IMAGE: CNS illustration/Joanna Kohorst By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — People have a responsibility to check the source of what they share on social media to ensure it is not “fake news” designed to further prejudices or increase fear, Pope Francis said. Fake news grabs people’s attention “by appealing …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn By Dennis Sadowski WASHINGTON (CNS) — Catholic bishops are looking to “transform” Catholic schools in response to decades of declining enrollment that has forced hundreds of schools to close since 2005. The effort, said the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Catholic …

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Paul Haring SANTIAGO, Chile (CNS) — Where there is smoke, there is normally fire — but not always. Journalists covering Pope Francis’ visit in Santiago, Chile, added another tale Jan. 16 to their oral history of papal-trip misadventures. As a large tour bus carrying dozens of …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Denis Balibouse Reuters By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Global leaders must implement policies that support the family and offer real opportunities for the growth and development of all people, Pope Francis told people attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “If we want a more …

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Junno Arocho Esteves ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM PERU (CNS) — Pope Francis apologized to victims of clergy sex abuse, saying he unknowingly wounded them by the way he defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering up abuse by his mentor. Speaking with journalists on his …

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Barbara J. Fraser LIMA, Peru (CNS) — Pope Francis took his message of hope to this sprawling, dusty capital of Peru, celebrating Mass within view of the rocky, waterless Andean slopes where most of the city’s poorest residents live. The day’s Scripture readings, in which Jonah …

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Junno Arocho Esteves SANTIAGO, Chile (CNS) — Pope Francis met in private Jan. 16 with survivors of sexual abuse by Chilean clergy, a Vatican spokesman said, but his actions threatened to be overshadowed by controversy over a Chilean bishop. Greg Burke, the spokesman, said the pope …

IMAGE: CNS/Kevin Lamarque, Reuters By Julie Asher WASHINGTON (CNS) — In remarks broadcast to the March for Life from the White House Rose Garden, President Donald Trump said that his administration “will always defend the very first right in the Declaration of Independence, and that is the right to life.” …

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Barbara J. Fraser PUERTO MALDONADO, Peru (CNS) — Pope Francis called on indigenous people of the Amazon to work with missionaries and bishops to shape a church with an “Amazonian and indigenous” face. The pope pledged the church’s “whole-hearted option for the defense of life, the …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Bob Roller By Mark Pattison WASHINGTON (CNS) — New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York invoked the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during a homily at the Jan. 18 Mass that opened the National Prayer Vigil for Life. Like “Pastor King,” as Cardinal Dolan referred to …