Pope Francis expressed the hope that the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that came into effect on Sunday, Jan. 19, “would be respected immediately by all the parties [involved]” and would lead to “the release of all the hostages” and the rapid provision of urgently needed humanitarian aid to the population of Gaza.

In "The Gospel of Peace," the Rev. John Dear embarks on a kind of spiritual experiment: interpreting the three synoptic Gospels through the lens of nonviolent activism and uncovering connections between first-century Judea and modern-day America.

A new report published in the U.K. medical journal The Lancet indicates that far from exaggerating the human suffering in Gaza, the ministry has likely underestimated the true number of the dead by as much as 41 percent.

Warning of “the increasingly concrete threat of a world war,” Pope Francis called for “the diplomacy of hope” in his address to the ambassadors of the 184 countries that have diplomatic relations with the Holy See.

Top reports from America's “Dispatches” department include looks at conflict, migration and geopolitics through a Catholic filter.

Pope Francis prayed that the Jubilee Year may become “a season of hope” and reconciliation in a world at war and suffering humanitarian crises as he opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve.