Catholic News Service

People who receive and give the sign of peace "should be men and women of peace" and not ruin "the peace made by the Holy Spirit with your tongue," the pope said during his general audience.

President Michael Higgins of Ireland described the treatment of women and children in state-controlled institutions managed by the Catholic Church as a "deep stain on Ireland's past."

Pope Francis sent condolences to Guatemala after a horrific volcanic eruption buried entire towns in a thick blanket of ash and debris, causing hundreds to flee toxic fumes and killing nearly 70.

At a conference sponsored by the Catholic Women's Forum and the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, panelists offered their "second thoughts" on the consequences of the sexual revolution.

The U.S. Supreme Court June 4 threw out a lower court's ruling that allowed a 17-year-old last year to obtain an abortion while she was in a detention center after an illegal border crossing.

In a 7-2 decision June 4, the Supreme Court sided with a Colorado baker in a case that put anti-discrimination laws up against freedom of speech and freedom of religious expression.

Vatican officials have denied protecting the founder of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a Peru-based religious movement, who is accused of sexual, physical and psychological abuse of minors and young adults.

Pope Francis has asked the Catholic bishops' conference of Germany not to publish nationwide guidelines for allowing Protestants married to Catholics to receive Communion at Mass.

Pope Francis has appointed Vincenzo Buonomo, 57, rector of Rome's Pontifical Lateran University. He will be the first layperson to hold the job.

Jesus asks all Christians to prepare a place for him, not in "exclusive, selective places" but in uncomfortable places that are "untouched by love, untouched by hope," Pope Francis said.

After meeting with Pope Francis for more than four hours, a Chilean priest who suffered abuse and a priest who ministers to survivors said they felt comforted and hopeful for the church's future.

A new Vatican document cautions against the dangers of highly competitive children's sports, political and economic pressures on athletes to win '"at all costs" and fans' violent behavior.

The Catholic Church does not have "a product to sell, but a life to communicate: God, his divine life, his merciful love, his holiness," Pope Francis told national directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies.

As the Supreme Court prepares to wrap up its current term by the end of June, Catholic Church leaders are paying particular attention to several of the 30 upcoming decisions.

The official tally of 64 deaths on the island of Puerto Rico attributed to 2017's powerful Hurricane Maria has been disputed for some time, but in late May, a study in a respected scientific journal said that figure may have underestimated the island's fatalities by the thousands.

Since the administration announced a "zero tolerance" policy for illegal border crossings, resulting in family separation, 2,000 more minors have entered U.S. custody.

A Catholic priest involved in the sainthood cause of a Polish cardinal has rejected claims the cardinal fostered anti-Semitism and refused help for endangered Jews.

Franciscans of the Order of Friars Minor in six of the order's U.S. provinces voted May 30 to form one new organization to reinvigorate Franciscan life in this country.

Pope Francis has named as apostolic visitor to Medjugorje the Polish archbishop he had initially sent to the town to study the pastoral needs at the site of the alleged Marian apparitions.

The Supreme Court's decision May 29 not to hear a case against an Arkansas abortion law, thus letting the state's restrictions on abortion-inducing drugs stand, will have broad impact.