Despite the long and illustrious history of the Catholic Church in Germany, in the late 19th century Catholics became the great Other to modernizing, secularizing forces.

Pope Benedict XVI said the fact that the critiques barely mentioned God proved his point.

Describing the Amazon rainforest as "vital for our planet," Pope Francis joined the regions bishops in praying for action to extinguish the massive fires burning there.

"'Look, Lord, I belonged to this association; I was a friend of that bishop, of that cardinal, of that priest.' No, titles do not count; they do not count."

The daily light show at St. Gabriel's in Toronto is not just aesthetically moving, writes Dean Dettloff. It is part of a church design that reminds us of human dependence on the earth.

“The Church is a family of families,” Pope Francis writes in “Amoris Laetitia.”