World News

Administering mercy: Facilitating forgiveness does not downplay sin

Always, but especially during a Holy Year, the Catholic Church does everything possible to help Catholics repent of their sins, receive forgiveness and draw closer to God.

Amid crisis, Guatemalan bishops seek overhaul of country’s electoral law

In a June 3 letter, the bishops' conference said it supported protesters who have held demonstrations across the country during the past month, demanding Perez, a former military general elected in 2011, step down.

Canadian commission: Reconciliation with aboriginals to take ‘hard work’

In a 382-page report with 94 recommendations, the commission called for changes at all levels of society and government and said "Canadians must make a firm and lasting commitment to reconciliation to ensure that Canada is a country where our children and grandchildren can thrive."

French Catholics want countries to quit buying oil from Islamic State

"Our brothers and sisters are being massacred, women and children taken into slavery -- and while Christians are suffering most, so are Muslims and other minorities," said Joseph Thouvenel, vice president of the French Confederation of Christian Workers.

Francis effect: An ease in relations between Bolivian church, government

In October 2014, Bolivian President Evo Morales traveled to the Vatican-sponsored World Meeting of Popular Movements, an international gathering of grass-roots activists. On the trip, he met informally with Pope Francis for the second time -- an encounter observers back in Bolivia saw as significant given the sour state of church-state relations since he became president in 2006.

Pope helps homeless, poor in Rome make pilgrimage to Shroud of Turin

With financial assistance from Pope Francis, a Rome parish led 50 homeless and poor people on a pilgrimage to see the Shroud of Turin June 4 and has provided the money needed for another Rome parish to do the same a week later.

Quakes strengthen doctor’s resolve to continue mission work in Nepal

All the deaths and all the devastation that happened within seconds could have rocked the foundation of faith and resolve that Dr. Christine Groves had built in her 34 years of life.

War, greed and consumerism harm families, pope says

Families that keep on going despite crisis are a "school of humanity who are saving society from barbarity," Pope Francis said. The media's "fake models" of family do great harm.

Cardinal Parolin calls for overhaul in education to focus on the person

The current "culture of conflict" is an indication that schools and universities need to create conditions that will develop "a new humanism" and "rebuild a spirit of fraternity among people and nations," said Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Vatican distances itself from commission member’s comments on cardinal

Commission member Peter Saunders, a British survivor of sexual abuse and co-founder of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, appeared in a "60 Minutes" segment broadcast May 31 by Australia's Channel Nine.