The Catholic Church in South Africa has called on faith and other communities to use their influence to stop xenophobic violence and urged help for its victims.Attacks on foreign nationals have left at least seven people dead, more than 5,000 displaced, and shops looted and razed. They started in Du

Commemorating the second anniversary of the kidnapping of two Syrian bishops, the Greek Orthodox patriarch lamented the indifference of the international community about their fate."We hope that the bishops are alive, but unfortunately the world is silent and nobody has provided physical eviden

Pittsburg bishop calls stay "a welcome but interim step" in pursuit of religious freedom

More than a dozen states, plus the District of Columbia, are considering controversial medically assisted death legislation this year.The laws would allow mentally fit, terminally ill patients age 18 and older, whose doctors say they have six months or less to live, to request lethal drugs.Oregon wa

Their 8-year-old boy killed in the Boston Marathon bombings of April 2013.

Pope Francis has considered the possibility of visiting Cuba in September—before or after his trip to the United States—but discussions with Cuban authorities are so preliminary that the idea cannot be considered more than a hypothesis, the Vatican said."Contacts with the Cuban auth