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    In Pittsburgh, Many Sentiments About Pope’s Health Reflect Concern, Not Closeness

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    On a recent weekend in this once deeply Catholic city, many expressed worry about Pope Francis, but there was also an air of ambivalence.Congregants escaping the winter morning’s chill trickled into Immaculate Heart of Mary Church for Sunday Mass last weekend. There was a time when the massive brick church, which stands like a beacon atop Pittsburgh’s Polish Hill neighborhood, would have been packed with parishioners who lived in the surrounding blocks.Mark Dobies and his wife, Kim, remember those days. Their grandfathers were among the Polish immigrants who built the church, whose interior is bathed in an ethereal light by the stained-glass windows. The couple, who live two blocks away, were married under the church’s dome, as were their parents.“I’ve watched it evolve,” Mr. Dobies said after Sunday’s service, which resembled a pandemic Mass with far more pews empty than occupied. “People migrated out of the city.”This arc of a storied church in what was once a deeply Catholic city has in many ways mirrored what has taken place around the country, as ethnic congregations in working-class neighborhoods shriveled when manufacturing jobs disappeared. The church’s long-running sexual abuse scandal only exacerbated the decline.Now, that distancing from the church might be seen here in another way: the relative ambivalence toward Pope Francis, whose health is increasingly frail. There might be an occasional candle lit in Pittsburgh for Francis, the 88-year-old pontiff, but there are no massive public vigils or signs of a community on edge.“I’m praying, but I don’t know a lot about him,” Carol Novak said after a Monday morning Mass at St. Anthony Chapel, a quaint church in the Troy Hill neighborhood that boasts of housing more relics than anywhere outside of Rome.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Faith Leaders Need to Loudly Defend Routine Childhood Vaccinations

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      As of this writing, the measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico has spread to 99 people; 95 percent of those diagnosed with measles this year are unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccine status, and the vast majority of those affected are under 19. The outbreak is concentrated in Gaines County, Texas, a rural area in West Texas with a disproportionately high level of religious or philosophical exemptions to vaccines — a whopping 47.95 percent of students from one of only three public school districts in the county claimed exemptions in the 2023-24 school year. The percentage of exemptions in all of Gaines County is nearly 14 percent, and that doesn’t include home-schooled children.Earlier this month, the Texas Department of State Health Services spokesperson Lara Anton said that the outbreak in Gaines County was mostly among the “close-knit, undervaccinated” Mennonite community, whose members don’t get regular health care and don’t attend public school. “The church isn’t the reason that they’re not vaccinated,” Anton said in a news release. “It’s all personal choice and you can do whatever you want.”“Do whatever you want” might be good advice for choosing a fun new wallpaper, but it’s terrible advice for encouraging vaccine uptake.You might assume that many religious groups are doctrinally opposed to vaccination. Why else would the majority of states allow for religious or philosophical exemptions to school vaccine mandates? But that is not accurate. The Mennonite leadership, as Anton points out, is not against vaccines — and neither are most other major religious groups. The U.S. Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches made a statement in 2021 regarding the Covid vaccine that “our confession of faith and our current and historical practice do not provide the necessary rationale for granting a religious exemption based on the theological convictions of the denomination” (italics theirs).This isn’t the first time that undervaccinated religious groups have been at the epicenter of measles outbreaks. In 1991, a Philadelphia measles outbreak that killed nine people spread in two church communities that did not believe in any medical intervention. In 2018-19, an outbreak in Brooklyn took root among undervaccinated Orthodox Jews.As Caitlin Rivers points out in a recent guest essay for Times Opinion, routine childhood vaccines are still very, very popular in the United States. But Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, is already going back on promises he made about vaccines during his confirmation hearing. Earlier he said he wouldn’t mess with the childhood vaccination schedule, and now he’s saying “Nothing is going to be off limits.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Pope Francis Will Remain in Hospital for ‘Complex’ Clinical Issue

