Fides, the Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies, reports that 22 pastoral care workers were killed worldwide in 2013, almost double the number who were killed the year before. For the fifth consecutive year, Latin America had the highest number of such deaths. In 2013, 19 priests,

United Nations peacekeepers and officials struggled to contain two ongoing crises in Africa as the New Year began. Hastily arranged peace talks to end the sudden conflict in South Sudan began in Ethiopia as the world’s newest nation sank deeper into a de facto civil war. Meanwhile, in the neig

In the first nine-and-a-half months of Pope Francis’ pontificate, more than 6.6 million people participated in papal events at the Vatican—three times the number who visited during all of 2012. • Antonios Aziz Mina, the Coptic Catholic bishop of Giza, Egypt, said terrorist attacks w

The U.S. public shows little appetite for making the spending cuts often discussed as part of a “grand bargain” on the federal budget, according to a national survey by the Pew Research Center conducted in December 2013. The survey found that majorities say it is more important to mainta

The Gospel cannot be proclaimed “with inquisitorial beatings of condemnation. No, the Gospel is preached gently, with fraternity and love,” with an open heart “always longing” for God, like that of St. Peter Faber, Pope Francis told 350 fellow Jesuits at the Church of the Ges

UN peacekeepers struggle to contain two ongoing crises in Africa as the New Year begins.

This morning, Pope Francis celebrated Mass in the mother church of the Jesuit order, the church of the Gesù, to mark the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus and to give thanks for the enrollment of the first Jesuit to be ordained a priest, Peter Faber, S.J., in the list of the saints. In his

UNICEF reports that in the ongoing violence that has gripped Bangui the capital of the Central African Republic since early December attacks against children have sunk to a vicious new low with at least two children beheaded and one of them mutilated ldquo We are witnessing unprecedented levels

The United Nations moved on the diplomatic and military fronts on Dec. 30 to douse the flames of conflict in South Sudan, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging the government to free political prisoners to facilitate talks with rebels and the Security Council holding a crisis meeting o

In 2013 the use of the death penalty continued its steady decline by almost every measure, according to a report released in December by the Death Penalty Information Center. Executions in the United States dropped by about 10 percent from 2012, to 39 from 43, marking only the second time in the pas