Signs Of the Times

High on the agenda for the September meeting of the U.N. General Assembly was the revision and reinvigoration of the global community’s approach to the treatment of displaced people and refugees. The global community has attempted, by fits and starts, to deal with an unprecedented humanitarian

A missing priest was found shot dead off the side of a highway in western Mexico days after he was kidnapped from his parish residence, state prosecutors said on Sept. 25. He was the third Roman Catholic priest to be slain in Mexico in the last week.The Michoacan state Attorney General's Office

The Illinois budget battle raises broader questions about whether the state has a moral obligation to care for its citizens in need.

U.S. and Iraqi military strategists are preparing for a final drive on Mosul, hoping to dislodge Islamic State militants from their last stronghold in Iraq. But how well are they planning for the inevitable impact of that offensive on the city’s residents?Hani El-Mahdi is the Iraq country repr

With a Mass near the tomb of St. Ignatius Loyola in Rome, 215 Jesuits from around the world gathered on Oct. 2 for a general congregation to elect a new superior general to replace Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., who is retiring. • Brazil’s Indigenous Missionary Council in a new report highlighted

Fewer than two in 10 U.S. Catholics hold a favorable view of Muslims, and many have little understanding of the world’s second largest religion. When asked, “What is your overall impression of Muslims?” 30 percent of those Catholics polled said they held unfavorable views, 14 perce

Archbishop Socrates Villegas urged Catholic lawmakers not to support “any attempt to restore the death penalty.”

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released a report on Sept. 7 that calls for reining in religious liberty protections in favor of nondiscrimination statutes aimed at protecting L.G.B.T. Americans. “The phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ will stand fo

Small sums of financial assistance can help stabilize housing for low-income people and stave off homelessness, with its numerous related social problems, a University of Notre Dame study concluded. Targeted emergency financial assistance of a few hundred dollars for rent, security deposits, utility

“Many people in South Florida have bought this black propaganda that I am giving the country away to the Communists,” President Juan Manuel Santos said. “This is nonsense.”