By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Italian authorities arrested six suspects who allegedly received orders from the Islamic State terrorist group to attack the Vatican and the Israeli embassy in Rome. The arrests made in Lombardy and Piedmont April 28 were the result of a joint operation coordinated …

IMAGE: CNS/courtesy Vatican Observatory By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Of the many momentous or menial tasks women religious perform, one of the better-kept secrets has been the role of four Sisters of the Holy Child Mary who were part of a global effort to make a complete map …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Yuri Gripas, Reuters By Kurt Jensen WASHINGTON (CNS) — House Speaker Paul Ryan apologized for his earlier criticism of recipients of government benefits as “takers and makers,” and said Republicans strive for a country that is “open, diverse, dynamic” in a speech at Georgetown University. Ryan’s one-hour talk …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Bob Roller By Nancy O’Brien WASHINGTON (CNS) — Many paths led Richard Doerflinger into pro-life work. And now his path is taking him into retirement as associate director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities and eventually across the country to Washington state. Doerflinger, a 63-year-old native …

IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy RTE By Nick Bramhill DUBLIN (CNS) — An Irish Catholic street cleaner, who was filmed by a TV documentary crew as he temporarily swapped his job in the Irish capital for the poverty-stricken Philippines, has pledged to spend the rest of his life helping the struggling family …

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — To ignore the suffering of another person is to ignore God, Pope Francis said. And going to church does not automatically make someone love their neighbor, the pope said April 27 as he reflected on the Gospel parable of the …

By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Clericalism is a danger to the Catholic Church not only because on a practical level it undermines the role of laity in society, but because theologically it “tends to diminish and undervalue the baptismal grace” of all believers, whether they are lay or …

IMAGE: CNS/Nancy Wiechec By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis named Archbishop Juan Garcia Rodriguez, who has worked quietly to help rebuild the Cuban church, physically and spiritually, to be the new archbishop of Havana. He succeeds 79-year-old Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino of Havana, whose retirement was accepted …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Jose Jacome, EPA, Reuters By QUITO, Ecuador (CNS) — Catholic agencies are beginning to build temporary shelters for thousands of families in Ecuador made homeless by the South American country’s worst natural disaster in nearly seven decades. As the death toll continues to climb following a magnitude-7.8 earthquake, …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Tony Gentile, Reuters By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Sharing and celebrating the joy of faith with thousands of Catholic teenagers from around the globe was a rare moment that not many people are able to experience, a U.S. teen said. “It was a different atmosphere …