IMAGE: CNS photo/Remo Casilli, Reuters By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Visiting the small Catholic communities in Bulgaria and North Macedonia offered an opportunity to encourage the faithful to remember God’s miracle of being able to feed a multitude with just a few loaves and fishes, Pope Francis said. …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Paul Haring By Cindy Wooden ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM NORTH MACEDONIA (CNS) — The commission Pope Francis appointed to study the history and identity of women deacons did not reach a unanimous conclusion about whether deaconesses in the early church were "ordained" or formally "blessed," the pope …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Fox Searchlight By Mark Pattison WASHINGTON (CNS) — Dome Karukoski shared one critical, albeit sad, boyhood link with J.R.R. Tolkien: being fatherless. Karukoski, then 12 years old, grew enamored of Tolkien’s books. "I was bullied, without a father. I was alone, and those stories, they became friends to …

IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy Jean Vanier Association By Cindy Wooden ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM NORTH MACEDONIA (CNS) — Pope Francis told reporters May 7 he had been kept informed about Jean Vanier’s failing health and had phoned him a week before his death. "He listened to me, but he could …

By ATLANTA (CNS) — Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation May 7 to ban abortions in the state once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is around six weeks. The bill’s signing comes after weeks of protests and amid outcry for legal action against it. "We will not back …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Paul Haring By Cindy Wooden SKOPJE, North Macedonia (CNS) — Pope Francis went to the tiny Balkan nation of North Macedonia to pay tribute to a tiny saint who accomplished big things: St. Teresa of Kolkata. Mother Teresa was born Agnes Ganxhe Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents in Skopje …

IMAGE: CNS photo/R. Narendra, Reuters By NEW DELHI (CNS) — A powerful cyclone ripped through eastern India and sideswiped Bangladesh, leaving a trail of destruction and more than 30 deaths. Authorities said the evacuation of 1.2 million people from more than 10,000 villages prior to Cyclone Fani’s landfall May 3 …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis has chosen Brazil’s Cardinal Claudio Hummes to serve as relator general of next year’s Synod of Bishops on the Amazon. The nomination of the 84-year-old retired Archbishop of Sao Paulo was announced at the Vatican on …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Paul Haring By Cindy Wooden RAKOVSKI, Bulgaria (CNS) — In the Catholic heart of Bulgaria, Pope Francis celebrated a special Mass for 245 children receiving their first Communion and thanked them for helping him, their parents and grandparents remember their own first Communion. "Today you have made it …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Paul Haring By Cindy Wooden SOFIA, Bulgaria (CNS) — Twelve boys and girls wearing white T-shirts and dark pants sang for Pope Francis at a refugee center on the outskirts of Sofia. Their songs were cheerful and the drawings they gave the pope were chock full of smiles …