By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service  VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The head of the Vatican office promoting new evangelization said that while he does not like the terms “Francis effect” or “Francis bump,” it is true that “Pope Francis has touched the hearts and minds of many people.” Archbishop Rino …

By Francis X. Rocca Catholic News Service  VATICAN CITY (CNS) — U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke and U.S. pro-life leaders joined tens of thousands of demonstrators in Italy’s third annual March for Life May 12, which ended with a personal greeting from Pope Francis. According to organizers, some 30,000 marched …

By Francis X. Rocca Catholic News Service  VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis will meet slum-dwellers and powerful politicians, pay homage at a Marian shrine and celebrate with participants at World Youth Day when he visits Brazil in late July. The Argentine pope’s first international trip, which will take him …

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service  VATICAN CITY (CNS) — For the first time in history, the Vatican is home to a pope and a retired pope. Pope Francis welcomed his predecessor, retired Pope Benedict XVI, to the Vatican May 2 outside the convent remodeled for the 86-year-old retired pontiff …

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service  VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Going to confession isn’t like heading off to be tortured or punished, nor is it like going to the dry cleaners to get out a stain, Pope Francis said in a morning Mass homily. “It’s an encounter with Jesus” who …

By Steve Trosley The Catholic Telegraph  “A member of the Cardinal’s staff told me that attending one of his staff meetings was like watching a one-man think tank,” Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr said Wednesday evening after the Gardner Lecture in Moral Theology at the Athenaeum. Cardinal Francis E. George discussed — in …

By Catholic News Service  A glance around the nation and world in Catholic news. Marriage is not for government to ‘define or redefine,’ says bishop WILMINGTON, Del. (CNS) — Marriage “is a unique relationship between a man and a woman” and it’s not the government’s place to “define or redefine” …

By Catholic News Service  VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis responded to the bombings in Boston by invoking peace for the souls of the departed, consolation for the suffering and strength for emergency and medical personnel. In a message sent to Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone …

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 …

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. …