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      Pope Francis was admitted on Friday with a respiratory infection. The announcement on Monday did not provide further detail, but raised fresh concerns about the pontiff’s health.Pope Francis will remain in a Rome hospital after being admitted late last week following a series of tests that indicated a “complex clinical picture,” the Vatican said on Monday, raising fresh concerns about the 88-year-old pontiff’s health.Diagnostic tests carried out after Francis was taken to Policlinico A. Gemelli on Friday presented “a polymicrobial respiratory tract infection,” and his doctors had changed treatment accordingly, the Vatican said in a statement.The complex clinical picture “would require an appropriate medical stay,” it said, without elaborating.Francis was hospitalized in 2023 with a respiratory infection, but was able to leave the hospital after three days.Francis has had a busy schedule since New Year’s Eve, when he presided over the opening of the 2025 Jubilee, held every 25 years in the Roman Catholic Church.The Vatican announced in early February that Francis had bronchitis, but he continued his activities, holding smaller audiences at the Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican guesthouse where he lives, but presiding over larger gatherings and Masses with thousands of pilgrims, including an outdoor Mass in St. Peter’s Square earlier this month.The Vatican said that a general audience on Wednesday was canceled.After he entered the hospital, doctors prescribed complete rest. Subsequent medical updates said he was in “stable” condition.The pope, who had part of a lung removed as a young man, has a recent history of medical challenges. He has knee problems and sciatica that have caused a severe limp and, in recent years, often required him to use a wheelchair, walker or cane.In 2021, he had colon surgery. After his bout with bronchitis in 2023, he was hospitalized again a few months later to undergo abdominal surgery for a hernia. Last year, he underwent diagnostic tests at the Gemelli hospital after a slight flu.On Monday morning, Francis ate breakfast and read some newspapers after a restful night, said Matteo Bruni, a Vatican spokesman, adding that the pontiff was “in good spirits.” Mr. Bruni said a medical update would be issued later Monday. More

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      Supreme Court to Hear Catholic Charity’s Bid for Tax Exemption

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      The justices agreed to hear an appeal from a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that the charity’s activities were insufficiently religious to qualify.The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether Wisconsin was free to deny a tax exemption to a Catholic charity on the grounds that its activities were not primarily religious.The court has been notably receptive to arguments from religious groups, and the new case will give the justices another opportunity to explore the limits of the First Amendment’s protection of religious liberty.The case concerns a Wisconsin law that exempts religious groups from state unemployment taxes so long as they are “operated primarily for religious purposes.”Catholic Charities Bureau, the social ministry of the Catholic Diocese in Superior, Wis., has said its mission is to provide “services to the poor and disadvantaged as an expression of the social ministry of the Catholic Church.” State officials determined that the charity did not qualify for the exemption because it “provides essentially secular services and engages in activities that are not religious per se.”The Wisconsin Supreme Court said it accepted the charity’s contention that its services were “based on Gospel values and the principles of the Catholic social teachings.” But the court ruled that the group’s activities were “primarily charitable and secular” and did not “attempt to imbue program participants with the Catholic faith nor supply any religious materials to program participants or employees.”The court added that “both employment with the organizations and services offered by the organizations are open to all participants regardless of religion.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Retired Louisiana Priest Pleads Guilty to Rape and Kidnapping Charges

