By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis reaffirmed the Vatican’s call for reform of the U.S.-based Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Archbishop Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told the U.S.-based nuns’ group that he had “recently discussed the

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Catholics need to know that marrying someone from a different Christian community or, even more so, from a different religion will create extra challenges in their marriage, but church leaders also must learn how to help people in mixed marriages

Staff Report UPDATE: The Vatican denied Wednesday that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI sufferers from any serious illness other than the problems associated with old age. A Newsmax report claims that Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi denied reports in a Spanish newspaper that the former pope was facing any specific illness.

By Catholic News Service  WASHINGTON (CNS) — An April 5 decision by a New York federal judge to lift age limits on purchases of over-the-counter emergency contraceptives should be “appealed and overturned,” according to an official of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops. “No public health consideration justifies the unregulated

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service  VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis reaffirmed the importance of responding decisively to the problem of the sexual abuse of minors by members of the clergy and called on the Vatican office dealing with suspected cases to continue carrying out its mandate. During an

By Catholic News Service  HOUSTON (CNS) — Catholic educators opened 28 new schools and closed or consolidated 148 others during the 2012-13 school year, according to a report issued by the National Catholic Educational Association. The NCEA has ranked the Archdiocese of Cincinnati as the sixth-largest Catholic school district in the

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When hundreds of thousands of young Catholics gather with Pope Francis in Rio de Janeiro in the summer, reflections on safeguarding the environment will be part of the program. Like earlier editions of World Youth Day, the July celebration in

By Joseph Austin Catholic News Service WASHINGTON (CNS) — The University of Dallas, an independent Catholic university, has a “flavor that you can’t get certainly at secular institutions,” president Thomas Keefe told Catholic News Service. “We are very clear in our specific mission distinctiveness” to promote the Catholic identity of

FOR THE MOST UP TO DATE NEWS ON POPE FRANCIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, click here. By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service  VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis called on the world’s priests to bring the healing power of God’s grace to everyone in need, to stay close to the

By Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service  WASHINGTON (CNS) — Thousands of people who gathered at one end of the National Mall March 26 in support of traditional marriage took their message to the U.S. Supreme Court as they walked and held aloft placards with signs saying: “Kids do best with