By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Courageously follow Jesus in seeking out the poor and sinners, and in making difficult sacrifices in order to help and heal others, Pope Francis said. Christians are called to confront the material, spiritual and moral destitution of “our brothers and sisters, …

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Catholic universities must give “uncompromising” and “unambiguous” witness to church teaching and defend themselves from all efforts to dilute their Catholic identity, Pope Francis said.

  Many men shun self-help books. In the same way that we don’t like to stop and ask for directions, all the more we don’t like to admit when we need help in a spiritual sense. That notion delayed my reading and reviewing of David N. Calvillo’s Real Men Pray …

By Francis Njuguna Catholic News Service NAIROBI, Kenya — While many Somali refugees wish to return home, just a small number have been able to do so because of ongoing violence in parts of their homeland, said Bishop Giorgio Bertin of Djibouti, apostolic administrator of Somalia’s only Catholic diocese, Mogadishu.

By Francis X. Rocca Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Thieves reportedly stole a relic of Blessed John Paul II from a country chapel 85 miles east of Rome. Italian media reported Jan. 27 that the relic, a piece of fabric soaked in Blessed John Paul’s blood, had disappeared over …

By Patricia Zapor Catholic News Service WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Supreme Court Jan. 24 issued a three-sentence order affirming — for the time being — an injunction blocking enforcement against the Little Sisters of the Poor and the Christian Brothers of a mandate to provide contraceptive coverage in employee health …

By Carol Zimmermann and Katie Talalas Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — The polar vortex couldn’t chill the ardor of thousands of participants who demonstrated their determination to continue speaking out against abortion at the annual March for Life and rally Jan. 22 in Washington. Temperatures went briefly into double digits …

By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — The winter storm that dealt a chilly body blow from the Great Plains to the East Coast may have rendered Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia unable to come to Washington to celebrate the Jan. 22 closing Mass of the annual National …

By Catholic News Service WASHINGTON  — For the second year in a row, the U.S. Catholic bishops are sponsoring “Nine Days for Life: Prayer, Penance and Pilgrimage,” planned for Jan. 18-26 this year, as part of several events marking the 41st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion virtually on …

By Patricia Zapor Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — Supreme Court justices Jan. 15 pressed attorneys about when it is constitutional to prohibit certain kinds of speech in a case over buffer zones around abortion clinics. In oral arguments in a case over a 35-foot buffer zone around Massachusetts Planned Parenthood …