Signs Of the Times

“The most massive failure of the Catholic community at all levels in the past 20 years has been to address the question of our ongoing involvement in the Middle East,” Bishop Robert W. McElroy of San Diego said on March 7. • The Netherlands-based group Open Doors International urged

A U.N. report describing sweeping crimes, including the burning alive of children and disabled people and fighters being allowed to rape women as payment, shows South Sudan is facing “one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world,” the U.N. human rights chief said on Ma

The morning after a rally for Donald J. Trump in Chicago was canceled for fear of violence, the city’s Catholic archbishop warned that “enmity and animosity” are hallmarks of today’s politics and a “cancer” that is threatening the nation’s civic health. &ldq

“Women are knocking on the door of the church…. But I fear a generation will come that will stop knocking,” Dr. Carolyn Woo, president and C.E.O. of Catholic Relief Services, said at the Vatican on March 8 during a panel discussion organized by Voices of Faith, a Catholic women&rs

The Obama administration is nearing a decision on whether to declare formally that atrocities by the Islamic State against religious minorities, including Christians, constitute genocide. As impatient lawmakers and religious groups step up calls for action, Secretary of State John Kerry may not make

House Speaker Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, became the highest-ranking politician to speak at a pro-life rally when he joined protesters outside the Supreme Court on March 2 as the justices were hearing oral arguments on a Texas law that imposes new restrictions on abortion clinics. • A N

Essays in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, urged the Catholic Church to allow women to preach from the pulpit at Mass, a role that has been reserved almost exclusively to the all-male clergy for centuries. Enzo Bianchi, leader of an ecumenical religious community in northern Italy,

Pope Francis expressed his closeness to the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, after four of their sisters were killed in Aden, the port city of Yemen, on March 4. Departing from his prepared text during the Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square, he hailed these sist

Speaking out against exploitation and unfair wages for workers, Pope Francis told benefactors to forget about donating money to the church if their earnings came from mistreating others. “Please, take your check back and burn it,” he said to applause. “The people of God—that