Religious freedom is talked about more than it is protected, Pope Francis said. “The serious violations inflicted on this basic right are causes of serious concern,” and the world’s nations must act together to uphold “the intangible dignity of the human person against every attack,” he said.

Members of Regnum Christi, the lay movement associated with the Legionaries of Christ, said they don’t feel they are on a salvage mission, but rather are part of a transformation.

Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington and Mike Aquilina have discovered a simple but effective way to teach Catholics about Catholicism. Replicating the formula used in their 2011 book, “The Mass: The Glory, the Mystery, the Tradition,” the co-authors explain what is inside the church building and why it is there.

A French Catholic campaigner urged church leaders not to give up opposition to same-sex marriage, despite the spread of laws allowing the practice across Europe.

The collapse of two buildings in Philadelphia’s center city June 5 that left six people dead and more than a dozen injured drew the attention of Catholic leaders, including those at the Vatican. Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, wrote a letter June 6 to Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput expressing sympathy for the victims and pledging prayers.

Pope Francis ditched a 1,250-word prepared speech to students saying it would be “a tad boring” to read out loud and opted instead to just quickly hit the high points and spend the rest of the time answering people’s questions.

Until May 21, Father Andrew Switzer had a clean record. Then he got himself arrested. It happened in St. Louis during a rally by the United Mine Workers of America protesting the actions of Peabody Energy, the world’s largest coal producer. The 33-year-old priest, two years out of the seminary, said it was the right thing to do two days after Pentecost even as the arrest was pre-arranged with local police.

Congo is losing a generation to war over diamonds and other minerals in the country’s eastern regions, said the president of the nation’s bishops’ conference.

Those who suffer are brothers and sisters Catholics must pray for, not cases to be analyzed or examples to be used in debates, Pope Francis said in a morning homily.

Like it was yesterday, Vanna Slaughter pulls from memory the details of what was happening when Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., known as CLINIC, was created — 25 years ago. When the U.S. Catholic bishops’ conference established CLINIC as a legal services adjunct to the more policy-focused Migration and Refugee Services, the immediate goal was to provide legal support to Catholic agencies that were assisting with a new immigration law that was helping millions of people legalize their status.