Defining Blessed Junípero Serra as a “working-class missionary,” Archbishop José H. Gómez of Los Angeles said the 18th-century Franciscan deserves to be made a saint and to have his record as a defender of native peoples made known. Pope Francis’ announcement that he will canoni

Caritas aid missions are reporting that villages in remote areas of Nepal have been utterly devastated by the earthquake. Speaking from Pokhari Danda in Gorkha, about seven miles from the epicenter, Stefen Teplan of Caritas Germany said: “Sixty percent of the village is destroyed. More than fo

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is banking on Pope Francis to be a unifying moral force to get the world onboard in the fight against global warming. He spoke at the Vatican on April 28 at an international gathering about the moral dimensions of climate change and sustainable development. “

Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a journalist and a longtime spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, died on April 28, succumbing to a recurring cancer. True to form, she transformed her last days into an opportunity for a final lesson in living with dignity and grace.She described her experi

The U.S. bishops on April 17 released an annual audit tracking the church’s response to the abuse of children by members of the clergy. During the 2014 audit year (July 1, 2013, through June 30, 2014), 37 allegations of abuse were current and 620 were made by adults who had been abused in the

Stefanie Tiefenbacher, 87, of the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood, was robbed and murdered in her bedroom in the small town of Ixopo, near Durban, South Africa. • An appearance by Sister Jeannine Gramick, censured for positions on homosexuality and same-sex marriage, at a Catholic chur