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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,

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

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

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

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

Church leaders in South Sudan are trying to breathe new life into their country's stalled peace talks.Stating that they spoke "with divine authority," leaders of the South Sudan Council of Churches, which includes Catholics and Protestants, issued a statement in late March lamenting th

Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, cardinal of the people, died April 8 in Montreal's Marie-Clarac Hospital.The 78-year-old cardinal, who served as Montreal's archbishop for 22 years, was diabetic, and his health had been in decline for several months. He was moved to palliative care March 24.Ca

The 2015 class of men ordained to the priesthood report that they were, on average, about 17 when they first considered a vocation to the priesthood and encouraged to consider a vocation by an average of four people. Seven in 10 (71 percent) say they were encouraged by a parish priest, as well as fr