After a federal appeals court ruled Jan. 2 that emergency doctors in Texas are not required to perform abortions – blocking guidance previously issued by the federal government – the state’s Catholic bishops said that they celebrate the decision.
With the latest round of arrests of Catholic leaders in Nicaragua and the continued imprisonment of Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa, Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami has called the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega “off the rails.”
This year got off to a rocky start for a priest from the Diocese of Livorno, who on New Year’s Day was excommunicated for slandering Pope Francis during a homily the night before, referring to the pontiff as “an anti-pope usurper” and a mason.