World News
Pope asks Filipinos to celebrate the gift of faith and pass it on
On the 500th anniversary of Christianity in their country, Pope Francis thanked Filipino Catholics for their "deep sense of family, community and fraternity that keeps you firm in faith, joyful in hope and attentive in charity."
London police halt Good Friday service over COVID protocols
Police halted an Adoration of the Cross service and ordered 130 worshippers to go home, saying the congregation size exceeded pandemic regulations. A priest complained officers had "brutally exceeded their powers."
Christ’s victory over death proclaims a second chance for all, pope says
The Easter liturgies assure people that "it is always possible to begin anew, because there is a new life that God can awaken in us in spite of all our failures," Pope Francis said April 3 during the Easter Vigil Mass in Rome.
At pope’s Good Friday service, cardinal decries divisions in church
As Pope Francis presided over the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion, the preacher of the papal household called on bishops and all Catholics to examine how they may be harming the unity of the Catholic Church.
Pope leads Via Crucis with young people in St. Peter’s Square
Pope Francis again this year led the torch-lit Way of the Cross devotion on Good Friday from St. Peter's Square rather than Rome's Colosseum because of the coronavirus pandemic.
From the lips of children: Pope’s Via Crucis meditations written by kids
The anguish of isolation was a theme that some 500 adolescents wrote and drew about when preparing a catechetical project. They didn't know that Pope Francis would use the material for his Way of the Cross event.
Migrants face hazards, smugglers, extortion on road to U.S.
Getting from Central America through Mexico town by town is perilous, say migrants. "I'm scared being here, but I don't have any other choice," said an 18-year-old.
Sharing the Gospel means embracing the cross, pope says at chrism Mass
The cross, including misunderstanding, rejection and persecution, is present in the Gospel from the very beginning of Jesus' life, the pope told a limited congregation in Rome April 1.
Pope grants embattled German archbishop leave of absence
Experts studying clergy sex abuse cases accused an archbishop, when he was a priest of the Cologne Archdiocese, of 11 breaches of duty, saying as he did not probe abuse allegations and failed to report them to civil authorities or the Vatican.
Vatican sanctions retired Polish bishops over abuse cover-up
The prelates were ordered to live outside their dioceses, were forbidden to attend public religious celebrations or lay meetings and must pay into a Polish fund for survivors.