World News

‘Hell had touched us’

The darkness let loose on the terrorized city of Sydney, Australia, cannot overcome the light of Christ, the city's archbishop said at a Dec. 16 Mass after a lone gunman took 17 people hostage in a cafe, killing two before being shot by police.

Australians turned to prayer during siege, Sydney priest says

Father Brendan Purcell is based at St. Mary's Cathedral, just a five-minute walk from the nearby Lindt Cafe, where Iranian-born Islamic cleric Man Haron Monis took dozens of hostages on morning of Dec. 15.

Pakistani Catholic official calls attack on school ‘barbaric, inhuman’

The Catholic Church in Pakistan has joined the chorus of condemnation of the deadly attack by the Taliban on a school that has left at least 126 children and others dead and 250 injured.

New pope, new leadership changed tone of visitation of U.S. religious

ANALYSIS -- During the visitation of communities of U.S. religious women, a shift in tone took place. The Vatican's final report on the visitation, released Dec. 16, made observations, not accusations. Instead of giving the women instructions, it made suggestions

Though painful at times, visitation was positive, speakers say

"Your message to us today shows that you do understand our ongoing struggle to faithfully serve the church in challenging times, despite our shortcomings and limitations," Mother Mary Clare Millea told the head of the Vatican congregation for consecrated life.

Vatican report calls U.S. sisters to fidelity while facing challenges

A massive Vatican-ordered investigation of U.S. communities of women religious ended with a call to the women themselves to continue discerning how best to live the Gospel while facing steeply declining numbers and a rapidly aging membership. The report offered the nuns six key recommendations.

Lithuanian archbishop worried Russian will move against Baltic states

A top Baltic church leader voiced concern about possible Russian aggression against Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and appealed to Western Catholics to be better informed about the situation.

Kerry asks Vatican for help in relocating Guantanamo detainees

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with his Vatican counterpart Dec. 15, and asked him to support the Obama administration's efforts to close the U.S. detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Pope Francis continues to take ‘the world by storm’

During the second year of his pontificate, Pope Francis was still feeling the love, and not just from Catholics or those from his homeland of Argentina.

Use words carefully, pope tells Catholic media

Too often communications media have been used for "propaganda, ideologies, political aims" or for control, Pope Francis said. "Have the courage to speak frankly and freely."