WASHINGTON (CNS) -- It was April 11, 1963, as the Catholic Church was in the midst of the Second Vatican Council, that St. John XXIII issued his landmark social encyclical "Pacem in Terris" ("Peace on Earth") that included a call for a verifiable ban on nuclear weapons. More than 50 years la...
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  VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- For an international group of researchers and scholars, serving at the pleasure of popes had meant producing lots of papers on important topics. But with Pope Francis, they are moving from publication to advocacy. Margaret Archer, a British sociologist and president of...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- God's plan for fruitful, everlasting unions between a man and woman has been lost in a world filled with skepticism, distrust and hostility, Pope Francis said. A culture that does not value "the stable and life-giving covenant between a man and woman is certainly a loss for ev...
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Q. I have always wondered why we read the Passion during Palm Sunday services. Palm Sunday is a day of rejoicing and jubilation, as we remember Jesus riding into Jerusalem amid throngs of cheering people. But then we read the passion of Christ, which we also read again on Holy Thursday and, for a t...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- From Easter to Pentecost -- and especially during the Marian month of May -- Catholics recite the "Regina Coeli" prayer "with the emotion of children who are happy because their mother is happy" that Jesus has risen from the dead, Pope Francis said. Although his devotion to th...
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- It was nearly 25 years ago, on July 26, 1990, that the Americans With Disabilities Act passed by Congress was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. So what has changed, and what still needs changing? Janice Benton, executive director of the National Catholic Partnership...
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Q. During the 1970s, at least in our part of the country, there were many priests who smoked cigarettes or cigars. Yet some of them were effective in their ministry and obviously loved God greatly. When they die, as some of them already have, can they still go to heaven? Does Jesus' admonition, "No...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Eradicating male and female identities does nothing to solve the problem of unfair or disrespectful treatment based on people's gender, Pope Francis said. "Getting rid of the difference is the problem, not the solution," he said April 15 during his general audience in St. Pete...
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- What the general public can squint at and admire from afar, an art restorer can enjoy from just inches away. Perched on scaffolding and cleaning off centuries of soot under bright directional lights, the restorers' privileged peek doesn't come often or easily. Full-scale resto...
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The World Bank and global faith leaders are joining together to end extreme poverty around the world by 2030. The effort brings together the influential faith community with a major U.S.-based institution that has committed billions of dollars to development work and can leverag...
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