Faith
Support Catholic religious in their mission, ministries, pope says
By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News ServiceVATICAN CITY - During the Year of Consecrated Life, all Catholics are called to thank God for the gifts members of religious orders have given the Church and the world, to join them in prayer and find practical ways to support them and their ministries, Pope Francis said.
Changing times may call for changes in religious orders, pope says
By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News ServicePope Francis urges Europeans to reject ‘throwaway culture’
By Josephine McKenna, Religion News ServiceSTRASBOURG, France - Pope Francis has urged European leaders to reject a “throwaway culture” that treats people like “cogs in a machine” too easily discarded through abortion and euthanasia.
Church launches Year for Consecrated Life
By Laura Ieraci, Catholic News ServiceVATICAN CITY - The first Sunday of Advent, Nov. 30, marking the start of the new liturgical year, will also inaugurate the Year for Consecrated Life.
Pope, creating six new saints, uses newly abbreviated formula
By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News ServiceVATICAN CITY - Using a newly simplified rite, Pope Francis proclaimed six new saints and praised them for the love and self-giving with which they served God and built up his kingdom by serving the poor and needy.
Create jobs, don't just expand welfare, handouts, Pope says
By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News ServiceVATICAN CITY - The Catholic Church calls for the creation of job opportunities and the recognition of the dignity of the poor, not simply for more handouts or expanded government welfare programs, Pope Francis said.
Italy promises to return 23 million euros to Vatican bank
By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News ServiceVATICAN CITY - In what the Vatican bank described as recognition that it has established serious measures to prevent money laundering, it announced the Italian government has promised to return 23 million euros (U.S. $29 million) that had been blocked for more than three years.
Pope condemns attack on Jerusalem synagogue, urges end to violence
By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News ServiceVATICAN CITY - Pope Francis condemned the "unacceptable episodes of violence" in Jerusalem, episodes that "do not spare even places of worship," after an attack in a synagogue left four worshippers, a policeman and the two attackers dead.
Sexual revolution is destroying families, Russell Moore tells Vatican conference
By Josephine McKenna, Religion News ServiceVATICAN CITY - Prominent U.S. evangelicals Russell Moore and Rick Warren blasted the sexual revolution at a Vatican conference Nov. 18 and said it is destroying the institution of marriage.
Catholic defense of family means aiding migrant families, bishop says
By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News ServiceVATICAN CITY - Migrants are among the poorest, most vulnerable people in the world, and a church committed to defending strong families must be particularly engaged in assisting migrant couples and their children, a U.S. bishop told a Vatican conference.
Pope warns against the ‘false sense of compassion’ in euthanasia
By Josephine McKenna, Religion News ServiceVATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has warned doctors and ethicists on several hot-button social issues, attacking abortion, embryonic stem cell research and euthanasia as “playing with life” and “a sin against God.”