As Ukrainians prepared to mark their Aug. 24 Independence Day under the cloud of fierce fighting in the East, Catholic leaders condemned the threat to Ukraine's territorial integrity and prayed for a speedy end to the hostilities.At the same time, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, major archbishop

For World Peace Day Message: a focus on a persistent global problem

Pope Francis, in mourning for the deaths of his nephew's wife and two small children, thanked people at his weekly general audience Aug. 20 for their prayers.After each of the priests who translate the pope's words offered him condolences for the tragedy that struck his family, Pope Francis

Church teaches duty to intervene—with force, if necessary—to prevent genocide.

Pope asks for international action to help Iraq's Christians

After nine years of study and consultation, Vatican says it stays put, but urges education.

The president of Caritas Internationalis suggested Israeli and Hamas leaders pick up a pair of binoculars so they could see that "most of your victims are innocent people." Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, president of the Vatican-based umbrella organization for

Global campaign against trafficking must focus on victims and survivors.

Bank must be 'a model of financial management rather than a cause for occasional scandal.'

Although they have not yet reached full unity, Roman Catholics and Anglicans continue their dialogue, come together in prayer and work side by side, including on a new project to combat human trafficking around the world."I thank God that, as disciples sent to heal a wounded world, we stand tog