A young volunteer displays food prepared for dinners served at a Friday evening fish fry at Sweetest Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Detroit. The Friday fish fry is a big event during Lent for many people in Catholic parishes and is especially popular in some regions of the United States. (CNS photo/Jim West) ...read more

A child dressed as a penitent takes part in a Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession in Guatemala City. (CNS photo/Jorge Dan Lopez, Reuters) ...read more

Children exit a church after receiving ashes during an Ash Wednesday Mass in Guatemala City. Catholics around the world began the penitential season of Lent with prayer, fasting and the mark of ashes. (CNS photo/Joe Penney, Reuters) ...read more

  Today we begin that long walk towards Holy Week, which culminates in celebrating the greatest event in human history: the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Something that never fails to inspire awe in me however, is just how diverse our expressions of faith are. Encountering different Catholic rituals around the world, sometimes I’m intrigued, other ...read more

(Photo: CNS) Pope Francis says a lot of surprising and challenging things.  Often I read something he’s said or written and say to myself, “I can’t believe he said that.”  Still—as with anything else—we can become desensitized to his spontaneity and candour, and we risk glossing over some of his highly consequential statements. One recent statement ...read more

Pierluigi Molla, son of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, shares memories of his mother and the lessons Catholics can learn from her life. How are you going to spend the next five minutes of your time?  You could browse social media or check your email, but how about meeting a fascinating person and learning something relevant ...read more

In anticipation of the National March for Life to take place on Capitol Hill on Friday, January 22, 2016, despite the impending winter storm, the Knights of Columbus released a video highlighting various Marches for Life from all across the globe. See the video below for glimpses of the Pro-Life movement from the United States, ...read more

This past October 29, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) launched a joint Declaration on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. The sponsoring signatories to the Declaration intend now to engage in a concerted effort in view of obtaining signatures from a wide spectrum of people in Canada who agree ...read more

With the Christmas season officially over, this week the Vatican got back to business. Pope Francis had a full slate of meetings this week with a wide variety of guests: the priests from the Argentine College, the nuncios to Zimbabwe, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the papal delegate to Palestine and Jerusalem and a ...read more

Among the many topics discussed in our recent 2015 Year in Review program was the highly anticipated and much debated Synod of Bishops part two, on the vocation and mission of the family today. It was easily the biggest news story in the Catholic world last year, and could very well carry over into 2016. That’s ...read more