If tradition is the democracy of the dead, as G.K. Chesterton famously said, surely abortion has become a tyranny of the living over life past and future.

VATICAN CITY – Days before a referendum to elect a constituent assembly to rewrite Venezuela's constitution, leaders of the country's bishops' conference said the referendum is illegal and will only increase the suffering of the people.

WASHINGTON – The United States, with its mixed record on the death penalty, is about to take a closer look at the issue this fall with two cases before the Supreme Court and three referendums on state ballots in the November election.

LOS ANGELES – The California Catholic bishops are urging voters to support a November ballot initiative that would outlaw the death penalty.

CORK, Ireland - The outcome of May's same-sex marriage referendum in Ireland and the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court on the same issue clearly show the extent to which Western society is abandoning many of its Christian legal foundations, said Australian Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Vatican's Secretariat for the Economy.

Of all the rhetoric that followed Ireland’s referendum that legalized same-sex marriage, none was more absurd than the Toronto Star declaring the vote revealed “21st-century Ireland as a model of inclusivity and tolerance.” Nonsense.

DUBLIN - Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has said the Church needs a "reality check" after Irish voters overwhelmingly supported same-sex marriage.

DUBLIN - Catholic bishops have not made any decision on whether priests should decline to perform civil aspects of weddings if a May 22 referendum on same-sex marriage is passed.

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - Scotland’s Catholic bishops have urged reconciliation after a long and bruising campaign in which the Scottish people rejected independence in a Sept. 18 referendum.

MANCHESTER, England - The Catholic bishops of Scotland said they accept the results of referendum in which Scot voters rejected independence.

MANCHESTER, England - Scotland's archbishops have encouraged Catholics to vote in the forthcoming referendum on independence — and to pay attention to the issue of religious freedom.