Pope Francis offered more evidence today of his commitment to Vatican II era collegiality In a letter posted by the Vatican news service the pope announced today that he was elevating the position of the nbsp undersecretary of the synod secretariat to the episcopacy to demonstrate that quot we ca

On April 2 the Assembly of the Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land issued a historic communiqu asking ldquo Are Christians being persecuted in the Mideast rdquo The bishops answer lsquo Yes but rsquo because the question ignores the persecution of Muslims as well as Christians See below

A 75-year-old Dutch Jesuit who refused to leave war-torn Syria instead staying in Homs to help the poor and homeless was beaten by armed men and killed with two bullets to the head according to an email sent by the Jesuits 39 Middle East province to the Jesuit headquarters in Rome Jesuit Father

On March 20th Shanesha Taylor of Scottsdale Ariz was arrested for leaving her children in a car while attending a job interview Taylor who is 35 and homeless left her two-month-old and two-year-old in a car which was reportedly also their home The mother stated that leaving her children in

Paul Elie 39 s quot Everything That Rises quot blog continues to make compelling connections between faith art and life His take earlier this week on an early REM song quot Gardening at Night quot is right on point I was in high school when REM 39 s EP quot Chronic Town quot was released

The Courtyard of the Gentiles is a Vatican effort to advance dialogue with men and women outside any religious tradition For the first time the Pontifical Council for Culture and its president Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi will bring the encounter to the United States with a three-day meeting Apri