Catholic church

On World AIDS Day, NPR's Lulu Garcia Navarro speaks with Michael O'Loughlin, host of the podcast Plague, which examines the church's roles in caring for AIDS patients and campaigning against condoms.

Pope Francis recently opened the door to the possibility of women as deacons in the Catholic Church. Some women have sought official recognition for the ministries they already perform.

Hundreds of victims of priest sexual abuse have received reparations from the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania. A new legal maneuver allows people to sue the church over old sexual abuse claims.

Researchers combed Vatican archives to find records of how ancient church policies restricting whom one could marry shaped Western values and family structures today.

Even before the synod began, traditionalists were angered by the suggestion that, to offset a shortage of priests in the Amazon, married men might be ordained to serve in remote communities.

The AARP has filed a lawsuit on behalf of workers at a defunct Catholic hospital in upstate New York, saying hundreds lost their pensions unfairly. And there are similar cases around the country.

An investigation that looked back to 1945 identified 163 cases of abuse. However, many of the alleged offenders are now dead or the statute of limitations on their alleged crimes has passed.

The document entitled "Male and Female He Created Them," laments what it calls an "educational crisis" around sexuality and reaffirming the church's traditional stance on gender identity.

The disclosure from one of the largest archdioceses in the U.S. follows similar revelations that further exposed the depth of a decades-long abuse crisis in Catholic communities across the nation.

The private Jesuit university in Managua, Nicaragua, where priest Chepe Idiáquez works is one of a series of Catholic institutions that have been attacked, as the country's yearlong unrest continues.

Catholic Church officials who have criticized the Philippine president's deadly drug war say they are receiving threats and government surveillance.

Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati faces charges of covering up multiple claims of sexual abuse in Chile's Catholic Church. Pope Francis has named Monsignor Celestino Aos Braco as a temporary replacement.