Meeting on March 20 with steelworkers in Terni, Italy, Pope Francis said solidarity is too often treated as “a dirty word,” yet the only way out of the global financial crisis is to put people first. • The new Muslim mayor of Nazareth, Ali Sallam, said on March 17 that it was his &l

Representatives of the Catholic, Anglican and Muslim worlds launch Global Freedom Network.

Muslims are being “cleansed” from the western part of the Central African Republic, and thousands of civilians risk being killed “right before our eyes,” the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, António Guterres, told the U.N. Security Council on March 6. U.N. Emer

After 16 homicides in San Mateo County, Calif., last year, grieving mothers and the members of St. Francis of Assisi in East Palo Alto, walked their neighborhood on March 8, praying the Stations of the Cross for an end to gang violence. • More than 35,000 people have signed an Internet petition

A Ukrainian Catholic priest in Crimea said church members are alarmed and frightened by the Russian military occupation and fear their communities might be outlawed again if Russian rule becomes permanent. The Rev. Mykhailo Milchakovskyi, a pastor in Kerch, Ukraine, described the atmosphere as tense

As the devastating conflict in Syria began its fourth year on March 15, the Catholic bishops of Syria called for a cease-fire and for combatants to return to negotiations in Geneva to end the suffering in the war-torn country. The bishops encouraged the faithful during Lent, to “fast and show