By Paul Haring ROME (CNS) — Forty-nine votive candles burned in front of the altar in a Rome church as people gathered to pray for the victims of the massacre June 12 in an Orlando, Florida, nightclub. The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See and Santa Susanna parish, the parish …

IMAGE: CNS/Reuters By Cindy Wooden ROME (CNS) — Like Moses before the burning bush, those talking about the real-life situations of families must take off their sandals because they are standing on holy ground, Pope Francis said. The pastoral care of families requires “a climate of respect capable of helping …

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Meeting with acrobats, clowns, carnival workers, street performers, musicians and magicians, Pope Francis thanked the artists for bringing beauty and joy to an often dark, sad world. “You cannot imagine what good you do, the good you sow,” he said …

By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Catholic Church has launched a new kind of “special forces” in the fight against child abuse. Nineteen men and women from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas became the first graduates awarded special certification in the safeguarding of minors — an initiative …

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Carol Glatz ROME (CNS) — In the small dormitory room that smelled of moist modelling clay, dozens of statues of a laughing Jesus lined wooden shelves against a wall. The small plaster statuettes showed the Lord reclining on the ground against a rock, his eyes pinched …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Andrea Navarro, Florida Catholic By Christine Young and Teresa Peterson ORLANDO, Fla. (CNS) — In Orlando and major cities around the nation and the world, people gathered June 13 to pay tribute to those killed and injured in the shooting rampage in Orlando the previous day. About 700 …

By Christine Young and Teresa Peterson ORLANDO, Fla. (CNS) — Since the worst shooting attack in America occurred June 12, Catholic Charities of Central Florida has been working in the background to help victims, survivors and family members in whatever way possible. Just hours after the shooting at a gay …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Dan Peled, EPA By Dennis Sadowski WASHINGTON (CNS) — Thinking green is not easy. Nor is it always cheap. But for St. Michael Parish in Poway, California, north of San Diego, parishioners are already seeing the benefits — spiritual, financial and environmental — of a $1.3 million investment …

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring By Junno Arocho Esteves VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Indifference and hostility can blind Christians from recognizing Jesus in those most in need, Pope Francis said. “This indifference and hostility can turn into aggression” toward people often marginalized by society, the pope said June 15 during his weekly …

By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — More than a year after the conclusion of the Vatican’s apostolic visitation of U.S. communities of women religious, the Vatican began asking more than a dozen orders to send their superiors to Rome to discuss concerns that surfaced. “We did a very positive …