World News
Pope tells Portuguese bishop he hopes to visit Fatima in 2017
Pope Francis already is looking ahead to 2017 and particularly to marking important Marian feasts that year.
Pope prays for quake victims, sends donation, urges solidarity
Pope Francis offered his prayers to all of those affected by a deadly earthquake in Nepal, encouraged rescue and emergency workers in their efforts and sent an initial donation of $100,000.
No boring homilies, pope tells new priests at ordination
Priests are called to nourish the faithful, he said, so they must ensure "that your homilies are not boring, that your homilies arrive directly in people's hearts because they flow from your heart, because what you tell them is what you have in your heart."
Pope offers prayers for Nepal quake victims
More than 3,600 people have been killed and more than 6,500 others injured after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake hit a mountainous region near Kathmandu April 25.
Polish church recalls clergy martyrs 70 years after Dachau liberation
Poland's Catholic Church has urged a fitting tribute to hundreds of its priests who died during World War II at the Nazi concentration camp in Dachau, Germany.
Italians arrest suspected terrorists; Vatican says no current threat
Italian police arrested at least nine people in what officials described as a terrorist cell that had planned, in 2010, to strike at the Vatican with a suicide bomber.
Nuclear test-ban advocate meets pope
Pope Francis "has been a tireless advocate for a world free of nuclear weapons," said the head of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.
France says Vatican has not issued response for proposed ambassador
Despite media reports that Pope Francis refused the candidate France proposed as its next ambassador to the Holy See, the French government has yet to receive an official response from the Vatican, said a spokesperson for the French government.
Jordanian priest: Muslims need to see Christians visit Holy Land
"How can the Muslims believe this is the Holy Land if they don't see anybody here?" said Father Nabil Haddad, who is also pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Melkite Catholic Church in Amman, Jordan's capital. "I want to take pride in the tourist presence here, that this is the Holy Land."
Russian Catholic leaders studying new law on reporting funds
"What matters in Russia isn't what the laws say, but how they're interpreted and applied by local officials," said Msgr. Igor Kovalevsky, secretary-general of the five-member bishops' conference.