Pope Francis' advisers start first draft toward document overhauling Vatican
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis' international Council of Cardinals has begun creating the first draft of a new apostolic constitution that would implement a major reform of the Vatican bureaucracy.
Vatican: Pope Francis not under threat from Islamic State militants
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis faces no specific threat from Islamic State militants and will not be adding extra security measures on his one-day trip to Albania next week, the Vatican said Monday (Sept 15).
Pope Francis: People have yet to learn that war is madness, indifference a sin
VATICAN CITY - When will people ever learn that war is madness and conflicts are only resolved by forgiveness, Pope Francis asked.
At wedding, Pope Francis says spouses make each other better men and women
VATICAN CITY - Presiding over the wedding of 20 couples in St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis celebrated marriage as the union of a man and woman playing complementary roles during their common journey through life.
Was Pope Benedict XVI right about Islam?
On Sept. 12 eight years ago, Pope Benedict XVI delivered a lecture at the University of Regensburg in Bavaria in which he seemed to diagnose Islam as a religion inherently flawed by fanaticism.
Pope Francis to address European Parliament Nov. 25
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis will address the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Nov. 25.
God does not play by human rules
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) Sept. 21 (Isaiah 55:6-9; Psalm 145; Philippians 1:20-24, 27; Matthew 20:1-16)
It is often said that God is merely a projection of human wishes and fears. An ancient Greek philosopher once said that if cows, horses and lions had hands and could draw, they would depict gods that looked just like them.
Couples with kids, cohabitating are among those marrying at papal Mass
VATICAN CITY - Among the men and women Pope Francis was set to unite in marriage were Catholics who have been living together as well as couples who already have children.
Fearing our own maturity
Our bodies and our souls each have their separate aging process, and they aren’t always in harmony. Thus, T.E. Laurence, in The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, makes this comment about someone: “He feared his maturity as it grew upon him, with its ripe thought and finished art, but which lacked the poetry of boyhood to make living a full end of life ... his rangeful, mortal soul was aging faster than his body, was going to die before it, like most of ours.”
Pope Francis to visit Turkey in November
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis will visit Turkey in November, eight years after his predecessor, Benedict XVI, made a landmark visit to the predominantly Muslim country.
Sistine Chapel feels fallout from 'Francis effect' on attendance
VATICAN CITY - The "Francis effect" has spilled over into the Sistine Chapel, bringing a surge in visitors but also increasing risks to maintenance of what Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums, calls "the world's chapel."