A German news outlet reported last week that a bishop who took early retirement last year has contracted marriage civilly, despite claims that he resigned over health reasons. The Holy See press office announced last July it had accepted the resignation of 63 year-old Bishop Reinhold Nann, the German-born prelate who led the Peruvian territorial prelature of Caravel.

Consider Jesus hanging on the cross. Observe the cuts on his body from being scourged and violently stripped of his clothes. See the gashes made from falling under the weight of his heavy cross. Notice the torn flesh of his pierced hands and feet. Look him in the eyes as blood drips down his face. Why did the God-man endure this? For what—for whom—was all this blood shed?

The Vatican City State Tribunal has found Nicola Giampaolo guilty of slander and sentenced him to three years and six months in prison. In a press release from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, dated 30 October, it was announced that the tribunal had found Giampaolo, a historian from Italy’s Puglia region and a journalist by training...

Jimmy Akin is the senior apologist at Catholic Answers, with more than 30 years of experience defending and explaining the faith, and co-host of the Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World podcast. The Register recently asked him to explain Catholic teaching on ghosts and otherworldly phenomena. The Church teaches the existence of human spirits, and the term “ghost” means the same thing as “spirit,” which is why the Holy Spirit is also called the Holy Ghost...

Before I was a priest, I worked for a hospice for a number of years. I am no stranger to death. So much of my experience – especially now as a priest – has confirmed my belief that faith and death go hand in hand; that the full meaning of death is beyond our comprehension. I would like to share a recent experience that confirms this. I received a call recently that someone was in the hospital and they didn’t have long left in this world...

During the Mass on the Solemnity of All Saints, also the culmination of the Jubilee of the World of Education, Pope Leo XIV proclaims Saint John Henry Newman a Doctor of the Church. His legacy, the Pope emphasized, is to form people "so that they may shine like stars in their full dignity.”

The median Latin-rite diocese in the United States has one infant baptism per year for every 113 Catholics, one non-infant reception into the Church per year for every 413 Catholics, one wedding per year for every 453 Catholics, and one diocesan seminarian for every 14,473 Catholics, according to data published in the 2024 edition of The Official Catholic Directory, which chronicled statistics for the preceding year...

It’s good that The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls) Day is a Sunday this year. It gives us a chance to focus on Church teaching about the four last things: Heaven, hell, death and judgment, at the beginning of November, the month dedicated to prayers for the dead. Here are six takeaways drawn from Sunday Readings columns at this site and the Extraordinary Story podcast.

Revelation 22 is the final chapter of the Bible, and verse 20 contains Jesus’s final words in all of Sacred Scripture. And yet, with almost 2,000 years having elapsed since Christ’s Ascension into heaven, the modern reader might reasonably ask what exactly Jesus meant when He said that He is coming “soon.” The Greek word for “soon” used in these verses is tachy, which can also be translated “quickly.” The same adverb is used in Matthew 28:8...

On this All Saints’ Day, let us consider what we can look forward to living as saints in heaven one day. But first, how does one get to heaven? At the moment of death, our immortal souls will separate from our mortal bodies and go immediately to our particular judgment. There we will be judged according to our faith and deeds in Christ...