Catholic News Service

Pope Francis' @Pontifex Twitter accounts reached more than 40 million followers just a few months before the fifth anniversary of when Pope Benedict XVI launched the initiative.

Christians are never pessimistic, resigned or weak, thinking life is an unstoppable train careening out of control, Pope Francis said.

In many parts of the world women and girls to bear the burden of carrying out everyday chores for their families and communities, keeping many of them from getting even a basic education,  says the Vatican's United Nations nuncio.

The top leaders of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference and chair of the church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council met with Vatican officials to discuss issues emerging from national investigations into the abuse of minors.

Students in the Diocese of Charleston are trying to help victims of the three massive hurricanes that unleashed their fury on the U.S. mainland and islands in the Caribbean.

A Spanish cardinal defended his country's unity as a "moral good" and condemned "sedition and fraud" by secessionists, as politicians in Catalonia prepared to debate independence.

The Catholic Church's Code of Canon Law is an instrument that must serve the church's pastoral mission of bringing God's mercy to all and leading them to salvation, Pope Francis said.

The Legionaries of Christ pledged its ongoing commitment to renewal and reform as it released information about a former rector who has publicly acknowledged being the father of two children.

The Trump administration Oct. 6 issued interim rules expanding the exemption to the contraceptive mandate for religious employers, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor.

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.