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      Lawrence Hecker, who was indicted last year on charges related to a sexual assault in the 1970s, pleaded guilty on Tuesday just before jury selection for his trial was set to begin.A retired Roman Catholic priest who was indicted last year in Louisiana on charges related to the sexual assault of a teenage boy in the 1970s pleaded guilty to the crimes on Tuesday, his lawyer said, just before jury selection for the trial was set to begin.The retired priest, Lawrence Hecker, 93, pleaded guilty to state charges of first-degree rape, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature, and theft over $500, said his lawyer, Bobby Hjortsberg. The charges came after allegations surfaced last year that the Archdiocese of New Orleans had known about accusations against Mr. Hecker for decades.“Him ultimately taking responsibility for it was the right thing to do, and the necessary thing to do at this point,” Mr. Hjortsberg said. “I hope everybody involved can move forward in whatever way is best for them.”The guilty plea did not include a plea deal, Mr. Hjortsberg said. Mr. Hecker is set to be sentenced on Dec. 18, and he faces life in prison.Mr. Hecker’s trial had been delayed multiple times over concerns about his mental competency, and because the judge recused himself over a conflict with prosecutors. The new judge, Nandi Campbell of the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, ordered Mr. Hecker to undergo physical and psychological evaluations before trial. Mr. Hjortsberg confirmed that the retired priest had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and dementia.The charges against Mr. Hecker came months after The Guardian reported that he confessed to his superiors in 1999 that he had sexually molested or committed other forms of sexual misconduct against multiple teenagers in the 1960s and ’70s. Mr. Hecker later confirmed to The Guardian and the New Orleans news outlet WWL-TV that he had committed “overtly sexual acts” with at least three underage boys.Mr. Hecker continued to serve with the New Orleans archdiocese until his retirement in 2002. But the archdiocese did not publicly identify him as an accused sexual predator until 2018, when it released a list of “credibly accused” priests.Thousands of Catholic priests have been accused of misconduct since the sexual abuse crisis in the American Catholic Church exploded into public view in the early 2000s. But relatively few have faced criminal prosecution. In September, a Catholic priest in Texas was indicted on felony sexual assault charges after several victims accused him of sexual and financial abuse.The New Orleans archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2020 amid a flood of abuse claims, and it is among about a dozen dioceses and archdioceses that are currently in bankruptcy proceedings.In a statement on Tuesday after Mr. Hecker’s guilty plea, a spokesman for the archdiocese said that it was the church’s “hope and prayer that today’s court proceedings bring healing and peace to the survivor and all survivors of sexual abuse.” More

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      Trump’s Charity Toward None

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      The cardinal should go to confession.Timothy Dolan let a white-tie charity dinner in New York showcase that most uncharitable of men, Donald Trump.At the annual Al Smith dinner, Dolan suffused the impious Trump in the pious glow of Catholic charities. Dolan looked on with a doting expression as Trump made his usual degrading, scatological comments about his foils, this time cloaked as humor.“We have someone in the White House who can barely talk, barely put together two coherent sentences, who seems to have mental faculties of a child,” Trump told the New York fat cats. “It’s a person who has nothing going, no intelligence whatsoever. But enough about Kamala Harris.”Trump also offered this beauty: “I used to think the Democrats were crazy for saying that men have periods. But then I met Tim Walz.” When Trump joked about keeping Doug Emhoff away from nannies, even he admitted it was “too tough.”As he did in 2016 when he crudely attacked Hillary Clinton as she sat on the dais, Trump added a rancid cloud to what used to be a good-tempered bipartisan roast.Dolan could have stood up and told Trump “Enough!” We have been longing for that voice of authority who could deliver the Joseph Welch line — “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” — to our modern Joe McCarthy. It is the church’s job, after all, to teach right from wrong.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Archdiocese of Los Angeles Agrees to Pay $880 Million to Settle Sex Abuse Claims

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      The settlement is the highest single payout by an archdiocese, experts said, and brings Los Angeles’s cumulative payout in sex abuse lawsuits to more than $1.5 billion.The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation’s largest archdiocese, has agreed to pay $880 million to 1,353 people who say they were sexually abused as children. The settlement, which experts said was the highest single payout by an archdiocese, brings Los Angeles’s cumulative payout in sex abuse lawsuits to more than $1.5 billion.The settlement was announced on Wednesday in a joint statement by lawyers for the plaintiffs and the archdiocese. “I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart,” Archbishop José H. Gomez said in a statement. “My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered.”The agreement represents the near conclusion to decades of litigation against the archdiocese, with only a few suits remaining. In 2007, it reached a $660 million settlement in abuse lawsuits brought by 508 people who accused Catholic clergy and members of religious orders of abuse. Over the years, the archdiocese has sold off real estate, liquidated investments and taken out loans to cover the staggering costs of litigation.Archbishop Gomez said in a statement that the new settlement would be paid through “reserves, investments and loans, along with other archdiocesan assets and payments that will be made by religious orders and others named in the litigation.” He said that donations designated for parishes, schools and specific mission campaigns would not be used for the settlement.“It’s never going to be full justice when the harm is a child’s life,” said Michael Reck, a lawyer with Jeff Anderson & Associates who helped represent some of the plaintiffs. “But it’s a measure of justice and a measure of accountability that gives these survivors some sense of closure at least.”This is a developing story. Check back for updates. More

