MANILA, Philippines -- A Catholic bishop and a lay group have joined rights organizations to denounce and call for an investigation into the killing of nine activists by security forces in raids in four Philippine provinces March 7.

CHICAGO -- Joe Scheidler, founder of the Pro-Life Action League in Chicago and one of the towering figures of the pro-life movement for decades, died of pneumonia Jan. 18 surrounded by his family at his home n Chicago. He was 93.

OTTAWA -- On a wet and damp October Thursday on a pathway that goes under a street in downtown Ottawa near the Rideau Centre shopping mall not far from Parliament Hill, a group of people huddled in sleeping bags and blankets to fight off the chill.

VATICAN – Break through every "wall" of gloom and resignation and help the world realize people need to take care of one another because they are all part of one human family, Pope Francis told Catholic journalists.

TORONTO – Despite receiving the maximum penalty at a sentencing hearing for her pro-life activism, Mary Wagner walked out of Toronto's Old City Hall a relatively free woman April 23.

Jean Vanier, the Canadian advocate for people with developmental disabilities who helped create an international network of residential communities that champion the rights of their residents, has won the 2015 Templeton Prize.

TORONTO - With a federal election scheduled for this year, Campaign Life Coalition has launched the #No2Trudeau campaign to foil the Liberal leader's victory plan.

VATICAN CITY - The Catholic Church's project of "new evangelization" faces two dangers: people thinking others will do the work and people so fired up to preach the Gospel, they forget to pray, said the preacher of the papal household.

Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, who preaches to the pope and top Vatican officials on the Fridays of Advent and Lent, dedicated his December 2011 series to lessons the church can learn from its own history of evangelization efforts.