Catholic News Service
VATICAN – The place Pope Francis chose to sign his letter to young people is an important and popular sanctuary housing the Holy House of Loreto.
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Faith
WARSAW, Poland – A close aide to St. John Paul II has vigorously defended the late pope's handling of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy and denied accusations that he ignored the problem during his 27-year pontificate.
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International
UNITED NATIONS – Women should not be required to divest themselves of femininity to achieve empowerment and gender equality, according to panelists at a March 19 event at the United Nations.
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International
VATICAN – Catholic parents should vaccinate their children for the good of their children and the community, and they can do so with a "clear conscience" that "the use of such vaccines does not signify some sort of cooperation in voluntary abortion," said the Pontifical Academy for Life.
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International
WASHINGTON – One of the founders of liberation theology in Latin America said he supports an effort to declare St. Oscar Romero a doctor of the Catholic Church.
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Faith
WASHINGTON – The chairman of the U.S. bishops' domestic policy committee late March 19 expressed grief over the lives and livelihoods lost and threatened by the historic flooding in the Midwest and offered prayers for recovery.
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International
MANCHESTER, England – Ordinations to the priesthood in Spain have soared by 24 percent in the last year.
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International
VATICAN – Pope Francis recognized the martyrdom of an Italian missionary killed in Myanmar and seven Romanian Catholic bishops – one of whom was secretly named a cardinal by St. Paul VI – persecuted during the communist era.
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Faith
The German Catholic Church is "in deep distress," said Thomas Sternberg, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics, the coordinating body of official German Catholic lay organizations.
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Faith
VATICAN – The Vatican-owned Bambino Gesu Children's Hospital in Rome is a sign of the Catholic Church's commitment to caring for and protecting the dignity of the sick, said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state.
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International