Catholic News Service

Catholic News Service

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine authorities have arrested, detained and intend to deport a 71-year-old Australian nun for allegedly engaging in illegal political activities.
VATICAN – The church needs true prophets who not only speak the truth fearlessly, but also empathize with the suffering of their people, Pope Francis said.
VATICAN – Meeting with a top Muslim leader in Saudi Arabia, the Vatican's chief interreligious dialogue official called for the equal treatment of people of all religions, saying discrimination and double standards based on religious affiliation only increase Islamophobia and Christianophobia.
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad – The Catholic Church in Trinidad and Tobago has declared its full support for an April 12 High Court decision that paved the way for making sodomy legal in that country.
VATICAN – Pope Francis met with members of the preparatory council for the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon region, which will take place in Rome in October 2019.
VATICAN – Catholic universities are "called to be workshops of dialogue and encounter in the service of truth, justice and the defense of human dignity at every level," Pope Francis told a delegation from Pennsylvania's Villanova University.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was always a friend to South Africa's poor, said church leaders who took part in a two-week mourning period that culminated in her burial as a national hero.
VATICAN – Highlighting the plight of a seriously ill toddler in Great Britain and a severely brain-damaged man in France, Pope Francis called for greater respect for every patient's life and dignity.
ROME – After circling a massive, crumbling public housing complex on the outskirts of Rome, Pope Francis had an emotional encounter with the neighborhood's children.

VATICAN – Sharply criticizing a failure to find nonviolent means of bringing peace to Syria and other parts of the world, Pope Francis appealed to world leaders to work for justice and peace.