An hourlong meeting April 11 between U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro marked the first such personal encounter between the leaders of the two neighboring countries since 1958.The session held during the Summit on the Americas, in which Cuba participated for the first time,

As congressional opponents of the ldquo Lausanne framework rdquo agreement with Iran prepped for Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings tomorrow proponents of the deal meant to hamstring Iran rsquo s purported nuclear weapons development got some help today from the U S bishops Las Cruces

Vatican Radio: The Church is a place of "openness" where people should say things with frankness.  That’s what Pope Francis said at the morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican on Monday.  The Pontiff added that only the Holy Spirit is able to change our attitude, th

Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, Pope Francis said atrocities from the past have to be recognized -- not hidden or denied -- for true reconciliation and healing to come to the world.However, Turkey's top government officials criticized the pope's use of the term

Mercy is what makes God perfect and all-powerful, Pope Francis said in his document officially proclaiming the 2015-2016 extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy."If God limited himself to only justice, he would cease to be God, and would instead be like human beings who ask merely that the law be resp

Up to 1,500 migrants rescued over Easter weekend

April 12, 2015St. Peter's BasilicaPope Francis celebrated Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday morning - the Octave of Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday, sometimes called Quasimodo Sunday after the first word of the entrance antiphon, which sings of how we are to desire, like newborn babes, t

Eight years of a Democratic White House is a disadvantage, but not necessarily a fatal one

Turkish authorities protest the pope's characterization of the mass killing

ldquo This is a time for the Church to rediscover the meaning of the mission entrusted to her by the Lord on the day of Easter to be a sign and an instrument of the Father rsquo s mercy rdquo Pope Francis said in St Peter rsquo s Basilica on April 11 after publishing the Bull of Indiction for t

It has been very discouraging to watch the acrimonious debate over religious liberty in Indiana and Arkansas. The passage of a Religious Freedom Restoration Act in these states sparked widespread protests over possible discrimination and exposed a deep divide in our nation on questions of marriage,

In 2004, with the divorce rate looming around 70 percent in Cuba, the Catholic Church called for a "year of the family."Even among Catholics back then, there was little hope that workshops, discussions and reflection would do much good to remedy the situation. A decade later, the figure of

Cambridge MA More than a year ago I published a book entitled His Hiding Place Is Darkness Toward a Hindu-Catholic Theopoetics of Divine Absence Stanford University Press 2013 Various factors - sabbatical availability of respondents Boston 39 s massive snow storms - delayed our discussion

The World Bank and global faith leaders are joining together to end extreme poverty around the world by 2030.The effort brings together the influential faith community with a major U.S.-based institution that has committed billions of dollars to development work and can leverage billions more from p

“It was fun!” That was my graduate students’ assessment of the historic colloquium "The Preferential Option for Culture in Latino/a Theology" held on March 26, 2015 at Loyola University Chicago. They were Latin@s, U.S. born and raised, and immigrant Latin Americans, laity

How history is recited matters almost as much as what happened When someone as talented as Shakespeare tells your tale the image stays fixed But I that am not shaped for sportive tricks Nor made to court an amourous looking-glass I that am rudely stamp rsquo d and want love rsquo s majestyTo stru

Imagine if you could tweet questions, concerns and praise to your parish.

Loyola Marymount University the Jesuit university of Los Angeles has named a successor to outgoing presidnent David W Burcham The Los Angeles Times has the details surrounding the selection of Timothy Law Snyder as the next LMU president Prayers and best wishes to Professor Snyder and the entir

Basima Toma teaches English to about 40 children at the Don Bosco youth center.A young Iraqi boy stands at the chalkboard with a plastic ruler in his hand and spells out the words W-I-N-T-E-R, S-P-R-I-N-G, S-U-M-M-E-R, A-U-T-U-M-N.Toma and her family have been in Istanbul long enough to see each of