Reports that Pope Francis told an Argentine woman civilly married to a divorced man that she could receive Communion “cannot be confirmed as reliable,” said Federico Lombardi, S.J., the Vatican spokesman, on April 24. World media quickly picked up the story after an account of the phone

Canonizing two recent popes in the presence of his immediate predecessor, Pope Francis praised the new saints, John XXIII and John Paul II, as men of courage and mercy who responded to challenges of their time by modernizing the Catholic Church in fidelity to its ancient traditions. “They were

Pro-Russian protesters stormed government buildings in eastern Ukrainian cities.

South Sudan’s civil war has taken a brutal turn, despite appeals from the country’s church leaders to stop the violence. In the oil hub of Bentiu, rebels loyal to ousted Vice President Riek Machar, an ethnic Nuer, killed more than 200 civilians and wounded more than 400 in mid-April, the

An ecumenical prayer service called for healing on April 9 at Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church in Murrysville, Pa., after a 16-year-old student rampaged in the hallways of Franklin Regional High School near Pittsburgh, wounding 22. • Along with other leaders and organizations that defend the r

Pope Francis urging a peaceful, negotiated solution to the ongoing political crisis.

When the pope was Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, he dragged the hidden problem of human slavery into broad daylight, annually celebrating open-air Masses in the city’s Constitution Square for and with victims of human trafficking. Now, as leader of the universal church, Pope F

“I feel called to take responsibility for all the evil some priests...have committed and to ask forgiveness for the damage they’ve done [because of] the sexual abuse of children,” Pope Francis said, speaking at the International Catholic Child Bureau meeting in Rome on April 11. &l

Georgetown hosts dialogue between believers and nonbelievers on role of religion in society.

While comprehensive immigration reform remains stalled in Congress, members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops joined residents, migrants and advocates from both sides of the U.S./Mexico border in Nogales, Ariz., on April 1. There they celebrated Mass together, remembering thousands of migra