By Elise Harris CNA/EWTN News On the eve of his arrival to Cuba Pope Francis sent a video message to the small island nation, expressing his desire to be a witness of God’s mercy in the country, and to encourage locals to do the same. “I want to be among …

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Arriving in the United States from Cuba, Pope Francis “will enter as a migrant” as millions of people have done before him, said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state. The cardinal, who will accompany the pope on his Sept. 19-27 visits to Cuba, …

By Patricia L. Guilfoyle Catholic News Service CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A broad digital media project to coincide with Pope Francis’ visit this fall to the United States aims to recruit and interact with young people, particularly those who do not think of themselves as religious. These “nones,” as researchers have …

By Elise Harris CNA/EWTN News The Vatican announced Sept. 15 that Bishop James V. Johnston, Jr. of Springfield-Cape Girardeau has been selected as the new head of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese. Announced in a Sept. 15 communique from the Vatican, Bishop Johnston’s nomination falls just five months after the diocese’s …

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A pope needs friends, needs mercy and needs to reach out to all people, Pope Francis said in two radio interviews released in mid-September. Pope Francis told Portugal’s Catholic Radio Renascenca that he goes to confession “every 15 days, 20 …

By Dennis Sadowski  Catholic News Service WASHINGTON (CNS) — Pope Francis’ address to the U.N. General Assembly Sept. 25 will mark the fifth papal speech delivered directly to representatives of the world’s governments. His address will come almost 50 years to the day — Oct. 4, 1965 — when Blessed …

By Jonathan Luxmoore Catholic News Service KONSTANCIN-JEZIORNA, Poland (CNS) — Prominent Chinese Catholics have warned that a campaign to remove crosses from church buildings could signal wider restrictions on religious freedom, but cautioned Christians not to overreact. “Whatever those in power do, their first question now is how they can …

By Mark Pattison  Catholic News Service WASHINGTON (CNS) — More must be done to help the beleaguered Christians of the Middle East, said speakers at a Sept. 11 dinner marking the end of the In Defense of Christians convention in Washington. Tactics they proposed, though, varied, in hope that some …

By Tom Tracy Catholic News Service MIAMI — More than 180 South Florida Catholics planned to travel to Havana once again for a historic papal visit to Cuba. The trip is the third Miami archdiocesan pilgrimage to Cuba for the three papal visits to the island nation, beginning with St. John …

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis’ 10th foreign trip will be the longest of his pontificate and, with stops in Cuba, three U.S. cities and the United Nations, it also will be a “very complex trip,” the papal spokesman said. Briefing reporters about the trip, Jesuit …