O unnamed & only son too soon slipped from tender clutch of unripe body

Pope Francis had strong words on Oct. 30 for Catholic priests and bishops who “defamed” the assassinated archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero. Going off script during a meeting with 500 pilgrims from El Salvador, Pope Francis said, “The martyrdom of Archbishop Romero was not fu

With dramatic flair, the church in November urges us to pray for the dead as nature undergoes its annual decline.

Voters may be contributing to the gridlock and dysfunction they routinely complain about.

Perhaps that is why God eventually invented people, because he loves stories.

“Spotlight,” in theaters nationwide, is a sensitive exploration of the ravages of sexual abuse upon an entire community.

Much of the reporting on immigration reform focuses on the undocumented migrants—some 11 million in all—whose lives are in limbo. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has identified another victim of delay: state and local government.

Cardinal Turkson noted the pope’s concern that “the more that people live through their digital tools, the less they may learn ‘how to live wisely, to think deeply and to love generously.’”

"I expect that Pius will one day be named a saint, but I also do not expect that to end the debate."

Matt Malone, S.J. offers his first reflection from Loyola. Visit our special pilgrimage web site to follow their trip and submit prayer requests.

"The trend is like a mix of religion and politics," Cardinal Charles Bo said, raising fresh questions about the country's future at a crucial point on Myanmar's journey from military dictatorship to a functioning democracy.

The ACLU deploys a relic of 19th century anti-Catholicism to fight school choice.

"We cannot ignore that we are co-responsible for all around the world," Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga said. "We cannot be closed down in our own borders and looking only to our own places because all of us are citizens of the same earth and all of us have a common home."

National politics are polarized along both partisan and racial lines, making it difficult to assemble a broad coalition to do anything.

But bishops worry ongoing political strife and ethnic incitement could blight the visit.

The "financial precariousness of most students should not be an obstacle to accessing education," said the national executive of the South African Council of Churches, of which the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference is a member.

Pope Francis is expected to stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, the world's most visited Marian shrine. States mentioned for visits include Michoacan to the west of Mexico City, where outward migration has been strong for generations.

"In principle, it was accepted by the synod," the pope said, according to Eugenio Scalfari, a co-founder and former editor of La Repubblica, an Italian daily. "This is the basic result: the evaluations of the facts are entrusted to confessors, but at the end of the processes—whether quick or slow—all the divorced who ask for it will be admitted."

Pope Francis said that women "must be protected and helped in this dual task: the right to work and the right to motherhood."