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The bodies of 115 people had been pulled from the waters off the Egyptian coast by Friday, three days after a boat carrying hundreds of migrants capsized in the Mediterranean while attempting to head to Europe.

Mohammed Sultan, the governor of Egypt's coastal Beheira province, provided the latest death toll and told The Associated Press that dozens more are feared dead. An AP reporter near the Nile Delta city of Rosetta saw between 20 to 30 bodies brought in by fishing boats early...

After two nights of violence in Charlotte, Bishop Peter J. Jugis called on men, women and children in the Diocese of Charlotte to join him in prayers for "peace and justice" for all victims of violence and for law enforcement personnel who have been victims of "unjust violence."

"Let us pray for all men and women of good will to be instruments of harmony and the always-shining light of Christ in our neighborhoods, workplaces, schools and public places," the bishop said in a statement...

A volunteer group that rescues civilians from bombed-out buildings in Syria shares this year's Right Livelihood Award, sometimes known as the "Alternative Nobel," with activists from Egypt and Russia and a Turkish newspaper.

The prize foundation on Thursday announced the four 2016 winners: the Syria Civil Defense group, also known as the White Helmets; Egyptian women's rights activist Mozn Hassan and the Nazra for Feminist Studies; Russia rights campaigner Svetlana Gannushkina; and...

Religious leaders have a grave and urgent responsibility to act against genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and other violence committed in the name of religion, said speakers at a United Nations panel on Sept. 20.

They can help prevent atrocities and promote peace and reconciliation within and beyond their communities, the panel said.

Religion has a rightful place in the public sphere, the speakers said, adding that enshrining a proper interpretation of freedom of...

Two priests were kidnapped and killed in the Mexican state of Veracruz, raising the death toll of prelates murdered in Mexico to 14 in less than four years.

Father Alejo Nabor Jimenez Juarez and Father Jose Alfredo Juarez de la Cruz were dragged at gunpoint out of Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Poza Rica, a Gulf Coast oil city consumed by crime in recent years, the Diocese of Papantla confirmed in a statement.

Media reported the men were found on Sept. 19, one day after their...

Frustrated after years of fraught diplomacy, President Barack Obama will seek Wednesday to cast the U.S. partnership with Israel as on solid footing, even as he openly weighs using the final stretch of his presidency to ramp up pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to finally make peace with the Palestinians.

Obama's meeting Wednesday with Netanyahu will likely be his last before leaving office, the White House said. For both leaders, it's a capstone to a relationship that...

Humanity should feel ashamed it can wage war, kill the innocent, bomb cities and prevent food and medicine from reaching survivors, Pope Francis said.

"There is no god of war," he said.

Violence and division are the work of the devil who "wants to kill everyone," and that is why people need to come together and pray for peace, united in the conviction that "God is a God of peace," he said on Sept. 20, a world day of prayer for peace.

Just a few hours before heading to...

Pauline Father Gabriele Amorth, an Italian priest renowned for his work in dispelling demons, died at the age of 91.

Ill and hospitalized for some weeks, the priest passed away in Rome on Sept. 16.

Father Amorth began his ministry as an exorcist for the Diocese of Rome in 1986 and performed–according to his own estimates–some 70,000 exorcisms or other prayers to liberate people from demonic influence.

He spoke out frequently warning that while it was rare for a person...

Offering migrants and refugees truly helpful and loving hospitality is the greatest guarantee against terrorism, Pope Francis said.

The current refugee and migration crisis, with more than 65 million people forcibly displaced from their homes, has become "the greatest humanitarian crisis after the Second World War," he said.

"At this place and time in history, there is great need for men and women who hear the cry of the poor and respond with mercy and generosity," he told...

At Eid al-Adha prayers last week, several hundred Shiite and Sunni Muslims offered joint prayers as a show of peace between two Muslim sects often better known for their bitter conflicts.

The prayer took place in a Shiite shrine but was led by a Sunni imam as part of an initiative by a volunteer group called Shoulder to Shoulder.

“In Uttar Pradesh, sectarian tensions surfaced occasionally between the two sects,” said Arif Durrani, a member of Shoulder to Shoulder. “We came up...

A six-month search for a new president and CEO for one of the largest humanitarian relief agencies in the world ended at its doorstep, with Catholic Relief Services announcing Sept. 16 that it is hiring a veteran employee—the agency's No. 2—Sean Callahan, as its new president and CEO.

"We looked all across the nation and found that the best person for the job was Sean, already working for us," said Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo, New York, head of the CRS Board Search Committee...

Though it has no juridical power, Pope Francis' committee on protecting children has discovered it has consultative punch.

Members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors have now become the go-to team for educating bishops, Vatican diplomats in training and Curia staffers, religious orders and local churches about safeguarding children, adolescents and vulnerable adults and protecting them against sexual abuse.

More than two years after Pope Francis...

The chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Migration said on Sept. 14 that Catholics "are called to overcome the partisan divides that separate us" on migration issues.

Instead, Catholics must focus "on the moral teachings of the church that will help us build a vibrant public square," said Auxiliary Bishop Eusebio Elizondo of Seattle.

He said an upcoming summit on migration issues to be held at the United Nations on Sept. 19 "will highlight the need for shared...

Clergy who use their position for personal gain rather than to help those in need do not follow the spirit of Jesus who took upon himself the sufferings of others, Pope Francis said.

Jesus often would rebuke such leaders and warned his followers to "do what they say but not what they do," the pope said on Sept. 14 at his weekly general audience.

"Jesus was not a prince," the pope said. "It is awful for the church when pastors become princes, far from the people, far from the...

As Europeans planned street protests against a controversial trade treaty with the United States, a European church leader said intergovernmental agreements were worthwhile when they reflected ethical standards.

