Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley has praised the Oscar-winning movie “Spotlight,” which portrays The Boston Globe’s investigation of clergy sexual abuse in the archdiocese, for forcing the Catholic Church to acknowledge its “crimes and sins” in covering up for predator priests.

VATICAN CITY - The prayers of the faithful, not the pope, bishops, priests or nuns, have the power to make miracles happen in the most impossible situations, Pope Francis said at his morning Mass.

NAIROBI, Kenya - Anti-gay activists, including conservative clerics, traditional elders and politicians, are threatening to resist any push by U.S. President Barack Obama for gay rights during his Kenya visit this week, with tactics that range from throwing rotten eggs to marching naked and boycotting his speeches.

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican threw its support behind its financial chief, Cardinal George Pell, on Monday (June 1), after he was accused of being “almost sociopathic” in his handling of clergy sex abuse by a leading member of a papal commission dedicated to tackling the issue.

VATICAN CITY - More than 55,000 people have signed a petition calling for Cardinal George Pell to return to his native Australia and face a government commission on child sex abuse, after allegations that he tried to bribe the victim of a pedophile priest.

VATICAN CITY - A number of Catholic parishes in Italy are set for a management overall, following a new training program launched May 5 between the Villanova School of Business in the United States and the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.

WASHINGTON - The questions raised by U.S. Supreme Court justices as they considered April 28 whether they should rule that same-sex marriage should be made legal nationwide covered a gamut of rights concerns — religious, equal protection, states' ability to enact their own laws.

WARSAW, Poland - Poland's Catholic Church has urged a fitting tribute to hundreds of its priests who died during World War II at the Nazi concentration camp in Dachau, Germany.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Catholic Church spent a total of $150.7 million on child protection efforts and to address allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors in dioceses and religious orders between July 2013 and June 2014.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis named 71-year-old Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, president of the Prefecture of the Economic Affairs of the Holy See since 2011, to be the new prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education.

TORONTO - The long hours thousands upon thousands of volunteers spend repacking food and stocking shelves in their parish food banks aren’t solving the problem of hunger, claims a union-and-Church-backed campaign demanding governments raise social assistance and minimum wage rates.

LONDON - Religious leaders from across Africa and England came together June 11 to discuss the role clergy should play in preventing and responding to sexual violence.