By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service  VATICAN CITY — Church law has procedures and penalties for effectively dealing with allegations of clerical sexual abuse, but the Vatican is working to revise a section of the Code of Canon Law to make those norms and procedures clearer and, therefore, more effective, …

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Blessed John XXIII struggled to shake off many formalities that came with the papacy and often conspired with his valet to sneak out of the Vatican. One covert road trip in the Alban Hills outside of Rome got Guido Gusso, the pope’s valet, in …

  By Francis X. Rocca Catholic News Service  VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis received U.S. President Barack Obama at the Vatican March 27. In what was their first encounter, the two leaders spoke in private for more than 50 minutes, an extraordinarily long time for such a meeting.

By Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — In his first year as the 265th successor of Peter, Pope Francis “has brought to light new dimensions of the Petrine ministry and added new life to the office he holds,” the U.S. bishops’ Administrative Committee said March 11. He has done this in …

Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — If you haven’t been to confession recently, don’t wait, Pope Francis told people at his weekly general audience. One may walk into the confessional with a heavy heart, but forgiveness brings freedom and lightness. “If a lot of time has passed, don’t lose even …

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — In retirement, Pope Benedict XVI follows a daily schedule similar to that of any retired bishop or religious: He prays, reads, strolls, talks with people and offers them spiritual advice, the Vatican spokesman said. Although he “lives in a low-key way, …

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child continued to insist that the Vatican compile and publish detailed statistics on clerical sexual abuse of minors and that the pope, as head of the church, can and should order Catholic dioceses …

By Francis X. Rocca Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — On successive days in mid-January, Pope Francis and his top collaborator at the Vatican made public statements that provided a lesson in Franciscan contextualization of highly loaded moral issues.

By Francis X. Rocca Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — In the first nine and a half months of Pope Francis‘ pontificate, more than 6.6 million people participated in papal events at the Vatican, including weekly general audiences, group audiences, liturgies and recitations of the Angelus and “Regina Coeli” on …

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — The world famous Nativity scenes of Naples never follow just the biblical account of Jesus’ birth; for one thing, the figures usually are dressed in 18th-century costumes, but also it’s not unusual for a modern-day politician or even pope to enter …