Catholic News Service

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, blasted unnamed "career staff" at the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development for inaction that he said will lead to further genocide of Christians, Yezidis and other religious minorities in Iraq at the hands of Islamic State militants.

Acknowledging how often the Catholic Church failed to protect children from sexual abuse, Pope Francis pledged "to work strenuously and with foresight for the protection of minors and their dignity," including online.

Pretending there are no differences between men and women or using technology to change a person's sex is not the answer to overcoming the subjugation of women, Pope Francis said.

In order to survive, the Catholic Church in China must be realistic and seek a stance of mutual tolerance with the government, said a 90-year-old Chinese Jesuit priest.

Moral and financial reasons require the Pentagon to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace reiterated in a letter.

Pope Francis has invited Christian and non-Christian young people from around the world to a meeting in preparation for the Synod of Bishops on youth in 2018.

Child abuse is not only a crime, it is sacrilege, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, said at a world congress promoting the protection of children online.

Real hope lies in the proclamation of Jesus' death and resurrection, not just with one's words but also in deeds, Pope Francis said.

Noor Hashem looks weak and worried as he waits in line with fellow Rohingya to see a doctor for his kidney problems at a clinic run by the international medical group Doctors Without Borders.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, Arizona, and named as his successor Bishop Edward Weisenburger.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s support of nonviolence to bring about social change applies as much to today's society as it did 60 years ago, speakers said.

Obedient to his father, Jesus was patient with his sinning, fearful disciples throughout his lonely journey toward the cross, Pope Francis said.

Marriage ministry needs to be done by married couples because priests have "no credibility in this area," Cardinal Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, told a church gathering.

The nation has experienced "yet another night filled with unspeakable terror," said the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington.

 Saying he was speaking "on behalf of our country and the children whose lives are at stake," Cardinal Timothy Dolan urged members of the U.S. House to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

The U.S. Catholic bishops and other faith groups are objecting to reports that the Trump administration will limit the number of refugees the United States accepts to 45,000 for the upcoming fiscal year.

An arrest warrant has been issued in Canada for Msgr. Carlo Capella, the Vatican diplomat who already was the subject of a Vatican criminal investigation involving child pornography.

Catholic families in a cross-community housing project in Belfast, Northern Ireland, have been forced to leave their homes after a sectarian threat, thought to be from Protestant paramilitaries.

A Georgia death-row inmate's scheduled execution late Sept. 26 was stayed by the Supreme Court just hours before he was to have been put to death.

The Canadian bishops will not publish their new policy for the protection of minors before 2018, said Bishop Anthony Mancini of Halifax-Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.