Catholic News Service

Mass is the highest form of prayer and not an appropriate moment for small talk, Pope Francis said.

Catholic Church leaders in the Philippines are calling on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to take back several shipping containers of toxic waste that arrived from Canada in 2013.

The Panamanian archbishop helping to organize World Youth Day said the 2019 celebration in his country will invite youth of other faiths to join in.

The longest and most passionate discussion on the first day of the fall assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 13 focused on how to help immigrants.

Persecuted Christian minorities in Asia, Africa and the Middle East are at risk of being forgotten, according to the chairman of the U.S bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace.

Though the Catholic Church has responded to racism for many years, some leaders and church institutions have at times been part of the problem, said Bishop George Murray.

Young people in the church want to be heard and be invited to be a part of church leadership, according to a report by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in preparation for next year's Synod of Bishops on youth.

As the U.S. bishops were beginning their fall assembly in Baltimore, also marking their 100th anniversary as a conference, a couple of nonviolent protesters gathered nearby.

Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, Texas, told his fellow bishops Nov. 13 that more than 100 U.S. dioceses have participated in the "Share the Journey" campaign.

Acknowledging wide divisions in the country over many issues, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called for civility to return to the public debate.

There are three things bishops must always keep in mind as they exercise their episcopal ministry, according to Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Vatican's nuncio to the United States.

Global problems associated with climate change demand global cooperation, Pope Francis told a group of heads of state from the Pacific Islands.

The mission of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is as timely now as 100 years ago when the conference was founded, says Vatican secretary of state.

Marriage and family life are blessings, but Catholic couples must be helped to face difficult choices prayerfully and in the light of their consciences, Pope Francis said.

Two bishops have called on the House of Representatives to provide $10 million to fund the United Nations' work on climate change.

A survey of more than 4,000 Catholic campus ministers and students at U.S. colleges, commissioned by the U.S. bishops' Secretariat of Catholic Education, showed that both the ministers and the students generally like what's happening in their campus ministry setting.

Calling racism the country's "national disease" and "our greatest injustice," Catholic speakers at an annual gathering of young adults asked the group to call out injustice.

Pope Francis sent a handwritten letter to a Colombian soldier who lost his sight during the country's civil war. 

Pope Francis will celebrate the Catholic Church's first World Day of the Poor Nov. 19 by celebrating a morning Mass with people in need and those who assist them. After Mass, he will offer lunch to 500 people in the Vatican audience hall.

A capacity crowd listened to a former captive of the Islamic State, U.N. ambassadors and leaders of aid organizations at a conference organized by the Vatican.