Near the beginning of what is arguably the Second Vatican Council’s most important document, the Council fathers wrote, “It pleased God, in His goodness and wisdom, to reveal Himself and to make known the mystery of His will... .” Knowing that mystery enables us to share in the life of God.

HAMBURG, Germany -- Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx has called for a change in Catholic teaching on homosexuality, reported the German Catholic news agency KNA.

VATICAN CITY -- Following through on a proposal made at the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon, Pope Francis said there are plans to include a definition of ecological sins in the church's official teaching.

BALTIMORE -- The U.S. bishops voted June 13 to revise what the U.S. church teaches its adult members about the death penalty in a passage on the issue in the U.S. Catechism for Adults.

BALTIMORE -- During their June 11-13 meeting in Baltimore, the U.S. bishops are looking at what the U.S. church teaches its adult members about the death penalty and they will vote about adding a revised passage to the U.S. Catechism for Adults about this.

VATICAN – The death penalty is an inhumane form of punishment that ignores the primacy of mercy in the name of justice, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis' recent statement that the death penalty is incompatible with the Gospel focused less on a government's role in protecting its people and more on the need to defend the sacredness and dignity of every human life.

The death penalty, no matter how it is carried out, "is, in itself, contrary to the Gospel," Pope Francis said.