IMAGE: CNS photo/Sean Gallagher, The Cr By Sean Gallagher INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) — As 23,000 youths from across the country worshipped together during the closing Mass of the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis, Leanna Long felt “amazingly overwhelmed” to be in the midst of so many people who shared her …

IMAGE: CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Italian journalists standing trial in a Vatican court defended their right to freedom of the press, while the Vatican prosecution said the way they acquired confidential information was illegal. All five people accused of involvement in …

IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy Personal Ordi By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — After consultation with the governing council of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, Pope Francis named Msgr. Steven J. Lopes to be the first bishop of the ordinariate, which serves former Anglicans living in full …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Bob Roller By Carol Zimmermann DERWOOD, Md. (CNS) –- Dorothy Day’s granddaughter Martha Hennessy looks a little like her grandmother with her pulled-back white hair, and although she is soft spoken, she likely sounds just like her activist grandmother, too, when talking about helping the poor and promoting …

IMAGE: CNS/Reuters By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The educational alliance among families, schools and states is broken, causing a serious situation that leads to selecting to educate only “supermen” chosen solely based on intelligence or wealth, Pope Francis said. “Behind this, there is always the ghost of …

IMAGE: CNS/courtesy Vatican Philatelic and Numismatic Office By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — This year’s Vatican Christmas stamps feature a 15th-century manuscript illumination of the Holy Family. Flanked by a lowing ox and a donkey, Mary and Joseph pray over baby Jesus as angels sing above and poor shepherds …

By BEIRUT (CNS) — The head of the Syriac Catholic Church has accused Western governments of betraying Christians in the Middle East and said it was “a big lie” to suggest Islamic State could be defeated with airstrikes. In a Nov. 18 interview with Le Messager, an online Catholic magazine …

By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Priests are not “mushrooms” that magically sprout at ordination, but they have a history, a community and a family that both they and their superiors must keep in mind, Pope Francis said. “On the day of their ordination, I always say to …

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Fifty years ago, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (“Dei Verbum”) urged the faithful to nourish their faith by reading the Bible, putting an end to centuries of seeing direct access to the Scriptures as something reserved to the …

IMAGE: CNS photo/handout via EPA By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Despite the ongoing violence in the Central Africa Republic, Pope Francis wants to visit the country Nov. 29-30, plans for the visit are in place, and the security situation is being monitored, the Vatican spokesman said. Jesuit Father …