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      Pope Names 21 New Cardinals, Reaching Far Beyond Europe

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      The appointments cement Francis’ imprint on the group that will choose his successor, and reflect his vision of a more truly global Roman Catholic Church.In announcing on Sunday that he would appoint 21 new cardinals, Pope Francis once again elevated clerics from far beyond Catholicism’s traditional centers of power, in line with his vision of a more global, less Eurocentric church. It also further cemented his imprint on the men who will one day choose his successor.Four of those he selected were from South American countries: Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Peru. Also on the list were archbishops and bishops from Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia Iran, and two from Africa: the archbishop of Algiers, Jean-Paul Vesco and Archbishop Ignace Bessi Dogbo of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Only one North American was selected, Archbishop Francis Leo of Toronto.Francis read the list of cardinals during his Sunday Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square.The new cardinals will be installed at a ceremony known as a consistory on Dec. 8, a feast day on the Catholic calendar.It will be the 10th such ceremony since Francis was elected in 2013. Before Sunday, he had already named 92 of the 122 cardinals under 80, the age cutoff for voting in the conclave to elect his successor. Of the others, 24 were named by Pope Benedict XVI and six by St. John Paul II.Francis, the first pope from South America, has diversified the College of Cardinals more than any of his predecessors, installing cardinals from more than 20 countries that had never been represented before. He has shifted membership away from Europe, acknowledging the growth of the Roman Catholic church in Africa, Asia and Latin America, even as church attendance has gradually declined in parts of Europe.The shift was perceptible in two almost back-to-back trips last month: a tour in the Asia-Pacific region where adoring crowds greeted Francis, in some cases after walking through jungle for days to see him, and a trip to Luxembourg and Belgium, where the reception was more fraught.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Conservative German Princess Says She Hosted Justice Alito at Her Castle

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      Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis said Justice Alito and his wife were guests at St. Emmeram Palace for a summer music festival. She called the couple her “friends” and the justice “a hero.”An eccentric German princess who evolved from a 1980s punk style icon to a conservative Catholic known for hobnobbing with far-right figures said on Monday that she hosted Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and his wife at her castle during a July 2023 music festival.Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis also told The New York Times that she viewed the justice as “a hero.”“He is pro-life in a time where the majority follows the culture of death,” she wrote in a text exchange with The Times. She then typed a skull emoji, adding, “Christians believe in life. The Zeitgeist is nihilistic and believes in destruction.”The 64-year-old princess said that Justice Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann, are her “friends” and that after her castle festivities, the three attended the opening of the Bayreuth Festival, the world’s premier venue for the performance of Wagner’s operas.The details of the princess’s gift and the justice’s travels emerged after Justice Alito listed a $900 gift of concert tickets on his annual financial disclosure form, which was released late last week. The disclosure has prompted a new round of scrutiny of the justices, who have been in the spotlight after a series of revelations that some of them — most notably Justice Clarence Thomas — failed to report lavish gifts and travel from wealthy benefactors.Justice Alito was the focus of a ProPublica report for failing to disclose a private jet flight paid for by a conservative billionaire who later had cases before the court. The jet trip was part of a luxury salmon-fishing vacation. Justice Alito, in an opinion column in The Wall Street Journal before the article was published, maintained that he did not have a conflict in accepting the “hospitality” and that he was not obligated to disclose the trip.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More