VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis' concern for those suffering on the margins and for small Catholic communities that have kept the faith alive through war or repression will take him to Bosnia-Herzegovina in early June. By making a one-day trip June 6 to Sarajevo, he said he hoped he could "be an...
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The cover photograph on a new 232-page report outlining religious freedom violations around the world last year pretty much says it all. The image is of Yezidis of all ages walking on a sandy, dusty terrain with sheep. Thousands of members of this religious minority had been exe...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The closer two people are to each other, the more care is required in respecting the other's freedom and feelings, Pope Francis said. Even Jesus knocks at the door of a person's heart awaiting permission to enter, he said May 13 at his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Sq...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Catholic charities around the world have no doubt about the reality of a "Francis effect" on their work. Because of the ongoing global economic crisis, most of the 164 national Catholic charities that form the Caritas Internationalis confederation report no significant increas...
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Forty years after the war in Vietnam ended, Americans still replay the events that led to deeper American involvement in the Southeast Asian conflict as well as the turmoil that resulted from it. Satisfactory answers were hard to come by then, when it seemed that the nation came...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Christian marriage isn't just a big ceremony held in a church with nice flowers and everyone wearing fancy clothes and taking lots of pictures, Pope Francis said. Marriage is an act of faith between a man and woman who are both fragile and limited, but courageous enough to f...
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This column is part of the CNS columns package. Q. I have a personal problem with the Fourth Commandment. It reads that we should honor father and mother, but my own father is not an honorable man. He has always been a self-centered person who puts his own needs above everyone else's. Right now he...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon and some climate scientists are banking on Pope Francis to be a unifying moral force to get the world onboard in the fight against global warming. Even though previous popes have spoken strongly against harming the earth and its inhabitants, one world r...
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The upcoming beatification of Archbishop Oscar Romero has inspired many U.S. Catholics to book flights to El Salvador for the May 23 ceremony in San Salvador. The long hoped-for event has also reminded many that Catholics and other religious groups implored the U.S. government t...
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  Q. I read recently that, during the consecration at Mass, the blessed Savior is most present to us -- and that if we have a special prayer request, that would be the best time to make it. Can you tell me if that is correct, or is there a more appropriate time? (Columbia, Missouri) A. It is t...
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