A majority of the deaths documented by Human Rights Watch in the report Wednesday occurred less than a year after the deportees returned to El Salvador; some were within days. The organization also confirmed at least 70 cases of sexual assault or other violence following their arrival in the country.

The Vatican sought Wednesday to explain the absence of a key member of Pope Francis' protocol team following the scandal over a book on priestly celibacy co-written by Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.

European and American nationalists gathered in Rome to attend a conference celebrating their beliefs while attacking globalism.

Archbishop Richard Gagnon, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, reiterated church opposition to government-sanctioned suicide while slamming the idea that a survey is the way to address "grave moral questions."

Activists in the case argued they were working with the group No More Deaths/No Más Muertes, an official ministry of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson, and thus were acting on their religious beliefs to save immigrant lives.

“It is unacceptable for the federal government to walk away from its shared commitment under the Medicaid program to ensure care for all low-income and vulnerable individuals in our country,” reads a statement released on Jan. 31 by the Catholic Health Association, the domestic justice committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Charities USA.