VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis will finally fulfill his desire to be a missionary to Japan when he visits the country, as well as Thailand, Nov. 20-26, the Vatican announced. Pope Francis will leave Rome Nov. 19, arriving in Thailand for a visit Nov. 20-23, said Matteo Bruni, director …

MIAMI (CNS) — A second Florida-to-Bahamas round-trip humanitarian cruise was set to sail the weekend of Sept. 14, weather-permitting, carrying supplies, transport specialty personnel, power generators and volunteers. The previous week, the Grand Bahama cruise ship arrived at its home port in West Palm Beach with some 1,100 Bahamian storm …

IMAGE: CNS illustration/Emily Thompson By Brian Fraga The Catholic Church in the United States has spent a staggering amount of money — close to $4 billion in the past 20 years — to investigate, adjudicate and prevent clergy sex abuse, and to compensate victims for the harm they’ve suffered. And …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Vatican Media By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Sentencing someone to life in prison without the possibility of parole is "not the solution to problems, but a problem to solve," Pope Francis told Italian prison guards, prison chaplains and officials from the Ministry of Justice. "If you …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Vatican Media By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Praising the fidelity of Eastern Catholics, Pope Francis also urged them to be more active in the search for Christian unity, especially unity with their Orthodox counterparts. In heaven, he said, "the Lord will not seek an account of …

IMAGE: CNS/Carol Glatz By Christopher Gunty BALTIMORE (CNS) — Clergy sexual abuse survivor Marie Collins kicked off a five-city U.S. speaking tour on "The Catholic Tipping Point" in Baltimore Sept. 10, noting that she is disappointed with the results of the Vatican summit on child protection and efforts toward accountability …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Julian Spath, Catholic Relief Services By Dennis Sadowski WASHINGTON (CNS) — Vanessa Urbina understands how young people in Central America, not seeing an opportunity for work or a good education, could be attracted to make the dangerous trip north in the hope of a better future in the …

IMAGE: CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis said giving fragments of St. Peter’s bones to the head of the church founded by Peter’s brother, St. Andrew, was meant to be a reminder and encouragement of the journey toward Christian unity. In a letter to …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Harald Oppitz, KNA By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The German bishops’ plans for a two-year process of consultation and deliberation on key issues facing the Catholic Church must conform to universal church law and must be approved by the pope, said the prefect of the Congregation …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Loren Elliott, Reuters By Tom Tracy MIAMI (CNS) — As catastrophic as Hurricane Dorian was, the characteristic optimism of Bahamians will help soften the painful recovery to come, according to a hurricane-preparedness volunteer in Nassau. "There was nothing we could have done to prepare (for Hurricane Dorian), but …