Catholic News Service

Mexican and American bishops called on negotiators working to overhaul a 23-year-old trade agreement to ensure that any changes keep the needs of poor people foremost.

Ideological colonization is a form of persecution that seeks to obliterate the past, eradicate what makes people different and impose uniformity, Pope Francis said.

The Vatican announced it had launched a new investigation into reports about sexual abuse in a pre-seminary run by the Diocese of Como, Italy, but located inside the Vatican.

Justice and compassion compel the Catholic Church to work to ensure equality and fairness in the distribution of health care resources and in people's access to them, Pope Francis said.

People have a basic choice in the way they live: either striving to build up treasures on earth or giving to others in order to gain heaven, Pope Francis said.

The life of Father Augustus Tolton already reads like a novel and now it is immortalized on stage with the new play "Tolton: From Slave to Priest," produced by St. Luke Productions from Battle Ground, Washington.

By visiting Myanmar in late November, Pope Francis said he wants to encourage all efforts "to build harmony and cooperation" among people of all religions.

The Supreme Court has decided to hear a case examining a California law that requires crisis pregnancy centers to inform their clients about the availability of abortion and birth control.

Officials in China's eastern Jiangxi province have replaced religious images displayed by Christian families with portraits of the country's leader, Xi Jinping.

Sincere, harmonious unity is needed in the world and in the church, Pope Francis told an international association for Catholic priests.

The Legionaries of Christ say a series of offshore accounts opened by its disgraced founder — and exposed by investigative journalists — have been closed.

A Catholic official in Zimbabwe said church leaders' experience working together "will serve us well" as they tried to decide how to respond to the military seizing power.

Mass is the highest form of prayer and not an appropriate moment for small talk, Pope Francis said.

Catholic Church leaders in the Philippines are calling on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to take back several shipping containers of toxic waste that arrived from Canada in 2013.

The Panamanian archbishop helping to organize World Youth Day said the 2019 celebration in his country will invite youth of other faiths to join in.

The longest and most passionate discussion on the first day of the fall assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 13 focused on how to help immigrants.

Persecuted Christian minorities in Asia, Africa and the Middle East are at risk of being forgotten, according to the chairman of the U.S bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace.

Though the Catholic Church has responded to racism for many years, some leaders and church institutions have at times been part of the problem, said Bishop George Murray.

Young people in the church want to be heard and be invited to be a part of church leadership, according to a report by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in preparation for next year's Synod of Bishops on youth.

As the U.S. bishops were beginning their fall assembly in Baltimore, also marking their 100th anniversary as a conference, a couple of nonviolent protesters gathered nearby.