Veronica “Ronnie” Royal of Virginia has been an iconographer since 1998, working diligently to hone her craft and encourage the use of icons in contemplation and prayer. Born in Nancy, France, she was raised in the Ukrainian Catholic Church by her Russian mother and Ukranian father. Icons were very much a part of her church and family life.

The Vatican has reiterated its call for negotiations to end the violence in Syria, saying that children are suffering the most. “Silencing the guns is the priority,” Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s permanent observer to U.S. agencies in Geneva, told the Human Rights Council May 29 during a debate on Syria.

All Catholics must ask themselves what they personally have done lately to build up the holiness of the church and ensure people feel welcomed and loved in it, Pope Francis said.

Singer-songwriter Audrey Assad seeks to bring a message of Pope Francis about building bridges to the music business.

Visiting an ordinary Rome parish for the first time as the city’s bishop, Pope Francis gave a group of children their first Communion and a catechism lesson on the meaning of the Trinity.

Continuing a papal tradition of finishing a predecessor’s work in progress, Pope Francis intends to complete an encyclical — on the virtue of faith — begun during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI.

More than 100,000 Christians are killed each year because of their faith, and millions more face bigotry, intolerance and marginalization because of their beliefs, a Vatican official said. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican's permanent observer to U.S. agencies in Geneva, told the Human Rights Council May 27 that "credible research" by Massimo Introvigne, a former representative of t...

A Honduran bishop has been brokering talks between rival gangs in an attempt to calm a country with the highest homicide rate in the world. Auxiliary Bishop Romulo Emiliani Sanchez of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, told local media that Mara Salvatrucha and 18th Street gangs would start honoring a truce May 28 and enter into dialogue, which he hopes would allow the Central American country to recover from recent years of crime, corruption and political strife.

Vatican officials are making strategic phone calls to some of the world’s most far-flung dioceses, trying to verify that in each of the world’s inhabited time zones there will be an organized hour of eucharistic adoration coinciding with 5-6 p.m. Rome time June 2.

Gerardo Bueso, 26, has been deported from the United States twice. He is trying a third time to reach the United States, where he previously worked as a gardener. Bueso is among the more than a million immigrants deported from the United States over the past five years, even as the administration of President Barack Obama presses for comprehensive immigration reform.