VATICAN CITY – While snowfall is a rarity and Santa Claus is seldom seen, Christmas at the Vatican is truly unique.Read More

MALAKAL, Southern Sudan – As January’s referendum on independence for Southern Sudan approaches, tensions are running high in communities along what many expect will become a new international border with northern Sudan.Read More

TORONTO - Spurred by the exodus of Iraqi Christians, the Toronto Archdiocese doubled the number of Iraqi refugee families it sponsored in 2010 to 190.Read More

LUBECK, Germany – As the Nazi executioner beheaded three Catholic priests and a Lutheran pastor, one after another in a matter of minutes, their blood flowed together, creating a powerful symbol for ecumenism in northern Germany.Read More

WASHINGTON – With a vote of 59 to 40, the Senate Dec. 9 kept alive hopes for passing the DREAM Act by tabling the long-sought bill that would give potentially millions of students who are in the country illegally the chance to go to college or join the military and legalize their status.Read More

BEIJING – The Chinese-government-controlled National Congress of Catholic Representatives elected new leaders for the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China and the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, the two groups responsible for the public life of the church in the communist country.Read More

In just six years, Hannah Schmidt became one of the Baltimore area’s best young volleyball players.Read More

Last week, I read a newspaper article about a Connecticut man whose wife and two daughters were raped and murdered three years ago. At the killer’s recent sentencing hearing, the man, a physician, spoke of the impact such a crime has had on his life: “I seriously considered suicide many times. I have no wife,...Read More