IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — To pray well, people need to have the heart of a child — a child who feels safe and loved in a father’s tender embrace, Pope Francis said. If people have become estranged from God, feel lonely, abandoned or have …

IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy Mazur via catholicnews.org.uk By Judith Sudilovsky JERUSALEM (CNS) — Visiting with Christian communities in northern Israel and the northern Palestinian Territories has helped bishops participating in the annual Holy Land Coordination see "the great need" to promote an understanding between Israelis and Palestinians, said Bishop Noel Treanor …

WASHINGTON–In response to Monday’s federal court ruling from Pennsylvania granting a nationwide injunction barring the broadened moral and religious exemption to the HHS mandate, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas, Chairman …

IMAGE: CNS photo/FBI handout via Reuters By Carol Zimmermann WASHINGTON (CNS) — For nearly three months, parishioners at St. Peter Catholic Church in Cameron, Wisconsin, were praying for the safe return of one of their own — 13-year-old Jayme Closs. When parishioners heard the news that she had escaped her …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Paul Haring By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Marking the Pontifical Academy for Life’s 25th anniversary, Pope Francis encouraged the research and advisory body to promote human solidarity and fraternity as part of its mandate to promote human life. A sense of fraternity between people and nations …

IMAGE: By Julie Asher WASHINGTON (CNS) — The conclusion reached by a Pennsylvania grand jury that six of the state’s Catholic dioceses acted "in virtual lockstep" to cover up abuse allegations and dismiss alleged victims over a 70-year period starting in 1947 is "inaccurate," "unfair" and "misleading," said a veteran …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Max Rossi, Reuters By ROME (CNS) — After weeks of confusion and consternation, Rome’s mayor told the Vatican newspaper that Rome Caritas would benefit not only from the coins tourists throw in the Trevi Fountain, but from coins tossed in any of the city’s historic water features. Caritas …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Vatican Media By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Faith isn’t something learned just by studying the catechism but rather is a gift passed on to children by the example of their parents, Pope Francis said. Although children learn the tenets of the Catholic faith in catechism …

IMAGE: CNS/Tyler Orsburn By Julie Asher WASHINGTON (CNS) — Neither snow nor sleet — nor partial government shutdown — will keep pro-lifers away from the nation’s capital for the March for Life Jan. 18. If it continues, the shutdown will be almost a month old by then. Daily news reports …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn By Mark Pattison WASHINGTON (CNS) — In most election cycles, there may be 30 to 50 new members of Congress. For 2019, there are 89 — and a 90th may yet be headed for Capitol Hill based on how a disputed House election in North Carolina …