Meet the priest who penned the lyrics for World Meeting of Families hymn

Norbertine Father Andrew Ciferni, a South Philadelphia native, wrote the text of "Sound the Bell of Holy Freedom" that was selected from 20 submissions as the official hymn for next year's congress. Hear the hymn performed recently in Philadelphia.

Residents’ extra rooms needed for millions coming to Philadelphia

With more visitors coming to Philadelphia than the region's hotels can accommodate, the World Meeting of Families is asking area residents to open their homes and welcome visitors for next September.

Keeping an eye out for the quiet hero among us

Jesus is asking us to view others, especially the poor, as he did and not as the world does. He's asking us to be observant of the quiet sufferer, the unnoted faithful, and to model our lives after them.

As nuns face off against traffickers, priests asked to join the fight

Leaving their habits behind and disguised along with police in regular clothes, a small group of three or four nuns raid brothels in Kolkata, India, at night, snatching young women and girls as young as 12 from the clutches of their captors.

Theologians decry ‘pervasive sin of racism,’ pledge to work for justice

This year the "hope for a just peace" that is Advent "must face the flagrant failures of a nation still bound by sin, our bondage to and complicity in racial injustice," said a group of Catholic theologians.

Love as God loves us, as married lovers should

Read this month's reflection on the preparatory catechesis for the 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, this month focusing on marriage as the dominant Biblical metaphor for God’s covenant with his people.

After 7 years on TV, ‘La Santa Misa’ helping Latinos pray the Mass at home

The founder and executive producer of the televised Spanish-language Mass reflects on the gift the Mass offers to those who participate in it and to thousands of homebound and hard-working Hispanic Catholics.

Cyberslums where online abusers prowl need pastoral care, say speakers

A new kind of ghetto needs the church's presence and people's solidarity: the "digital slum" where cyberbullying and online pornography and abuse run rampant, said speakers at a Vatican news conference.

Vatican sends all bishops new questionnaire ahead of 2015 family synod

The questionnaire instructs bishops' conferences to avoid "a formulation of pastoral care based simply on an application of doctrine" in favor of the call to "pastoral activity ... capable of recognizing the Lord's gratuitous work, even outside customary models."

Knights send $2.2 million to assist Christian refugees in Iraq, Syria

The Knights of Columbus announced its Christian Refugee Relief Fund has donated $2.2 million to help displaced Iraqi and Syrian Christians and other religious minorities who continue to face violent persecution "and the very real prospect of extinction."