Pope Francis named Brother Guy Consolmagno, a Jesuit from the United States, to be the new director of the Vatican Observatory on Sept. 18. • The Archdiocese of Cincinnati is one of the latest U.S. dioceses to heed the call of Pope Francis, announcing that annulment fees would be eliminated eff
Religious leaders from different faith traditions urged President Obama in a letter on Sept. 10 to continue to permit government-funded faith groups to employ people with like beliefs. Their request comes less than a month after a coalition of religious and secular organizations sent the president a
Pope Francis’ reformed rules for marriage annulment cases, making the process simpler, quicker and less expensive, respond to calls that bishops from around the world have been making since before the 1980 meeting of the Synod of Bishops on the family convoked by St. John Paul II. With the new
British parliamentarians on Sept. 11 soundly rejected a right-to-die bill that would have allowed people with less than six months to live to end their lives legally. Only 118 members of Parliament voted in favor of the bill; 330 voted against it. The bill had faced strong opposition from vario
The Obama administration announced on Sept. 10 that it would seek to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees during the next fiscal year in response to a growing crisis that has shocked consciences around the world. That number would reflect a significant increase from the 1,293 admitted in fiscal year 2015, b