Thousands of children are forced every day to serve in armed gangs or armies as combatants, spies or in sexual servitude.

“Dear friends of the United States, Mexico needs your help to stop this terrible violence that we’re suffering,” President Felipe Calderón said.

Famine and state-building in Somalia is a top priority for the new Caritas Internationalis secretary general, Michel Roy.

The city of Homs has now endured almost four weeks of Syrian army attacks with artillery and heavy weapons.

Support for a religious exemption to the contraceptive mandate in the U.S. health reform plan is stronger among Catholics than among the general population.

María del Mar Muñoz-Visoso was named executive director of the Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church.