Although the number of Central American migrants entering the U.S. has diminished in recent months, thousands remain incarcerated within secure detention facilities across the country without hope for release.After being apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border, families and children as young as 12 day

Lauren Hill, a Mount St. Joseph University freshman who gained international attention when she pursued her dream of playing college basketball even as her inoperable brain cancer advanced, died overnight April 10. She was 19.She suffered from a fatal brain cancer called diffuse intrinsic pontine gl

The U.S. government April 8 deported retired Salvadoran Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, a former director of the Salvadoran national guard, to El Salvador.In early 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a deportation order for Casanova and retired Salvadoran Gen. Jose Guillermo Garcia, the

An hourlong meeting April 11 between U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro marked the first such personal encounter between the leaders of the two neighboring countries since 1958.The session held during the Summit on the Americas, in which Cuba participated for the first time,

A new Kansas law banning an abortion procedure that results in dismemberment of an unborn child "has the power to transform the landscape of abortion policy in the United States," said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life.Gov. Sam Brownback signed the measure April 7 during a

Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, cardinal of the people, died April 8 in Montreal's Marie-Clarac Hospital.The 78-year-old cardinal, who served as Montreal's archbishop for 22 years, was diabetic, and his health had been in decline for several months. He was moved to palliative care March 24.Ca

Pope Francis called on the people of Colombia to work toward peace, and maintain hope that negotiations will succeed, according to the Vatican secretary of state.The pope urged them to "not lose energy or hope" at such a crucial time in the peace process and encouraged them "to contin

As the trial of Boston Marathon bombing defendant Dzhokhar Tsarnaev went to the jury April 6, the Catholic bishops of Massachusetts released a statement reiterating the church's teaching on the death penalty.If convicted, Tsarnaev could be sentenced to death or to life without the possibility of

More than 1,000 people packed into a tent in a refugee camp in Irbil, Iraq, for the Easter vigil Mass celebrated by Italian Cardinal Fernando Filoni, former nuncio to Iraq and Pope Francis' personal representative to those forced to flee the fury of Islamic State militants.The cardinal, who brou

The president of the Kenyan bishops' conference called on Easter worshippers to commit themselves to praying for peace and security in their homeland after militants attacked a college campus days earlier.Cardinal John Njue of Nairobi also condemned the April 2 attack by the Somalia-based al-Sha