Thousands of children are forced every day to serve in armed gangs or armies as combatants, spies or in sexual servitude.

“Dear friends of the United States, Mexico needs your help to stop this terrible violence that we’re suffering,” President Felipe Calderón said.

The role of religion in society and its protection from a “deeply intolerant” militant secularism were themes in Rome and at Lambeth Palace in Great Britain last month.

Human rights activists in the Democratic Republic of Congo are denouncing acts of violence by police against Catholic parishes and marchers.

Support for a religious exemption to the contraceptive mandate in the U.S. health reform plan is stronger among Catholics than among the general population.

María del Mar Muñoz-Visoso was named executive director of the Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church.