European Politics

OTTAWA -- Lawyers challenging Bill 21, Quebec’s so-called secularism law, are arguing that because the law disproportionately targets women the provincial government cannot use the notwithstanding clause to shield it from any challenge.

VATICAN CITY -- As COVID-19-related deaths in Italy reached their highest daily level since early May and Italy began enacting new restrictions to slow the spread, the Vatican decided it will once again close its museums to the public.

VATICAN CITY -- A lack of oversight and control over the Vatican Secretariat of State's investment activities may have facilitated some bad property deals, said Bishop Nunzio Galantino, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See.

Pope Francis and Austrian church leaders expressed dismay and sorrow after terrorists attack that left at least five dead in central Vienna, and they urged citizens to uphold key values of tolerance and respect.

BEIRUT -- Commemorating the 10th anniversary of the massacre by Islamic militants at Our Lady of Deliverance Church in Baghdad, Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan reminded the faithful that "our martyrs are the torches of faith that illuminate our paths of life and ignite in us the fire of love toward everyone."

NICE, France -- French bishops conducted a "penitential rite of reparation" inside a church in which three people were murdered in late October.

BERLIN -- Retired Pope Benedict XVI has declined the inheritance of his brother Georg, who died in July, reported the German Catholic news agency KNA.

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican Secretariat of State has sent an explanatory note to nuncios around the world insisting that when Pope Francis spoke about civil unions, he was not changing or challenging "the doctrine of the church, which he has reaffirmed numerous times over the years."

MANCHESTER, England -- Catholic leaders in England are appealing to the government to reverse its decision to ban public Mass during a second national lockdown.

VATICAN CITY -- The Eight Beatitudes describe the path to holiness, but the call to meekness seems particularly challenging today, Pope Francis said.