Pope Francis has approved a new direction for the scandal-ridden Vatican bank as it seeks to improve transparency and compliance with international guidelines, the Vatican said on April 7.The bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, was founded in 1942 to manage funds for Roman Catholic ins

Ukrainian Catholic bishop warned his church could lose its legal status.

The number of refugees fleeing from Syria into neighboring Lebanon passed the 1 million mark on April 3, according to U.N. officials, a bleak milestone exacerbated by rapidly depleting social resources and a host community stretched to the breaking point. Just over three years after Syria’s co

More than a year after Scottish Cardinal Keith O'Brien admitted to sexual misconduct amid allegations by three priests and a former priest, the Vatican Congregation for Bishops is sending an investigator to the Archdiocese of St. Andrews and Edinburgh to collect testimony.A statement distributed

Linda LeMura, newly named president of Le Moyne College in Syracuse, is the first laywoman to be appointed president of a Jesuit college or university. The college, founded in 1946, is used to some firsts. It also was the first Jesuit school of higher education to open as a coeducational institution

The Italian bishops' conference encouraged its members to cooperate with civil authorities in cases of clerical sexual abuse, but said the bishops have no legal obligation to report abuse allegations to the police or other civil authorities.In addition, the new Italian church norms say the bisho