IMAGE: CNS photo/Catholic Advance By Christopher M. Riggs WICHITA, Kan. (CNS) — Brian Bergkamp, a seminarian from the Diocese of Wichita who was studying at a Maryland seminary, is believed dead after saving the life of a woman who fell into the Arkansas River July 9. By mid-day July 12, …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Paul Jeffrey By Tom Tracy WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CNS) — Low-cost video messaging carried across increasingly video-friendly social media platforms will define this year’s World Youth Day experience, said several organizational leaders finalizing their media strategies. Due to the prevalence of smartphones and tablets, and their improved …

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Colleen Dulle WASHINGTON (CNS) — Recent comments by a high-ranking Vatican official have sparked questions about the direction priests should face while celebrating Mass, but the Vatican spokesman said Pope Francis has made it clear no changes are foreseen. Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Vatican’s …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Rebecca Cook, Reuters By Mark Pattison WASHINGTON (CNS) — When the news revealed the drinking water in Flint, Michigan, was contaminated by lead, affecting roughly 100,000 people in the city and nearby areas, attention rightly focused on a staggering public health crisis. However, the crisis may not be …

IMAGE: CNS/Reuters By Tom Tracy WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CNS) — As the church in the U.S. has shown an increasing presence of Spanish-speaking Catholics, so will the tens of thousands of young people traveling to 2016 edition of World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland. “There are more groups coming …

IMAGE: CNS/Nancy Wiechec By Colleen Dulle WASHINGTON (CNS) — As World Youth Day approaches, U.S. organizers offered tips on how pilgrims can prepare logistically, spiritually and even digitally. The largest U.S. group to attend a World Youth Day outside of North America, 30,000 American pilgrims plan to attend the July …

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A Vatican court, citing freedom of the press, acquitted two journalists who published confidential documents while their source, a Spanish monsignor, was sentenced to 18 months behind bars. Judge Giuseppe Della Torre, head of the tribunal of the Vatican …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Karen Callaway, Catholic New World By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis has named Chicago Archbishop Blase J. Cupich a member of the Congregation for Bishops, the office that advises the pope on the nomination of bishops around the world. Archbishop Cupich, 67, takes the place …

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Three months after the publication of Pope Francis’ exhortation on marriage and family, bishops and bishops’ conferences around the world are studying practical ways to apply it. Some still disagree on what exactly the pope meant. In the first week …

IMAGE: CNS/L’Osservatore Romano By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Meeting the grieving parents of a U.S. student who was found dead in Rome, Pope Francis mourned the death of the teenager, who had been set to begin a study-abroad program. Beau Solomon, 19, was found dead in the Tiber …