Havana’s Ladies in White asked the Catholic Church to mediate on their behalf with Cuba’s President Raul Castro to counter rising political harassment.

The Vatican forcefully denied undermining efforts by Irish bishops to protect children from sexual abuse.

Zhang Qingli, the Communist Party official who was in charge of Tibet during the crackdown on Buddhist protesters in 2008, is now the new party chief in Hebei.

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna is not playing “a game of chicken” with priests calling for reforms in church practice.

The report was commissioned by the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph to examine its procedures for assessing allegations of sexual abuse.

“The economic recession of the past few years effectively wiped out all of the gains we made in cutting child poverty in the late 1990s.”