Drew Christiansen, S.J., discusses the significance of religious peacebuilding in struggling countries.

One fruit of this Sino-Vatican agreement, which neither side has confirmed, will be that “from now on, there will be no more the crisis of a division between the open and underground communities in the church in China,” wrote Cardinal Tong.

Chinese officials say the country has stopped using executed prisoners as organ donors, but the international medical community remains skeptical.

"Every time I think of my husband and imagine what torture would have made him into, my heart aches."

"We must never fall into the trap of erroneous Western thinking and judicial independence."

The ruling Communist Party has long feared that opposition to its rule could be spread by religious and other civic groups outside its control.