Pope Francis said the assassination of "my confrere," a 75-year-old Dutch Jesuit in Syria, "filled me with deep sadness and made me think again of all the people who suffer and are dying in that martyred country."Jesuit Father Frans van der Lugt "arrived in Syria about 50 ye

Pope Francis will celebrate the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper at a Rome rehabilitation facility for the elderly and people with disabilities.He will preside over the Holy Thursday evening Mass and foot-washing ritual at the Father Carlo Gnocchi Foundation's Our Lady of Providence C

Ukrainian Catholic bishop warned his church could lose its legal status.

A 75-year-old Dutch Jesuit who refused to leave war-torn Syria instead staying in Homs to help the poor and homeless was beaten by armed men and killed with two bullets to the head according to an email sent by the Jesuits 39 Middle East province to the Jesuit headquarters in Rome Jesuit Father

More than a year after Scottish Cardinal Keith O'Brien admitted to sexual misconduct amid allegations by three priests and a former priest, the Vatican Congregation for Bishops is sending an investigator to the Archdiocese of St. Andrews and Edinburgh to collect testimony.A statement distributed

Linda LeMura, newly named president of Le Moyne College in Syracuse, is the first laywoman to be appointed president of a Jesuit college or university. The college, founded in 1946, is used to some firsts. It also was the first Jesuit school of higher education to open as a coeducational institution

The Italian bishops' conference encouraged its members to cooperate with civil authorities in cases of clerical sexual abuse, but said the bishops have no legal obligation to report abuse allegations to the police or other civil authorities.In addition, the new Italian church norms say the bisho

The chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace said he welcomed the possible release of a Senate intelligence committee report that says the CIA used torture techniques in interrogating some terror suspects after 9/11."It is time for the United States to take

As Rwanda marks the 20th anniversary of genocide, Pope Francis urges reconciliation.

Repeated references to persecution of Christians, "usually referring only to what Christians suffer at the hands of criminals claiming to be Muslims, plays into the hands of extremists," said Catholic leaders in the Holy Land."In the name of truth, we must point out that Christians ar