentarians democratically approve laws. Fortunately, the time when the church dictated laws in our country is long gone.” The prime minister stressed the importance of respecting democratically enacted laws and the ...

VATICAN CITY — A study group established by Pope Francis to develop a synodal way of discerning Catholic Church teaching on so-called controversial issues, including sexual morality and life issues, has proposed what it calls a “new paradigm” that is heavy on situational ethics but minimizes moral absolutes and established Church teaching. The group, which is one of 10 study groups the Pope created in February to provide “in-depth analysis” of “matters of great relevance” that had emerged during the Synod on Synodality’s 2023 session, presented its findings to the synod assembly on Oct. 2, the first day of its 2024 session. A text of the presentation was shared with the press. The group spoke of discerning doctrine, ethics and pastoral approaches by gauging people’s lived experience throug...

San Diego softens statement but doubles down on homeschool policy Skip to content Cardinal Robert McElroy has doubled down on a controversial homeschooling policy in the San Diego diocese, while walking back an initial statement that accompanied the release of that policy. McElroy recognized parents as the primary educators of children, while reiterating that homeschool programs in the diocese will not be allowed to use parish facilities or create their own sacrament prep programs, separate from that of their parish. Cardinal Robert McElroy. Diocese of San Diego. Subscribe now “The Diocese supports the decision of a growing number of parents to choose home-schooling for their children,” the cardinal wrote in a Sept. 25 statement. “At the same time this support does not include a right for ...