The Catholic community continues efforts to prevent the needs of the poor from being heaped onto the pile of expendables.

President Benigno Aquino said that he would risk excommunication to support a law that would allow artificial contraception in the Philippines.

With more legislatures taking immigration-related problems into state hands, President Obama renewed his commitment to a federal approach to reform.

The Vatican's moral advocacy has provoked criticism and even derision among some Italians.

The Vatican and many of the Latin-rite bishops of India are not treating the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church with justice, an Indian bishop said.

Some 1.5 billion people live in countries affected by repeated cycles of political and criminal violence, according to a World Bank report.