Catholic News

Pope Pius XII. / Credit: Vatican Media Ann Arbor, Michigan, Apr 24, 2025 / 12:00 pm (CNA). “There has been a shift of late regarding Pius XII,” historian William Doino told CNA. The wartime pontiff has often been vilified, Doino said, adding: “He will soon get due recognition” for efforts to rescue Jews and others persecuted by Nazis and fascists more than 80 years ago. This year, Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, is marked on April 24 in the United States and Israel, according to the lunar calendar of Jewish observance. Elsewhere,  International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed on Jan. 27.Doino has spent decades researching the legacy of Pope Pius XII and the wartime pontiff’s efforts to rescue Jews, Allied military personnel, and others pursued by Nazi occupiers. He has interviewed clergy and diplomats who knew Pius XII personally and who could give firsthand testimony. Unlike other researchers, Doino recorded t

U.S. Vice-President JD Vance meets Pope Francis on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025, at the Vatican / Credit: Vatican Media/Screenshot CNA Staff, Apr 23, 2025 / 16:21 pm (CNA). U.S. Vice President JD Vance said this week that he is refusing to politicize Pope Francis’ death, hailing the late pontiff as a “broad” figure and a “great” leader of the Catholic Church. “A lot of people, especially in the American press, want to make the Holy Father — his entire legacy and even his death — about American politics,” Vance told reporters in Agra, India, while on a four-day visit with his wife, Usha, the first Hindu-American second lady. “He was obviously a much broader figure than the United States of America. He represents over a billion Catholics worldwide,” Vance said. The two leaders publicly disagreed on politics earlier in the year. In February, Pope Francis sent a pastoral letter to the U.S. bishops enc

Assets sold to help pay a massive clergy sex abuse settlement in the Diocese of Buffalo, New York, include the diocese’s former headquarters, pictured here, in downtown Buffalo. / Credit: Warren LeMay/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0 CNA Staff, Apr 23, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA). The Diocese of Buffalo, New York, will pay out a massive $150 million sum as part of a settlement with victims of clergy sexual abuse there. The diocese said in a press release that the diocese itself, along with parishes and affiliates, would provide the payment “to survivors of sexual abuse for acts perpetrated against them by clergy, religious, lay employees, and volunteers.” The settlement amount was still set to be voted on by abuse victims and approved by U.S. bankruptcy court, but the proposal has been accepted by the committee of abuse survivors in the suit, the diocese said. The settlement “represents an essential milestone on this protracted and arduous journey, and impor

null / Credit: Wolfgang Schaller|Shutterstock Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 22, 2025 / 17:56 pm (CNA). During oral arguments Tuesday, most of the justices on the United States Supreme Court appeared sympathetic toward parents in their lawsuit against a Maryland school board that refused to let them opt their children out of coursework that promotes gender ideology.Catholic, Ethiopian Orthodox, and Muslim parents sued the Montgomery County Board of Education in May 2023 after the body ended its policy of notifying parents of coursework promoting homosexuality and transgenderism and allowing the parents to opt out.Under the current policy, the school board only permits opt-outs in narrow circumstances, which is mostly related to sexual education in health class. It does not permit opt-outs for coursework that endorses the views that there are more than two genders, that a boy can become a girl, or that homosexual marriages are moral.Some of the coursework initially introduced in

Attendees at the National Catholic Educational Association 2024 Convention in Pittsburgh. / Credit: Photo courtesy of NCEA CNA Staff, Apr 22, 2025 / 10:42 am (CNA). This month in Florida, a national Catholic education group is bringing together teachers and school administrators for one of the largest private education gatherings in the nation.More than 3,200 are set to attend the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) 2025 Convention at Orange County Convention Center in Orlando this week, April 22–24. A major focus at the conference is developing a faith-based response to artificial intelligence in education.Religious sisters attend the NCEA 2024 Convention in Pittsburgh. Credit: Photo courtesy of NCEAThe event will continue as scheduled following the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday as the Church mourns and prays for the late Holy Father.“As we pray for his eternal rest, we also pray in this Jubilee of Hope that Catholic school educators will embr