The figure was below the number of 62 million reported in 2000, but the difference is due to a change in the way data was collected.

Speakers at a conference in Dublin called on the hierarchy to open structures of dialogue with lay Catholics about the future of the church.

It was “a very bitter truth” that “democratization of the Middle East does not bring relief to the people who live there.”

On May 10 Pope Benedict XVI formalized the status of the 12th-century German mystic St. Hildegard of Bingen, “inscribing her in the catalog of saints.”

“We cannot be silent in the face of words or actions that would undermine the institution of marriage," Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan said.

Hundreds of faith-based and grass-roots organizations are working alongside the Occupy Wall Street movement.