Catholic church

Carlo Acutis, an Italian teenager who devoted his last years to the Catholic Church after being diagnosed with leukemia, was beatified at the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi on Saturday.

The changes apply to cases of clergy committing violence or sexual assaults against anyone under their authority, as well as minors. The pope also changed rules about child pornography.

Richard Malone had faced scrutiny for allegedly mishandling sexual abuse claims against the priests in his diocese. He announced Wednesday that the pope had accepted his request to "retire early."

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.