Pope Francis

While Rome reels from one of its worst droughts in decades, the Vatican is doing its part to conserve water by shutting down the city-state’s 100 fountains.

Father Giulio Cirignano examines the possible reasons behind what he sees as a “disconcerting fact” — that a large part of the Catholic lay faithful have recognized the “kairos” or favorable occasion God is offering the church today while other Catholics, who are “closer to poorly enlightened pastors, are kept within an old horizon.”

Chris Gard and Connie Yates announced in London’s High Court July 24 that they had ended their legal struggle to take their baby overseas for treatment.

The national director of Priests for Life in New York welcomed a London court’s decision allowing a U.S. doctor to go to England to examine a 10-month-old terminally ill British infant at the center of a medical and ethical debate.

The former head of the Vatican’s doctrine office, Cardinal Gerhard Muller, denied reports claiming he was dismissed by Pope Francis due to differences in doctrinal matters.

Pope Francis says to be a catechist is a vocation of service in the church and this service is done by preaching the Gospel through concrete actions rather than treating it as just a job.

The Vatican recently published a circular letter, “On the bread and wine for the Eucharist,” sent to diocesan bishops at the request of Pope Francis. Dated June 15 — the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ — the letter was made public by the Vatican July 8.

After hearing complaints about care at the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesu Children’s Hospital three years ago, the Holy See formed a commission in 2014 to study workers’ complaints and concerns about unsafe medical protocols, overcrowding and a culture that emphasized practices that might reap greater revenues.