Vatican and Palestinian representatives have finalized the text of a formal agreement recognizing freedom of religion in the "State of Palestine" and outlining the rights and obligations of the Catholic Church, its agencies and its personnel in the territory.Without fanfare, the Vatican ha

President Barack Obama, a late addition to a Catholic-evangelical summit at Georgetown University on overcoming poverty, said events like those in Ferguson, Missouri, and in Baltimore demonstrate a need to "refocus attention on poverty."Obama, speaking May 12, said, "We have been stuc

Atheists and agnostics have nearly doubled their share of the religious marketplace.

"Sometimes it happens that a boy or girl forgets about Mass, catechism because of work-outs and competition. This is not a good sign" because it means they do not have their priorities right.

The Vatican’s semiofficial newspaper blasted a series of cartoons of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad as “blasphemous” but also condemned the “mad and bloodthirsty” extremists who opened fire at a Texas exhibit of the cartoons.The front-page article in L’Osserv

Maryknoll Father Mike Bassano's parish is a tightly packed maze of tents and tarpaulins filled with people hiding from war.