Signs Of the Times

Catholic bishops in Germany and Austria have urged their countries to continue accepting refugees, despite demands for new restrictions after violence on New Year’s Eve in Cologne and other cities. “We need a reduction in numbers, but fixing an upper limit would be difficult,” Bish

With poverty on the rise and a drought compounding Zimbabwe’s problems, people are struggling to make ends meet, church workers said. In Zimbabwe’s hospitals and other health facilities, “patients need to pay for everything: painkillers, drips, injections and scans,” said Get

After nearly 27 years on the job, Greg Erlandson stepped down as publisher at Our Sunday Visitor Inc., on Jan. 31. • The Fiat 500L that Pope Francis used to tour Philadelphia was auctioned off for $82,000 at a black-tie event kicking off the Philadelphia Auto Show on Jan. 29 with proceeds

In a Middle East torn apart by conflict, fighters are increasingly using food as a weapon. Millions of people across countries like Syria, Yemen and Iraq are gripped by hunger, struggling to survive with little help from the outside world. Children suffer from malnutrition; their parents often have

Muslim leaders from around the world adopted a declaration defending the rights of religious minorities in predominantly Muslim countries. Participants said the Marrakesh Declaration, developed during a conference on Jan. 25-27, was based on the Medina Charter, a constitutional contract between the

Long before Pope Francis spoke of a poor church for the poor and of taking the church to the peripheries, Bishop Samuel Ruiz García of San Cristóbal de Las Casas built such a church in Mexico’s southern Chiapas state. Inspired by the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and gatherings of

Pope Francis has reformed the ceremony of the washing of the feet during Mass on Holy Thursday by decreeing that henceforth it will be open to women too or, as he put it in a year-old decree that was published on Jan. 21, “to all the members of the People of God.” The relevant part of th

A record snowfall that blanketed Washington and much of the East Coast prevented many from making it to Washington for the annual March for Life on Jan. 23. The snow also caused the cancellation of many of the events scheduled to mark the 43rd anniversary of the Roe decision that legalized abortion.

Pope Francis is increasingly turning his attention to the stars of Silicon Valley, meeting Apple’s C.E.O., Tim Cook, for a 15-minute conversation on Jan. 22 just days after shaking hands with Eric Schmidt from Google. • Israel’s appropriation of 380 acres of Palestinian agricultural