About the possibility of women deacons, Francis pointed out that the diaconate “is the first degree of holy orders in the Catholic Church, followed by the priesthood and finally the episcopate.” ...

The Catholic Church in the United States is finding a bit more room to breathe in its liturgical life now that state and national health officials are loosening the restrictions designed to hamper ...

Vatican City, Mar 26, 2014 / 04:13 am. In his weekly general audience Pope Francis continued his catechesis on the Sacraments, devoting today's discourse to those who receive Holy Orders ...

Through the sacrament of holy orders, or ordination close ordination The process by which a person becomes a minister of a church., a man vows to lead other Catholics close Catholic A group of ...

HOLY ORDERS By Benjamin Black Henry Holt, $26, 304 pages In the rain and the darkness and the remembered misery of a Catholic childhood in Ireland in the 1950s, that is where Quirke belongs. He is ...

Pope Leo issues orders insisting that priests must be celibate - Leo also said there must be ‘firm and decisive’ action on addressing church sexual abuse ...

While Vatican spokesperson Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi said Francis' commission idea was a "spontaneous" response to a question at an international meeting of Catholic sisters, I'm not buying it.

The Franciscan order, the largest and oldest Catholic presence in the Holy Land, dating back to 1230, has seen its numbers cut in half in 60 years to 340 men with an average age of over 50, said ...

ROME — Pope Leo XIV doubled down on Friday on his appeal for unity in the polarized Catholic Church , urging priests to act in communion with their superiors and be models of reconciliation in a world ...

Rome Newsroom, Oct 25, 2023 / 12:35 pm. Pope Francis reaffirmed the impossibility of women becoming priests, or even modern Church deacons, in an interview for a book released Tuesday in Italy.

The shrinking numbers of apostolic orders, where nuns and monks undertake a charity or service, mirror a similar trend in the Christian population in the Holy Land and the broader Middle East.