The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments and individuals to operate as if every day brings with it a new contingency plan. The Catholic Church is no different, in a sense, at least when it comes ...

Visitors were invited to pose questions to the AI Jesus, viewed on a monitor behind a latticework screen. (Courtesy of the Catholic Church of the City of Lucerne, CC BY) This autumn, a Swiss Catholic ...

In “The Guilty Vicarage,” an essay on detective fiction, W.H. Auden argues that the most successful detective novels take ...

Catholic bishops in northeast Italy have said that the risk of illness amid the ongoing pandemic constitutes a "grave necessity" permitting priests to confer the Sacrament of Reconciliation under the ...

The new language for the priest’s absolution is allowed as of Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. Priests must use the new language starting on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 16, the first Sunday after ...

This autumn, a Swiss Catholic church installed an AI Jesus in a confessional to interact with visitors. The installation was a two-month project in religion, technology and art titled "Deus in Machina ...

The Roman Catholic Church urges its faithful to confess their sins to a priest at least once a year, and insists that they do so before receiving Communion if they have committed a mortal sin. In ...

Rituals of purification or moral cleansing are common in many religious traditions. For example, ritual washing before prayer, public worship, (re)inclusion, or other religious activities is present ...

Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, has said that the coronavirus pandemic may justify the use of general absolution, in extraordinary circumstances, for Catholics unable to ...