Signs Of the Times

Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a journalist and a longtime spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, died on April 28, succumbing to a recurring cancer. True to form, she transformed her last days into an opportunity for a final lesson in living with dignity and grace.She described her experi

Defining Blessed Junípero Serra as a “working-class missionary,” Archbishop José H. Gómez of Los Angeles said the 18th-century Franciscan deserves to be made a saint and to have his record as a defender of native peoples made known. Pope Francis’ announcement that he will canoni

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is banking on Pope Francis to be a unifying moral force to get the world onboard in the fight against global warming. He spoke at the Vatican on April 28 at an international gathering about the moral dimensions of climate change and sustainable development. “

The U.S. bishops on April 17 released an annual audit tracking the church’s response to the abuse of children by members of the clergy. During the 2014 audit year (July 1, 2013, through June 30, 2014), 37 allegations of abuse were current and 620 were made by adults who had been abused in the

Stefanie Tiefenbacher, 87, of the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood, was robbed and murdered in her bedroom in the small town of Ixopo, near Durban, South Africa. • An appearance by Sister Jeannine Gramick, censured for positions on homosexuality and same-sex marriage, at a Catholic chur

The president of the Latin American bishops’ conference called Pope Francis’ planned visit to Cuba an opportunity for the church to play a larger role in a country experiencing reforms and re-embracing institutionalized religion.“Whether we want to accept it or not, Cuba is undergo

In a chilling reprise of the events of 2008, South Africa in April endured a resurgence of anti-immigrant violence. Sparked by a demand from the Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini that foreign- born Africans “pack up and go home,” the attacks on individuals and businesses quickly spread from

National attention was drawn to the Archdiocese of San Francisco in mid-April after a group of about 100 area Catholics placed a full-page advertisement in The San Francisco Chronicle criticizing the leadership of Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone and asking Pope Francis to remove him.Among those w

The Jesuit Refugee Service expressed disappointment on April 24 with the measures announced by the European Union to respond to the accelerating migrant crisis in the Mediterranean, describing the outcome after meetings in Brussels as “a lost opportunity.” James Stapleton, the internatio

Beheadings, enslavement, kidnappings and rape plague minority religious communities across the Middle East, and it is time for President Obama to fill a job created to address their plight, a group of prominent evangelicals, scholars and other religious leaders told the White House. In the seve