Pope Francis issued a call for social justice in a speech to world officials gathered at the United Nations on Friday. Degradation of the environment, he argued, hits the poor the hardest.
During his trip to New York City, Pope Francis visited the Sept. 11 memorial on Friday, also taking part in an interfaith service with other religious leaders. He is visiting with families of the terror attacks' victims, as well.
The Catholic Church's stand on marriage, divorce, and contraceptives can seem out of step with the modern world—even to Catholics. Those who want to see reforms, such as making the process for obtaining an annulment easier, have been encouraged by recent statements of Pope Francis. But unhappy Catholics are still leaving the Church, and bishops will have to decide at a meeting in Rome next month on the family in the Church and in the contemporary world what to try to do about it. More →
American Catholics, says Rev. Thomas Reese of National Catholic Reporter, live out their faith in the local parish, and "they want to meet somebody like Pope Francis. And if the clergy and the bishops and the people aren’t like Pope Francis, or namely like Jesus, more welcoming, compassionate, loving, they’re going to turn around and never come back." More →
During the Mass celebrated at Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., Junipero Serra became the first saint canonized on U.S. soil.
In a speech before a joint meeting of Congress, the Catholic Church leader offered words threaded heavily with politics. For analysis, Renee Montagne speaks with NPR's Don Gonyea.
Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader with a lifetime of memories of meeting popes, says Republicans are mistaken to mix politics with Francis’s visit.
The arrival of Pope Francis has triggered discussions of the Catholic Church's historic treatment of the African-American faithful, and has sparked hopes for a better future.