Debt from college loans makes some men and women postpone joining a religious community, according to a survey of men and women professing final vows as members of a religious order. Ten percent of those who professed final vows in 2013 had an average amount of $31,000 in college debt and the averag

The cardinal who heads Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals said the Catholic Church is entering a “new era” and accused critics of the pope’s statements on economic injustice of failing to “understand reality.”“Francis wants to lead the church in the same dir

A Mexican bishop has rebuked the federal government for sending soldiers to seize the weapons of self-defense groups formed to fight off violent drug cartels and criminal gangs in the western state of Michoacán. Bishop Miguel Patino Velázquez of Apatzingán said the strategy was wrong and targeted

Testifying before the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, Vatican representatives acknowledged the horror of sexual abuse by members of the clergy and, under sometimes intense questioning, insisted the Vatican was serious about protecting children.Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican observ

A Pew Research Center study issued on Jan. 14 shows another increase in hostility toward religion by most of the world’s 198 nations. The share of countries with a high or very high level of social hostility involving religion reached a six-year peak in 2012, the study said. The number of nati

Bishops from North America, Europe and Africa called on international leaders to act immediately so people living in the Gaza Strip can have access to basic necessities.“Gaza is a man-made disaster, a shocking scandal, an injustice that cries out to the human community for a resolution,”