Alva Review-Courier -

HOUSTON (AP) — When Cardinal Daniel DiNardo first met Laura Pontikes in his wood-paneled conference room in December 2016, the leader of the U.S. Catholic Church's response to its sex abuse scandal said all the right things. He praised her for coming...

HOUSTON (AP) — The cardinal leading the U.S. Catholic Church's response to the sex abuse crisis has been accused of mishandling a case alleging that his then-deputy manipulated a woman into a sexual relationship, even as he counseled her husband o...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Saturday replaced Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati as archbishop of Santiago, Chile, after he was placed under criminal investigation in the country's spiraling church sex abuse and cover-up scandal. Francis accepted E...

ROME (AP) — Italy's Justice Ministry has ordered a preliminary inquiry into an appeals court ruling that overturned a rape verdict in part by arguing that the woman who was attacked was too ugly to be a credible rape victim. The ruling has sparked o...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The conviction of French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin for failing to report a known pedophile priest to police deepens the crisis confronting an already discredited Catholic Church hierarchy. The verdict handed down by m...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis' summit on preventing sexual abuse was never going to meet the expectations placed on it by victims groups, the media and ordinary Catholics outraged over a scandal that has harmed so many and compromised the c...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The day began with an African woman telling an extraordinary gathering of Catholic leaders that her priestly rapist forced her to have three abortions over a dozen years after he started violating her at age 15. It ended with a C...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis' high-stakes sex abuse prevention summit is meant to call attention to the crisis as a global problem that requires a global response. His decision was sparked by the realization that in many parts of the world, b...

PARIS (AP) — A gay French writer has lifted the lid on what he calls one of the world's largest gay communities, the Vatican, estimating that most of its prelates are homosexually inclined and attributing much of the current crisis in the Catholic C...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has defrocked former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after Vatican officials found him guilty of soliciting for sex while hearing Confession and sexual crimes against minors and adults, the Holy See said Saturday. T...

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Pope Francis is turning his attention to the thriving Catholic community in the United Arab Emirates as he concludes his historic visit to the Arabian Peninsula. A day after making a broad appeal for C...

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Pope Francis said Wednesday that fear of migration is "making us crazy" as he began a trip to Central America amid a standoff over President Donald Trump's promised wall at the U.S.-Mexico border and a new caravan of migrants h...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The key accuser in the sex abuse case against ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has met with New York City prosecutors, evidence that the scandal that has convulsed the papacy is now part of the broader U.S. law enforcement i...

ROME (AP) — A left-wing Italian militant who was convicted of murder in his home country nearly three decades ago was arrested in Bolivia, authorities said Sunday, setting the stage for a climactic end to one of Italy's longest-running efforts to b...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican blocked U.S. bishops from taking measures to address the clergy sex abuse scandal because U.S. church leaders didn't discuss the legally problematic proposals with the Holy See enough beforehand, according to a l...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican's sexual abuse case against ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has expanded significantly after a man testified that the retired American archbishop sexually abused him for years starting when he was 11, including during c...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis demanded Friday that priests who have raped and molested children turn themselves in and vowed that the Catholic Church will "never again" hide their crimes. Francis dedicated his annual Christmas speech to Vatican b...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has an unusual dilemma on its hands after nearly all the nuns in a tiny French religious order threatened to renounce their vows rather than accept the Holy See's decision to remove their superior. The sisters argue t...

ROME (AP) — The Catholic Church's global organization of nuns has denounced the "culture of silence and secrecy" surrounding sexual abuse in the church and is urging sisters who have been abused to report the crimes to police and their superiors. T...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis named the Vatican's top sex abuse investigator and a close U.S. ally to an organizing committee for a February abuse prevention summit that has become a high-stakes credibility test following a new eruption of the sca...

NEW YORK (AP) — The umbrella organization of Catholic religious orders in the U.S. is suggesting that its members consider voluntarily identifying priests accused of sexual abuse, opening up what could be a major new chapter in the Catholic C...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Saturday defrocked two more Chilean bishops accused of sexually abusing minors, and to show greater transparency about how he's responding to the church's global sex abuse crisis, he publicly explained why they w...

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis acknowledged Tuesday that his landmark deal with China over bishop nominations will cause suffering among the underground faithful. But he said that he takes full responsibility and that he — and not Bei...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis accepted the resignation of a U.S. bishop Thursday and authorized an investigation into allegations he sexually harassed adults, adding awkward drama to an audience with U.S. church leaders over the abuse and c...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — With the Catholic Church in crisis once again over clerical sex abuse and cover-up, Pope Francis will meet Thursday with U.S. cardinals and bishops who are demanding to know how one of their own was able to climb the clerical r...