Jeanie Hannaman

By Kevin Schmiesing, Catholic World Report - Given the history, the norms of canon law, and the character of civil law, the Church in the United States is caught on the horns of a dilemma... In what is now a decades-long trend, reports of American Catholic dioceses declaring bankruptcy continue to filter into the news... To a large extent, this financial retreat is fallout from the ongoing clergy sexual abuse scandal and the legal liabilities it has carried. But it is also the latest chapter in a long history of struggle, as the Catholic Church has sought to secure and defend its property rights within the context of American civil law.

By Diego López Colín, CNA - The Vatican has approved a series of liturgical adaptations for Indigenous communities in the Mexican state of Chiapas... (Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, bishop emeritus of San Cristóbal de las Casas) expressed his hope that this approval “will encourage the process to promote similar adaptations in other Indigenous groups.” To this end, he invited his brother bishops and pastoral workers to “have an interest in giving liturgical value to many Catholic expressions of our native groups and not see them as simple folklore.”