News
Meeting 200 Pentecostals, Pope Francis talks of unity
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- His voice breaking with emotion, Giovanni Traettino, a Pentecostal pastor in southern Italy and longtime friend of Pope Francis, welcomed the pope, who said he knows people were shocked that he would make a special trip to visit a group of Pentecostals, "but I went to visit my friends."
High in the Andes, Peruvian artisans create sacred art
Freddy Cerna is about the same height as the statue he carves from Italian Carrara marble. His backward baseball cap and buggy protective goggles are a sharp contrast to the delicate face he perfects with his carving tools. The statue of Mary, her hands folded in prayer, stares back at him.
Idaho campus ministers see colleges as ‘places of evangelization’
They are, without a doubt, an odd couple. One is a Jesuit with a history in campus ministry, taking over the reins at St. Paul Catholic Student Center in Boise. The other is a tattooed, earring-and-bandanna-wearing, lifelong youth minister stepping in at St. John Catholic Student Center in Pocatello.
Pope, visiting Albania Sept. 21, will meet officials, children
After a quick flight over Italy and the Adriatic Sea, Pope Francis will make an 11-hour visit to Albania Sept. 21, making time to meet with the nation's leaders and bishops, but also spending time with disadvantaged children and other people assisted by Catholic charitable organizations.
Court overturns law requiring hospital privileges for abortion doctors
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans July 29 overturned a 2012 Mississippi law requiring doctors at the state's only abortion clinic to have admitting privileges at local hospitals.
AIDS activists praise progress, warn about lingering danger of HIV
Catholic AIDS activists said they are encouraged by the steady progress being made against HIV, but warned against complacency.
Campaign against human trafficking must focus on victims, speakers say
Estimates of the number of people around the world who are victims of human trafficking are rising, partly because globalization has made it easier to move people and partly because governments, churches and international organizations are better at recognizing the phenomenon, a U.S. government official said.
Ukraine crisis shows the danger of manipulating truth, chaplain says
Propaganda and fear were the sparks that ignited the conflict in eastern Ukraine, a conflict that has become a real war, said a Jesuit military chaplain.
Federal appeals court overturns Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage
Virginia's Catholic bishops said in a July 28 statement that "those with same-sex attractions must be treated with respect and sensitivity," but reaffirmed the Catholic Church's teaching that marriage should be between one man and one woman.
In El Salvador, Americans see firsthand legacy of murdered Jesuits
Standing at the edge of the garden where six Jesuit priests were killed in 1989, Echol Nix is clear about the message he is taking home with him to the United States.