'Belief means transcending ourselves, leaving behind our comfort'

The U.S. government April 8 deported retired Salvadoran Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, a former director of the Salvadoran national guard, to El Salvador.In early 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a deportation order for Casanova and retired Salvadoran Gen. Jose Guillermo Garcia, the

An hourlong meeting April 11 between U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro marked the first such personal encounter between the leaders of the two neighboring countries since 1958.The session held during the Summit on the Americas, in which Cuba participated for the first time,

Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, Pope Francis said atrocities from the past have to be recognized -- not hidden or denied -- for true reconciliation and healing to come to the world.However, Turkey's top government officials criticized the pope's use of the term

Mercy is what makes God perfect and all-powerful, Pope Francis said in his document officially proclaiming the 2015-2016 extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy."If God limited himself to only justice, he would cease to be God, and would instead be like human beings who ask merely that the law be resp

In 2004, with the divorce rate looming around 70 percent in Cuba, the Catholic Church called for a "year of the family."Even among Catholics back then, there was little hope that workshops, discussions and reflection would do much good to remedy the situation. A decade later, the figure of