VATICAN CITY – In a new set of rules encouraged by Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican is requiring dioceses to be more meticulous and objective when they prepare local sainthood causes.Read More

MEXICO CITY – A Mexican priest and two seminarians were shot dead while traveling to a religious retreat, said Archbishop Felipe Aguirre Franco of Acapulco.Read More

WASHINGTON – The president of the U.S. bishops’ conference called the June 10 shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum that left a security guard dead “appalling.”Read More

JERUSALEM – The first question friends in the Gaza Strip ask each other when they meet these days is, “Do you have electricity?” “Three days a week we have no electricity for eight hours straight, depending on the area,” said Omar Shaban, project manager for the Gaza office of the U.S. bishops’ Catholic Relief Services....Read More

VATICAN CITY – Inadvertently or not, Pope Benedict XVI allowed reporters to get a taste of a Lenten experience he recommended to the priests of the Diocese of Rome, “fasting from words and images.”Read More

LYON, France – A French cardinal has urged Catholics to follow Christian principles in the April 22 presidential election. “I’d like Christians to be Christians and speak out more,” said Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon. He said that meant “defending what, in the view of Christians, is right for everyone.” Twelve candidates are vying to...Read More

The “Men in Black,” that fearsome basketball squad of priests and seminarians from the Archdiocese of Baltimore, will play the “DC Hood,” a team of priests and seminarians from Washington on March 2.Read More

FORT JACKSON, S.C. – As the soldier leaned out over a length of rope stretched 20 feet in the air over a net, he began the “commando crawl,” a careful, hand-over-hand movement across the rope to a wooden platform on the other side. The other men and women in his platoon waited on the ground...Read More