A new Web resource at www.sj2014.net, commemorating the restoration of the Society of Jesus in 1814, was launched in January. • New Mexico’s Catholic bishops said they strongly oppose the “authorization of assisted suicide by the state” after a court in Albuquerque ruled on Ja

A Vatican study group is urging world leaders to stop the flow of arms into Syria and to press for an immediate and complete cease-fire there without political preconditions. “Political transformation is needed,” its written statement said, but “it is not a precondition for ending

United Nations peacekeepers and officials struggled to contain two ongoing crises in Africa as the New Year began. Hastily arranged peace talks to end the sudden conflict in South Sudan began in Ethiopia as the world’s newest nation sank deeper into a de facto civil war. Meanwhile, in the neig

In the first nine-and-a-half months of Pope Francis’ pontificate, more than 6.6 million people participated in papal events at the Vatican—three times the number who visited during all of 2012. • Antonios Aziz Mina, the Coptic Catholic bishop of Giza, Egypt, said terrorist attacks w

The U.S. public shows little appetite for making the spending cuts often discussed as part of a “grand bargain” on the federal budget, according to a national survey by the Pew Research Center conducted in December 2013. The survey found that majorities say it is more important to mainta

The Gospel cannot be proclaimed “with inquisitorial beatings of condemnation. No, the Gospel is preached gently, with fraternity and love,” with an open heart “always longing” for God, like that of St. Peter Faber, Pope Francis told 350 fellow Jesuits at the Church of the Ges