U.S. & World News

A true love for the divine Creator means acting on behalf of his children who are neglected by the powerful: the poor, the unborn, the elderly, the infirm and migrants, Pope Francis told representatives of different religious faiths and international leaders.

It's hard to tell what exactly happened in a skirmish between U.S. Border Patrol agents and a group carrying a giant Venezuelan flag near the U.S.-Mexico border Oct. 31.

Commitments to protect tolerance and religious freedom need to be put into practice constantly so that these rights may be fully experienced, Pope Francis said.

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester expressed outrage Nov. 2 over the desecration of several graves and the columbarium at the diocese's Calvary Cemetery in Rochester "with hateful and obscene graffiti" on Halloween night.

While the U.S. seems divided over a national plan for student loan debt forgiveness, a Catholic university president said that private education produces less student loan debt on average than public colleges.

As Christians await their death and the final judgment of God, the Gospel tells them what they must do to be welcomed into heaven: love others because God is love, Pope Francis said.

The saints were not "starched," picture-perfect conformists, Pope Francis said; they were "countercultural and revolutionary."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The COVID-19 pandemic has weakened many parishes, but that community "in the midst of homes, in the midst of people," is still an essential place for nourishing and sharing faith, Pope Francis told Italian young adults.