Father Greeley was perhaps most widely recognized for the more than 60 novels he wrote.

The patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Baghdad denounced a recent series of car bombings and shootings in cities in Iraq that left at least 54 people dead and dozens more injured. Patriarch Louis Sako said on May 20 that the current violence is between minority Sunni and majority Shiite Mu

In Rome on May 9, Sally Hodgdon of the United States, superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambery, was elected vice president of the International Union of Superiors General, a body that includes 1,900 religious orders of women worldwide. • Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York on May 13

At the end of 2011, the Catholic population worldwide reached 1.214 billion.

Human trafficking is so widespread that U.S. congregations of women religious are uniting in a nationwide effort to limit its reach. For years individual congregations have run human trafficking awareness programs regionally. Sister Margaret Nacke, of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia, Kan., sa

“Money has to serve, not to rule," Pope Francis said. " We have created new idols."