Catholic parishes disproportionately closed in poor, Black and Latino neighbourhoods in the US

United States RNS While the number of US Catholics is increasing, the total number of Catholic parishes nationwide declined nine per cent between 1970 and 2020, according to a new report by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. In 10 of the 11 dioceses studied, those closures are disproportionately happening in Black […]
Unaffiliated Americans are the only growing religious group – study

United States RNS Religious churn has been a key fixture of US religion for a long time, but a new survey of changes in American religion finds that motion is not so much a swirling but a one-way stream heading out. A new PRRI survey shows that religiously unaffiliated Americans are the only group that […]
Nuns in a time of nones: The winding path to today’s religious vocations

From 2020 to 2022, more than 900 women and men entered religious life. They all took their own, sometimes circuitous routes to get there. PAUL O’DONNELL, of Religion News Service, reports…
Essay: The Catholic Church needs married priests now

US Catholic commentator THOMAS REESE, in an article first published on Religion News Service, says that at the Last Supper, Jesus said, ‘”Do this in memory of me”. He did not say, “Be celibate”…
Discerning the call: In Catholic men’s religious orders, diversity brings new opportunities – and occasional friction

ELIZABETH E EVANS, of Religion News Service, reports on how religious communities are exploring different ways to mentor and walk alongside young men as they discern their calling…
Essay: New survey shows most Catholics have no idea who Cardinal McCarrick is. That’s a problem.

KERRY WEBER, an executive editor at US Catholic publication ‘America’, writes about why the fact most US Catholics don’t know who former cardinal Theodore McCarrick is a problem…