Catholic News Service

A judge on a top Vatican tribunal was given a 14-month suspended sentence by an Italian court for possessing child pornography and sexual molestation. He then resigned his position on the Roman Rota, the tribunal.

Pope Francis announced at the end of a question-and-answer sessions with pastors in the Diocese of Rome that Blessed Paul VI would be canonized this year.

The yearning for one's soul to be quenched must not be confused with longing for worldly desires, a Portuguese priest told Pope Francis and senior members of the Roman Curia during their Lenten retreat.

When people are unable to love or accept a child with problems or illness, many times it's because they are too weak themselves to be able to bear someone else's vulnerabilities, Pope Francis told a group of children and young people who are wards of the state.

No physician should be forced to choose between violating his or her conscience and facing professional sanctions, said the president of the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations.

While it is true that the world is full of sin and sinful behavior, priests must learn to scrutinize the "signs of the times" for new trends and attitudes that are good and healthy and holy, Pope Francis told pastors from the Diocese of Rome.

The heads and patriarchs of Christian churches in Jerusalem strongly denounced the city of Jerusalem's plan to force churches to pay property taxes.

Jacob Zuma's resignation as president of South Africa is long overdue, the country's bishops said, noting that his presidency fostered corruption and dereliction of duty at all levels of government.

The Vatican denied that retired Pope Benedict XVI has a degenerative neurological disease or paralyzing condition after his brother, 94-year-old Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, told a magazine that Benedict had a debilitating disease. 

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski urged community members to come together "to support one another in this time of grief" after a shooting rampage Feb. 14 at a Broward County high school left at least 17 people dead.

To ignore the needs of another person is to ignore the needs of a brother or sister, Cardinal Tagle said.

Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, editor of the influential Rome-based magazine La Civilta Cattolica and a close associate of Pope Francis, outlined the pope's "diplomacy of mercy" that he has used with both political leaders and their citizens throughout his papacy during a Feb. 13 talk at Georgetown University.

The upcoming 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. prompted Baltimore Archbishop William Lori to write a pastoral letter on the civil rights leader's principles of nonviolence.

Lent is a time for Christians to get their hearts in sync with the heart of Jesus, Pope Francis said.

Everyone who goes to Mass has the right to hear the word of God in all its fullness, which means it must be read well and explained well with "fervor," Pope Francis said.

As Syria's war soon enters its eighth year, many decry the recent escalation in the conflict in the country's north, between Turkey and the Kurds and in the south, between Iran and Israel.

A Trump administration report on its reinstatement of the "Mexico City Policy" shows that nongovernmental organizations "are willing and able to comply with this policy," said the U.S. bishops' pro-life committee chairman.

The case involving the transfer of the remains of Archbishop Fulton Sheen from New York to Peoria, Illinois, has been sent back to the original court for an evidentiary hearing.

Formalizing their unity in the intimate setting of the chapel of the papal residence, Pope Francis and Melkite Patriarch Joseph Absi concelebrated Mass together.

Waiting for a verdict on allegations that he sexually abused several boys, Archbishop Anthony Apuron of Agana, Guam, attended one of Pope Francis' weekly general audiences in February.