IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The role of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other bishops’ conferences around the world is “catholic” — working together to promote the church’s mission, but also “to support peacebuilding and human development throughout the world,” said Cardinal Pietro …

IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy of the Colombian Navy By Manuel Rueda BOGOTA, Colombia (CNS) — Pope Francis sent a handwritten letter to a Colombian soldier who lost his sight during the country’s civil war. The pope met Edwin Restrepo, a retired marine, during his September visit to Colombia. On Nov. 9, …

IMAGE: CNS photo/jason Szenes, EPA By VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis will celebrate the Catholic Church’s first World Day of the Poor Nov. 19 by celebrating a morning Mass with people in need and those who assist them. After Mass, he will offer lunch to 500 people in the …

By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The existence of nuclear weapons creates a false sense of security that holds international relations hostage and stifles peaceful coexistence, Pope Francis said. “The threat of their use as well as their very possession is to be firmly condemned,” the pope told …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz By WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 “is unacceptable” as currently written and it “contains many fundamental structural flaws that must be corrected,” said the chairmen of three committees of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. In a Nov. 9 …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn By Carol Zimmermann WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Nov. 5 deadly shootings at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, left many people wondering how something so horrific could happen in a place of worship. It also called to mind other shootings or attacks in recent …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Carlo Di Renzo, EPA By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis formally recognized the martyrdom of an Italian Consolata sister murdered in Somalia in 2006 and the martyrdom of a 25-year-old priest in Hungary in 1957. The Vatican announced the pope’s decisions Nov. 9, along with …

IMAGE: CNS/L’Osservatore Romano By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis recognized that Pope John Paul I, who served only 33 days as pope, lived the Christian virtues in a heroic way. The Vatican announced Pope Francis’ decision Nov. 9. It marks the first major step on the …

By Mark Pattison WASHINGTON (CNS) — It’s almost reached the level of cliche in American society: You ask someone why they don’t go to church, and they reply, “Oh, I’m spiritual but not religious.” But what does that mean? A survey conducted jointly by the Public Religion Research Institute and …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — St. Frances Cabrini, the missionary to Italian immigrants in the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s, “teaches us the path to handling the epochal phenomenon of migration by joining charity and justice,” Pope Francis said. …