Officials had only confirmed two deaths by that afternoon, but residents and volunteers feared the number would rise. Water and mud swept over the rural area of one of Brazil's most famous historic cities, Mariana, leaving a trail of destruction.

Among the plaintiffs are the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Archdiocese of Washington, Priests for Life and Texas Baptist University.

The president said that America is now a global leader in taking serious action to fight climate change. “And frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership. And that’s the biggest risk we face—not acting.”

"We would never allow this to happen if this were any other physical illness," said Kennedy, who represented a congressional district in Rhode Island for 16 years before stepping down in 2011.

Girard did not just apply mimetic theory; he internalized it. He manifested humility, peace and even a simple holiness.

The positions taken by the Roman Catholic Church on divorce, remarriage and communion are not self-evident, but the product of numerous interpretive moves.

We realized in the new encyclical, "Laudato Si,'" what people haven’t talked about much is that Pope Francis has over 30 paragraphs that talk about politics and the role of politics. He speaks about creating an economy of inclusion. We realized that you can’t have an economy of inclusion without a politics of inclusion.

The broadcast networks are lucky to have two or three new shows make it to a second season.

“Instead, when the church is tepid, closed in on itself, businesslike, it cannot be said to be a church that serves."

The last day of life is like those that precede it. Either we open ourselves to the mystery or we withdraw into the citadel of the self.

Yitzhak Rabin warned about the growing threat of right-wing extremism, especially with regard to Israeli society.

It was all the more gut-wrenching for being so good a film and for telling its story so carefully and fairly.

Matt Malone, S.J. offers a reflection from Javier, the birthplace of St. Francis Xavier. Visit our special pilgrimage web site to follow their trip.

This is the first time the U.S. public has been able to read the fine print of a deal that will govern issues related to commerce, intellectual property and human and labor rights for 40 percent of the global economy—if it clears substantial hurdles being erected in Washington.

While Francis has hoped to set an example, rejecting the pomp of a papal palace for modest living quarters, Curia cardinals are said to live in “princely dwellings” around 10 times the size of the pope’s residence. One Italian monsignor allegedly expanded his own apartment by breaking down a wall into the home of his neighbor, an elderly priest who was in the hospital at the time.

The bishops did not downplay those issues which still divide Lutherans and Catholics, but wanted to “work from the vantage point of where we agree rather than those things which divide us.”

The Vatican Publishing House, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, published the Italian version of that final synod report without the results of the voting on each paragraph, against Pope Francis' directive.

Dr. Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, involved in Vatileaks 2 with Spanish monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, is released from prison.

Cardinal Turkson said the measure of success for the Paris summit on climate change, which begins Nov. 30, is “the extent to which people and groups are coming on board.” He noted there is substantial public awareness about “what is at stake.”

After decades of struggle for tertiary education and political liberation, a new generation remains trapped in what is now a kind of "democratic poverty." Democracy has not delivered the goods.