Two days after the head of the Vatican office overseeing religious life said he had not been consulted by the Vatican’s doctrinal office about a controversial investigation of American nuns, the two bodies affirmed their “common commitment” to reform of the U.S.-based Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

An 83-year-old woman religious and two other peace activists were found guilty May 8 in a federal court in Knoxville, Tenn., of “intending to harm national security” by breaking into the nuclear weapon-producing facility and defacing its walls last summer.

The number of Catholics in the world and the number of bishops, priests, religious men and seminarians all increased in 2011.

Entrusting Pope Francis’ pontificate to Our Lady of Fatima, Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo of Lisbon, Portugal, asked Mary to give the pope courage and strength, particularly as he moves to renew and reform the Catholic Church.

One of Mary’s titles is “Christ’s First Disciple,” and some of Christ’s earliest followers were women, two of whom he appeared to first after his resurrection.

Islamist rebels who have taken over Central African Republic are targeting Christians and their churches, and the population is “living in permanent anguish,” said the Catholic bishops’ justice and peace commission.

Listen to the Holy Spirit because he is giving people the good news that God loves them and can renew, purify and transform their lives, Pope Francis said.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell may have been convicted May 13 of murder at his Philadelphia abortion clinic, but “nothing can bring back the innocent children he killed, or make up for the vulnerable women he exploited,” Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput said in a May 14 statement.

Pope Francis told 800 superiors of women’s orders from around the world that the Catholic Church needs religious women and that religious women need to be in harmony with the faith and teachings of the Church.

Since Blessed John Paul II visited Vidigal, a hillside slum in south Rio de Janeiro, in 1980, life in the settlement has taken a turn for the better.

Pope Francis called for an end to slave labour and human trafficking as well as greater efforts to create dignified work for more people.

Every step Roberto Santiago takes – on numbing winter sidewalks, sharp-edged gravel pathways and feathery grass fields – he walks in solidarity with the poorest of the poor.

The Christian faith is about saying “yes” to God’s love and forgiveness in a way that saying “no” to sin will come naturally, Pope Francis said.

The unity of the Catholic Church rises or falls to the degree that its members uncompromisingly hold firm to the faith transmitted by the apostles, said Archbishop Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Catholics and Buddhists share “a profound reverence for life,” which should motivate them to work together to protect human life, including the life of the unborn, said Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

Meeting at the Vatican May 3, Pope Francis and Lebanese President Michel Sleiman called on the international community to offer concrete aid to Lebanon and other countries hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria.

People are courageous in pursuing their careers, personal ambitions and jealousies, but they really should be using that courage to believe in the resurrected Christ, pray to him and spread the Gospel, Pope Francis said.

Bishop Angelo Spina of Sulmona-Valva, Italy, holds snakes used to cover a wooden statue of St. Dominic, before a procession of the statue in Cocullo May 1.

The head of the Catholic Church’s child safeguarding watchdog in Ireland said he is encouraged by the latest audits of the handling of abuse allegations by dioceses and a religious congregation.

A Vatican-convoked commission of doctors concluded a healing attributed to Blessed John Paul II had no natural explanation, according to Italian news reports.