At least 100,000 people were expected to take part in Sept. 17 street protests in Berlin, Munich and other cities, demanding a halt to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations. Opponents say such a partnership would damage employment and the environment...

Fifteen years after United Flight 93 crashed in an open field in southern Pennsylvania, a small group of Catholics quietly gathered in the stillness of the site to remember the people who sacrificed their lives so that others might live.

Msgr. Roger A. Statnick, pastor of St. Sebastian Parish in Belle Vernon, and a board member of the Notre Dame Club of Greensburg/Uniontown, celebrated an outdoor Mass of remembrance on a hill above the crash site for nearly 30 fellow club members at...

The current economic model that places profit over the common good of all human beings must change in order to confront the challenges the world is facing today, a Vatican official said.

The world must heed Pope Francis' warning of the dangers of "an economy of exclusion and inequality," Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, told participants at a conference studying the pope's views on the economy.

"We need a new social...

Pope Francis thanked a group of bishops in Argentina for providing their priests with concrete guidelines for implementing the section of his apostolic exhortation on the family about circumstances in which divorced and civilly remarried couples might eventually be allowed to receive Communion.

The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, published an article Sept. 12 confirming Pope Francis wrote to the bishops of the Buenos Aires pastoral region thanking them for their document on...

A U.S.-Russian brokered cease-fire for Syria came into effect on Monday at sunset, with monitoring groups and state media reporting clashes up until the final minutes, and the most powerful rebel groups having yet to commit to the truce.

Syria's military announced at 7 p.m. (1600 GMT) that it would abide by a cease-fire until Sunday at midnight, while maintaining its right to defend itself against any violations.

The cease-fire marks the latest attempt to end the five-year...

In late August, as the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks loomed, religious leaders tuned into a webinar to prepare themselves for a possible future disaster.

“Who was the first official casualty of 9/11?" asked Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a Catholic priest and psychologist who led the webinar on “Shepherding in Tragic Times.”

"Father Mychal Judge,” he said, answering his own question, and referring to the priest who was fatally injured while ministering amid the chaos of...

One of the proudest moments of Brian Loeffler's 26-years as a swim coach at Loyola University Maryland came at the 2012 Paralympics in London when he helped Brad Snyder, a blind military veteran, atop the podium during a medal ceremony.

"I got to position him on the medal stand, then step off to the side and watch the flag be raised and the national anthem be played," Loeffler said. "It really felt like I was a part of that ceremony, being so close. It was pretty powerful."

...

Nearly six months after Secretary of State John Kerry declared the murder of Christians in the Middle East a “genocide,” Westerners are doing little to stop the killings, said activists gathered for a convention on the victims’ plight.

Religious freedom advocate Katrina Lantos Swett called the crisis “perhaps the great moral challenge of our time right now,” at a news conference Wednesday (Sept. 7) opening the national convention for In Defense of Christians, an advocacy group....

While retired Pope Benedict XVI said organization and governance are not his strong suits, he also said, "I am unable to see myself as a failure."

In a book-length interview with the German author Peter Seewald, Pope Benedict said that when he resigned he had the "peace of someone who had overcome difficulty" and "could tranquilly pass the helm to the one who came next."

The new book, "Last Testament," will be released in English by Bloomsbury in November. The German and...

Traditional practices, poverty, last year's massive earthquake and Nepal's ongoing political instability mean child marriages remain a serious problem in the country, where 10 percent of the girls marry before they are 15, even though the government says it is making progress to combat the problem, rights groups say.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said government indifference means it has not taken the concrete steps needed to achieve the goal of completely stopping the practice...

Members of Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority expressed hope on Sept. 7 that a visiting panel led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan will help end the discrimination and violence they face at the hands of the country's Buddhist majority.

Annan is a member of an independent commission set up last month by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi's government to help find solutions to a communal conflict in the western state of Rakhine that has seen widespread abuses and violence by Buddhists...

Some 28 million children around the globe have been driven from their homes by violent conflict, with nearly as many abandoning their homes in search of a better life, UNICEF said in a report.

The report released Tuesday found that while children make up about a third of the world's population as of 2015, they accounted for nearly half of all refugees, with the number of child refugees having doubled in the last decade.

"What's important is that these children on the move are...

The last three months of the Year of Mercy include jubilee celebrations for the imprisoned and for homeless people.

Releasing a schedule of liturgical celebrations over which Pope Francis will preside, the Vatican included Holy Year Masses for prisoners on Nov. 6 and for the homeless on Nov. 13.

The schedule, released at the Vatican Sept. 6, also mentions his planned trips to Georgia and Azerbaijan on Sept. 30-Oct. 2, and to Sweden on Oct. 31-Nov. 1 to commemorate the 500th...

The Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island, said it will notify the state attorney general of any allegations of sexual abuse of a minor in an effort to strengthen its child protection policies.

The diocese said it already reports allegations of sexual abuse of a minor to law enforcement officers and said in a statement on Aug. 31 that the additional step of notifying the attorney general's office "provides supplemental transparency" to help ensure a safe environment.

Bishop...

Northwestern Pakistan was struck by two separate militant attacks hours apart on Friday, when gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed a Christian colony near the town of Peshawar, killing one civilian, and a suicide bomb attack on a district court in the town of Mardan killed 12 people and wounded 54 others.

Militants stormed the Christian neighborhood early on Friday morning, triggering a shoot-out in which four attackers were killed and one Christian died, police and the military said...

When Franciscan Brother Jay Rivera first started volunteering at Miami-area crisis pregnancy centers, he noticed mothers inside taking classes and consulting staff while dads typically sat outside on the curb or in their cars.

In many cases, an unborn child's life was hanging in the balance. Brother Rivera figured those fathers would have no small role in what happened in the child's future, if the child was given a chance to be born at all.

Seven years later, after searching...