SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO, Italy – St. Padre Pio's devotion to the Eucharist, the hours he spent in the confessional and his concrete care for the sick make him a model all priests should try to imitate, Pope Benedict XVI said.Read More

BOGOTA, Colombia – Colombia’s largest Marxist guerrilla group said it would not accept the Catholic Church as a mediator in its armed conflict with the government. Raul Reyes, spokesman for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, told the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina Feb. 14 that the Catholic Church was not acting impartially.Read More

HUNTINGTON, Ind. – Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ overseas aid and development agency, is requiring its foreign partners to give “complete and accurate” information on condoms in all HIV/AIDS programs.Read More

WASHINGTON – Hundreds of artifacts, including letters from 12th-century popes and religious artwork, have been returned to Italy after spending decades in a home near Chicago, FBI spokesman Ross Rice said in a June 8 statement.Read More

VATICAN CITY – With the global financial crisis and the increased desperation of the poor, human trafficking appears to be on the increase and the International Union of Superiors General is committed to extending its networks to fight the problem.Read More

Parishioners of St. Bernardine, Baltimore, are looking for 300 good warriors to deal with the city’s highest murder rate in eight years. Prayer warriors, that is.Read More

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s Catholic bishops have pleaded with the federal government to renegotiate a trade treaty with the U.S. and Canada that they say is leading to the cultural death of their nation.Read More

FRIEDBERG, Germany – Like spring in many dioceses, spring in the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services is confirmation season. Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien packed his bags in late March and was to spend the next two months confirming the children of military personnel – and a few soldiers and sailors – stationed in Germany,...Read More