A larger-than-life model of Blessed John Paul II as a younger man reaches out from the top of the exterior steps that ascend to All Saints Church, Warsaw’s largest church. At the statue’s feet one recent summer afternoon sat a bouquet of plastic red roses, and candles lit in red heart-shaped vases.

Bishops in southern Philippines have condemned rebels’ use of hostages as human shields in gunfights with government troops.

People who judge and criticize others are hypocrites and cowards who are unable to face their own defects, Pope Francis said.

A senior Catholic priest in the Central African Republic has warned of growing clashes between Christians and Muslims, and urged the international community to act “within weeks” to prevent the country’s breakup.

Picking up the telephone and calling people out of the blue is no big deal for Pope Francis, according to a Vatican official.

Germany’s Limburg Diocese pledged “dialogue and transparency” after a former Vatican nuncio was sent to defuse complaints of extravagance against Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst.

Pope Francis’ Sept. 11 meeting with Dominican Father Gustavo Gutierrez was an informal one, held in the in the pope’s residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, and not listed on his official schedule. Yet the news that Pope Francis had received the 85-year old Peruvian priest, who is widely considered the father of liberation theology, has excited interest far beyond the Vatican’s walls.

Nechama Tec’s work has centered on the Holocaust, analyzing not only the tragic events of the Nazi genocide of the Jews but also rescuers and survivors.

The misery experienced by Mariam and husband, Ephrem, and their three young children is just one example of hundreds of thousands of Christians in the Middle East, displaced by wars in which they are not participating.

A spokesman for France’s bishops urged the government to ensure a new “charter of secularism” does not impede religious freedom.