World News
St. Joseph was a dreamer of quiet strength, pope says at morning Mass
St. Joseph, patron saint of the universal church and Jesus' earthly father, was a "dreamer capable of accepting the task" entrusted to him by God, Pope Francis said.
Amid warm relations, pope to visit Egypt
Accepting an invitation from Egypt's president and top religious leaders, Pope Francis will visit Cairo April 28-29.
Pope presides over Lenten penance service at Vatican
A few hours after urging priests to be generously available for the sacrament of penance, Pope Francis went to confession, then offered the sacrament to seven Catholics.
Gypsy woman left to die after childbirth among 115 Spanish martyrs
The martyrs include 95 priests and 20 laity, all of whom died between July 1936 and January 1939.
In notorious Santiago community, church works to give people options
Father Gerardo Ouisse said part of the solution is to give young people an alternative way of life. His runs the health clinic and a dance school with 300 students. Four days a week, the parish offers lunch.
Make confession more available, God’s heart is always open, pope says
Pope Francis told priests in Rome that confession is a priority that should not have limited hours because the sacrament is a daily call to head to the “peripheries of evil and sin, and this is an ugly periphery,” healed only by God's mercy.
Editor: Dutch church relief tempered by people’s support for Wilders
The editor of the highest-circulation Dutch Catholic weekly said a "general sense of relief" in the church after March 15 elections was tempered by knowledge that many Catholics had supported the losing candidate.
Irish archbishop: St. Patrick was an ‘undocumented migrant’
The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland has urged Irish people and those of Irish descent celebrating St. Patrick's Day to remember the plight of migrants.
Reaction mixed to EU ruling on religious symbols in workplace
Religious leaders have criticized a ruling by the European Union's highest court that could allow employers to prohibit staff from wearing visible religious symbols in the workplace but some organizations were untroubled by the ruling.
The path toward corruption is a slippery road, pope says
"When a person lives in his own closed environment, when he breathes that air that comes from material goods, from pleasures, from vanity, from feeling safe and only trusting in himself," the pope said, "he loses his bearings, he loses the compass and doesn't know his own limits."