No one familiar with the shocking revealations of recent years will be surprised to learn that more cases of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and teachers have surfaced. This time in Ireland. What is shocking is how widespread and frequent the abuses turn out to be.

Sunday morning in Jordan's capital Amman Pope Benedict 16th celebrated open air mass. Roman Catholics from across the Middle East attended the service. He is now ending his trip to Jordan and moving on to Israel and to the Palestinian territories.

Already some priests instead of serving Mass announced that their parishes are closed, such as the pastor of St. James Catholic Church on Detroit Avenue in Lakewood, as the Cleveland Catholic Diocese is nearing reconfiguration of the diocese.

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, has appointed His Excellency, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of Milwaukee, to the Archdiocese of New York. Archbishop Dolan has served as the Archbishop of Milwaukee since 2002. The former spiritual leader of the New York Catholics Cardinal Egan is retiring.

After 2 ½ years, more than 600 meetings, input from more than 10,000 Catholics across the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, and prayerful consideration, the final decisions of the Diocese’s planning process on church closings and mergers have been reached. The decisions are being announced to parishioners during Masses on Jan. 17 and 18, 2009.

Bishop Allen Vigneron, 60, of the Diocese of Oakland, California, has been named as the new Archbishop of Detroit to lead the Archdiocese of Detroit. Installation of the new archbishop has been scheduled for 2 p.m. on Wednesday, January 28, at Detroit's Blessed Sacrament Cathedral.

More than eight of out of ten Catholics are satisfied with the leadership of Pope Benedict XVI, according to a poll of Catholic adults in the United States. More than seven out of ten are equally satisfied with the leadership of the U.S. bishops, a14-point jump, from 58 to 72 percent, since 2004.

The Camden Diocese plans to slash its number of parishes from 124 to 66, Bishop Joseph Galante has announced. Under a restructuring program, the diocese will consist of 38 merged parishes, three "clusters" involving six parishes and 22 stand-alone parishes, Galante said at a press conference today.

A KEY meeting between Catholic and Armenian Orthodox leaders has raised hopes of the Churches resolving the issues that have divided them for a millennia and a half, according to a leading Christian charity.

Pope Benedict XVI Celebrates Midnight Mass in Vatican, Pilgrims Mark The Most Peaceful Christmas in Bethlehem In Years.

Roman Catholic Church must investigate why more and more Christians leave it and join Pentecostal and other evangelical groups, a senior Vatican cardinal told a gathering of the world's top prelates Friday.

Pope has a primace over all bishops, a Vatican-Orthodox commission working to heal the 1,000 year split between Catholic and Orthodox churches has agreed but disagreed over just what that authority permits him to do.