The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis Dec. 9 permanently blocked a transgender mandate the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had implemented as a revision to the Affordable Care Act.

The Catholic Church throughout much of the world was shaped by the Irish diaspora, the migration of eight million Irish men and women that took place (mostly) between 1760 and 1960.

The state-appointed chairman of the commission to investigate abuse in the Archdiocese of Cologne has quit, saying he doubted the independence of the commission and wondered whether its main aim was to protect Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki.

A top court in the southern Indian state of Kerala has ordered police protection for the apostolic administrator of an archdiocese in the Eastern rite Syro-Malabar Church, which is embroiled in a bitter liturgical dispute.

Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby spent three days in Ukraine to show solidarity with the people there. It was the first visit of an archbishop of Canterbury to an independent Ukraine.

The Ukrainian government said it would sanction members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate.

Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Catholic woman who escaped death for alleged blasphemy and who now lives in Canada, has appealed for the protection of victims of blasphemy laws in her home country.

Presenting the Ratzinger Prize to a French Jesuit theologian and a Jewish law professor, Pope Francis paid tribute to his predecessor and his theological work.

A Catholic bishop in Congo warned of a loss of government control over parts of the country, ahead of a projected visit by Pope Francis.