Catholic News Service

Jacob Zuma's resignation as president of South Africa is long overdue, the country's bishops said, noting that his presidency fostered corruption and dereliction of duty at all levels of government.

The Vatican denied that retired Pope Benedict XVI has a degenerative neurological disease or paralyzing condition after his brother, 94-year-old Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, told a magazine that Benedict had a debilitating disease. 

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski urged community members to come together "to support one another in this time of grief" after a shooting rampage Feb. 14 at a Broward County high school left at least 17 people dead.

To ignore the needs of another person is to ignore the needs of a brother or sister, Cardinal Tagle said.

Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, editor of the influential Rome-based magazine La Civilta Cattolica and a close associate of Pope Francis, outlined the pope's "diplomacy of mercy" that he has used with both political leaders and their citizens throughout his papacy during a Feb. 13 talk at Georgetown University.

The upcoming 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. prompted Baltimore Archbishop William Lori to write a pastoral letter on the civil rights leader's principles of nonviolence.

Lent is a time for Christians to get their hearts in sync with the heart of Jesus, Pope Francis said.

Everyone who goes to Mass has the right to hear the word of God in all its fullness, which means it must be read well and explained well with "fervor," Pope Francis said.

As Syria's war soon enters its eighth year, many decry the recent escalation in the conflict in the country's north, between Turkey and the Kurds and in the south, between Iran and Israel.

A Trump administration report on its reinstatement of the "Mexico City Policy" shows that nongovernmental organizations "are willing and able to comply with this policy," said the U.S. bishops' pro-life committee chairman.

The case involving the transfer of the remains of Archbishop Fulton Sheen from New York to Peoria, Illinois, has been sent back to the original court for an evidentiary hearing.

Formalizing their unity in the intimate setting of the chapel of the papal residence, Pope Francis and Melkite Patriarch Joseph Absi concelebrated Mass together.

Waiting for a verdict on allegations that he sexually abused several boys, Archbishop Anthony Apuron of Agana, Guam, attended one of Pope Francis' weekly general audiences in February.

Prosperous nations where foreign women are forced into prostitution need to drop their hypocrisy and "face the idea that they are part of the problem, rather than turning away, proclaiming their innocence," Pope Francis said.

For the first time in six years, Pax Christi USA has a bishop president.

Just as people are "struggling to survive" in Congo, aid agencies are struggling to meet their needs, said Chiara Nava, an advisor to an agency focusing on education and child protection.

An Indiana bishop said he supports the University of Notre Dame's Feb. 7 decision to stop coverage of abortion-inducing drugs and add natural family planning services to the school's health plan, but he said coverage of artificial birth control by a Catholic institution is unacceptable.

A devotion to and meditation on the five wounds of Christ "may sound a bit medieval," but anyone who recognizes he or she is wounded will find mercy and healing in the passion of Christ, Pope Francis said.

Even though the Catholic Church has all the necessary norms and laws in place to safeguard minors from abuse by clergy, the problem continues to be a lack in understanding or caring about those rules and guidelines and applying them effectively, said one Jesuit expert.

Since China's new regulations for religious affairs took effect Feb. 1, minors have been banned from entering places of worship in several regions.