Nearly 100 soldiers stormed the Sacred Heart Cathedral compound in Mandalay and forcibly entered the cathedral, archbishop's house, parish priest's residence and clergy center April 8.

While visiting with a Catholic bishop in Egypt more than 15 years ago, Marie-Claude Lalonde, national director of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), recalls a moment when a call came in that a young Christian woman had been kidnapped.

LAHORE, Pakistan -- The daylight attack by motorcycle-riding gunmen on two Church of Pakistan ministers, killing one and wounding another, has reignited fears among Pakistan’s beleaguered minority community.

VATICAN CITY -- In situations of extreme poverty, war or civil tensions, 22 Catholic church workers were murdered in 2021, according to Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

MANCHESTER, England -- Catholics are facing soaring levels of discrimination in some of the most influential countries in Europe, a new report said.

WARSAW, Poland -- The bishops' conference of Belarus accused state media of stoking anti-Catholic feeling, after an official newspaper equated priests with Nazis in a front-page cartoon.

In light of the unmarked graves found at residential school sites across Canada this spring and summer, different groups have sought apologies and atonement from the Catholic Church for its contribution to residential schools.

Could this most troubling of summers for the Catholic Church across Canada spark its resurgence as a vital participant in the country’s public life? Call me a sun-addled optimist, but I carry a conviction it can so long as we avoid thinking of a phoenix rising from ashes and instead heed the Gospel call to commit ourselves to the long, hard, patient work of building Christ’s Church.

A priest friend of mine was recently talking about the current state of affairs as it relates to religious freedom in Canada.

First it was grief, then it was anger, then it was destruction.

While the rash of arsons and acts of vandalism perpetrated on churches across Canada has lightened considerably compared to the volume of incidents that occurred between late June and mid-July, it’s not gone away.

The recent arrest of a Vatican-approved bishop, priests and seminarians in north-central China came as a shocking development, if not surprising, as religious persecution in the communist-led country has continued to intensify under President Xi Jinping.

HONG KONG -- Authorities in northern China have arrested a Vatican-appointed Catholic bishop, his seven priests and 10 seminarians in what is seen as part of a renewed crackdown on the underground Catholic Church in the communist country.

VATICAN CITY -- The religious persecution exercised by China and North Korea, restrictions on religious freedom in dozens of countries and the continuing threat of violence at the hands of religious fundamentalists belonging to a variety of faiths all have worsened since 2018, said Aid to the Church in Need, a papal foundation and Catholic charity.

MAKASSAR, Indonesia -- A suicide bomb attack on a Catholic cathedral compound shattered the calm of Palm Sunday Mass, leaving two bombers dead and at least 20 people wounded.