Catholic bishops and aid agencies criticized a move by European nations to scale down the rescue of migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean Sea, where hundreds drown each month attempting to reach Europe.“What we’re seeing is almost a nightmare vision. Any policy which causes people t

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila said the Synod of Bishops on the Family was more than a series of discussions on divorce and same-sex unions and that the impact of poverty on families, especially in Asia, was a major concern of participants. “Poverty is really affecting the Filipino fami

Seven months after a delegation of U.S. bishops quietly met with Iranian religious leaders, their efforts appear to be on track. At a program on Oct. 29 on the dialogue and the relevance of moral questions about nuclear weapons, Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, who met with Iranian ayato

Burials that are dignified and safe are urgently needed for Ebola victims in West Africa, where corpses are frequently left unattended for days and then thrown into graves without ceremony, a U.S. church aid official said.“So many people are dying that there has not been the capacity to respon

Recalling the words of St. John Paul II—“Don’t be afraid! Open your hearts wide to Christ”— Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J., of Ottawa urged Canadians to remain steadfast after a shooting that left a Canadian soldier dead on Oct. 22. • Twelve Chaldean religio

Bishop calls for stronger monitoring and transparency in coal mining practices.

President Obama’s promised executive actions to fix parts of the immigration system will not come until after the Nov. 4 elections, but some analysts are predicting anything he does will be treated contentiously, with legal challenges and calls for impeachment. Nevertheless, the possibility th

Stephanie Celustka prayed at Mass for an end to the Islamic State threat in the Middle East. The parishioner from San Diego’s St. Anne Catholic Church is among the 53 percent of Americans who said in a September Pew poll that they support a U.S. military campaign against ISIS, as the Islamic m

Pope Francis called for abolition of the death penalty as well as life imprisonment and denounced what he called a “penal populism” that promises to solve society’s problems by punishing crime instead of pursuing social justice. “It is impossible to imagine that states today

A collision over human rights appears inevitable at the U.N. Security Council after Japan and the European Union circulated a draft resolution in October that calls on the Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Forty-three countries have so far signed