Christ calls us to "travel the long, difficult, but liberating road to reconciliation."

The church must help people recognize "how beautiful, true and good it is to start a family."

Pope Francis met for the third time in late February with his international Council of Cardinals, an eight-member group advising him on the reform of the Vatican bureaucracy and other issues. The Feb. 17-19 meetings focused on financial and bureaucratic matters even as the council was rumored to be

A woman religious and two Catholic peace activists were sentenced to prison for several years for breaking into a Tennessee nuclear weapons facility and defacing its walls in July 2012.Sister Megan Rice, 84, of Washington, a member of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, was sentenced on Feb. 18 to

Violent confrontations between protesters and police left more than two dozen people dead.

Reforms are aimed at forcing millions of people capable of work off unemployment benefits.

Law requires children to be "conscious of their decision" after "repeated requests to die."

A U.N. committee insists that the Vatican publish detailed statistics on clerical sexual abuse.

Christians in Egypt and Syria threatened by civil unrest and extremist violence.

Study aimed explain sharp decline in the number of religious women in the United States.