VATICAN CITY – After leading thousands of pilgrims in praying the Angelus, Pope Francis offered prayers for flood victims in Texas and Louisiana following a devastating hurricane that caused massive flooding.

WASHINGTON – Global persecution of Christians has risen for the fourth year in a row and is on a “rapid rise” in Asia, the advocacy group Open Doors UK warned on Wednesday in its annual report on Christian persecution.

VATICAN CITY - The number of baptized Catholics worldwide has grown at a faster rate than that of the world's population, according to Vatican statistics.

A new report mapping the Catholic Church’s more than 1.2 billion souls — on track to reach 1.64 billion by 2050 — holds some surprises.

And not all bode well for the Church’s future as it faces major demographic and social shifts.

By Joy Smith, Catholic Register Special

On New Year’s Day, Pope Francis delivered his annual World Day of Peace message that passionately called for an end to modern-day slavery. The title, “No longer slaves, but brothers and sisters,” is taken from St. Paul’s letter to Philemon. Pope Francis noted that “slavery is rooted in a notion of the human person which allows him or her to be treated as an object” and highlighted the many forms of modern-day slavery, including “persons forced into prostitution, many of whom are minors.”

TORONTO - The diplomat’s take on what it means to be educated includes getting out of your country and out of your comfort zone. For incoming University of St. Michael’s College president David Mulroney, his diplomat’s understanding of education also happens to be Catholic.

VATICAN CITY - Santosh Kumar Magar said he was attending the ordination of a new priest in Okhaldhunga, a remote part of eastern Nepal, when the devastating magnitude-7.8 earthquake hit April 25.

HONG KONG - Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, retired bishop of Hong Kong, protested at the Chinese Liaison Office in the city and asked the whereabouts of Bishop Cosmas Shi Enxiang of Yixian, who was said to have died in detention.

Pope Francis made an apostolic visit to Sri Lanka and the Philippines Jan. 13-19, 2015. The Sri Lanka highlight was the canonization of St. Joseph Vaz. In the Philippines, the Pope celebrated Mass with six million people in Manilla. All the articles from his trip are listed below, including some Canadian reaction written by Register reporters Michael Swan and Evan Boudreau.

MANILA, Philippines - Pope Francis told a crowd of an estimated six million gathered in a Manila park to protect the family "against insidious attacks and programs contrary to all that we hold true and sacred, all that is most beautiful and noble in our culture."

MANILA, Philippines - Young people drew inspiration from an encounter with Pope Francis at the University of Santo Tomas.

MANILA, Philippines - The realities of life described by young people, especially the tearful question of a 12-year-old girl about why God allows suffering, led Pope Francis to set aside the first text he had prepared for a meeting Jan. 18 with the young people of the Philippines.

The pastoral visit of Pope Francis to the Philippines, which culminates Jan. 18 at an outdoor Mass expected to draw more than four million people, is being dubbed as a “mercy and compassion visit,” said Faye Arellano of Toronto.

A relaunched corporate social responsibility policy for Canadian mining companies has Development and Peace hopeful that Canadian companies will be held accountable for their environmental, labour and community investment records in Latin America, Africa and Asia.