On Jan. 29 at St. Mary Cathedral in Austin, Tex., representatives of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and four Protestant denominations in the Reformed tradition signed an agreement that recognizes the validity of one another’s baptisms. • The New Jersey Death with Dignity Act, a b

"The road will be long and difficult because of resistance, conflicts and tensions."

"My strengths...are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.”

The Rev. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, a 65-year-old Catholic priest and human rights activist, and the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do of Vietnam have been nominated for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize. Father Ly has been a prominent human rights defender since the 1970s, campaigning for religious freedom,

For more than 20 years, efforts to pass a far-reaching immigration reform have fallen apart.

Violence against women in India has been a problem for centuries, but the news of the gang rapes of several young women have provoked shame, outrage and now perhaps action. The Women’s Commission of the Archdiocese of Bombay (Mumbai) is one of the leading lights in this fight with its new camp