WASHINGTON -- The unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on group gatherings and recent court rulings are part of a growing challenge to religious liberty, said participants in an online symposium June 22.

It won’t be a normal Sunday by any stretch of the imagination, but for priests across Ontario over the weekend of June 20-21 there will be a beautiful sight in front of them: a live congregation.

VATICAN CITY -- Spanish Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera of Valencia made headlines when he described as a "work of the devil" attempts to find a COVID-19 vaccine using cell lines created from fetuses aborted voluntarily decades ago.

Despite the go-ahead to begin celebrating Mass on June 12, Ontario dioceses continue to take a cautious approach to re-opening churches.

MONTREAL -- The government of Quebec announced it will pay close to $5.2 million to religious communities in the province so that they can offer bonuses to members of their staff who work in their infirmaries.

Ontario churches can resume celebrating public Masses after the provincial government lifted the blanket ban on services.

VANCOUVER -- Catholic students joined their public school counterparts across B.C. June 1 in heading back to school for the first time since their extended spring break.

The 88-year-old godmother of palliative care in Ontario knows exactly what’s wrong with long-term care in the province. Much of it is motivated by profit.

It could be a year or longer before churches in Canada can begin welcoming large numbers of worshippers, said a member of the country’s Special Advisory Committee on COVID-19.

LIMA, Peru -- Diego Ramirez, a single father in a rural village in southern Guatemala, worked in a restaurant and kept a chicken farm, selling the birds in a market to support his three daughters.

Discussions on how Camp Vincent would operate as this year of pandemic turned into summer became a moot point once the province of Ontario took the decision out of operators’ hands.

VIENNA -- As people spent more time online during the coronavirus lockdown, negative remarks and even the incitement of hatred based on national, cultural or religious identity increased, a Vatican representative said.

In the poorer corners of the globe — in refugee camps, slums and Indigenous communities — the Church is emerging as a critical line of defence against COVID-19.

VATICAN CITY (CNA) -- The Vatican Museums announced Saturday that it will reopen on June 1, two days before Italy opens its borders to European visitors after nearly three months of lockdown.

After 40 years serving some of the most vulnerable in society with St. Elizabeth Health Care, Patricia Malone was easing into her retirement. Her career wasn’t in the rearview mirror yet, but she was working half-time as she prepared for life beyond work.