IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Cindy Wooden MALMO, Sweden (CNS) — The sheet of ice and the penalty boxes were gone from Malmo Arena Oct. 31 as Catholics and Lutherans filled the stands and promised to work together for peace — particularly in Syria — and for justice — especially for …

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Cindy Wooden LUND, Sweden (CNS) — Urging Catholics and Lutherans to take decisive steps toward unity, Pope Francis nevertheless offered no new openings to the idea of sharing Communion before full unity is achieved. “We Christians will be credible witnesses of mercy to the extent that …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Remo Casilli, Reuters By Junno Arocho Esteves ROME (CNS) — Priests in central Italy were instructed to celebrate Mass outdoors following another devastating earthquake that rocked the region and brought one its most spiritually and historically significant churches tumbling down. Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia-Citta della Pieve advised …

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Cindy Wooden MALMO, Sweden (CNS) — Under a thick gray sky, Pope Francis was welcomed to Sweden with a small formal ceremony, which conveyed by its brevity that the trip was not a formal state visit, but had another purpose. Flying to Malmo Oct. 31, Pope …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn By Carol Zimmermann WASHINGTON (CNS) — Builders, church leaders, choir members and journalists gathered atop eight floors of scaffolding — 159 feet high — in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Oct. 28 for the blessing of the workspace where a new …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Mohammed Badra, Reuters By Rhina Guidos WASHINGTON (CNS) — There is only one word to describe the images coming out of Syria as the conflict advances: apocalyptic. Aleppo, once Syria’s largest city and once known as its jewel, sits in rubble, but more tragically so do its people. …

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — His toes curl in pain, his veins bulge from exertion, his bony chest heaves in the last throes of death. The newly restored 14th-century wooden crucified Christ “has been resurrected” from obscurity — once caked over with dark paint and …

By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis said he wanted his trip to Sweden to focus purely on promoting Christian unity, although in the end, he added a day to the visit so he could respond to the “fervent request” by the country’s small Catholic community that he …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Chaz Muth By Donis Tracy BRIGHTON, Mass. (CNS) — Rapid growth in the number of men entering St. John’s Seminary in Brighton to study for the priesthood has prompted the Boston Archdiocese to buy back space from Boston College to accommodate the increase. Msgr. James Moroney, seminary rector, …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Laura Elizabeth Pohl, By Rhina Guidos BALTIMORE (CNS) — Many mornings Carolyn Y. Woo has arrived to the relative solitude of a chapel at the Baltimore headquarters of Catholic Relief Services, and as the bustling city comes to life, she has looked inside the serene space for a …