Since 1994, Catholics have gathered every few years for the World Meeting of Families. This year’s gathering was held Aug. 21-26 in Dublin. In honor of this celebration, Pope Francis journeyed to Ireland for an apostolic visit Aug. 25-26. This trip marks
In the wake of the devastating Aug. 14 grand jury report, documenting over seven decades of clergy sexual abuse and cover-up in six Pennsylvania dioceses over a span of seven decades, one of the bishops named in the report, Bishop Kevin C.
Official Catholic teaching now holds that the death penalty is “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.” The Church also has committed itself to work “with determination” for the worldwide abolition of capital punishment, according
The move by Pope Francis, announced Aug. 2, to change the Catechism of the Catholic Church to say that capital punishment is “inadmissible” in all cases prompted reactions that those who follow news in the Church will find predictable. As in so
“The future we desire for the Middle East is a future of cohabitation between Muslims, Christians and Jews. This is the Middle East that we dream of,” said Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Oriental Churches. Cardinal Sandri described
For five years in his teaching role as the Church’s universal shepherd, Pope Francis has been working away at his contribution to the magisterium. One could say he’s been weaving his section of the giant, ancient tapestry of Catholic teaching and Tradition.
Pope Francis visited Geneva, Switzerland, on June 21 for a one-day apostolic journey in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches, the largest and broadest ecumenical fellowship in the world. Since the mid-20th century, the WCC has served
This year, the observance of Holy Week came with more focus on hell than usual, because of the assertion on Holy Thursday by an Italian journalist that Pope Francis told him that hell does not exist. Eugenio Scalfari, the 93-year-old co-founder and
On April 1, Pope Francis delivered his “urbi et orbi” (to the city of Rome and the world) Easter message from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome to the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square. The full English translation
On his return flight to Rome from Bangladesh on Dec. 2, Pope Francis provided a glimpse of his hopes for 2018 when, asked by a journalist if he planned to visit India, he noted in his answer, “I hope to do it