The southern arm of the national pilgrimage launched from the tip of Texas in Brownsville — nearly half a mile from the U.S.-Mexico border — and will wind around the Gulf of Mexico and traverse the country’s southeast on its way to Indianapolis to attend the July 17-21 10th National Eucharistic Congress.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone told pilgrims at a Pentecost Mass launching the western route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage — the St. Junipero Serra Route — that the faith publicly lived in love has the “power to change history.”

Empowered and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, Christians are called to develop the gentleness needed to proclaim the Gospel to all, Pope Francis said.

The Vatican is expecting some 70,000 children between the ages of 5 and 12 and their chaperones to fill Rome’s Olympic Stadium for the opening events of the first World Children’s Day May 25 and to join Pope Francis for Mass in St. Peter’s Square the next morning.

In her line of work, Detective Jasmine Cardenas confronts evil on a daily basis. While experiencing this evil could lead some to question God, for Cardenas, it has helped her find God in the negative and rely on him to get through the day.

Apparitions, images of the Blessed Mother inspire devotions in our cultural communities. Honoring the Virgin Mary and seeking her intercession is an important part of being Catholic.

Paula Umana, a tennis coach, motivational speaker and author of “40 Gifts of Hope,” shared her story during a May 10 webinar on “Where Faith and Disability Meet,” organized by the National Catholic Partnership on Disability, whose aim was to shine a light on the experience of disability through the lens of Catholic mothers.

British pro-life campaigners have vowed to step up opposition to law changes that would lift all restrictions on abortion and called on church leaders to speak up more forcefully.

The leader of a Catholic nonprofit in the nation of Georgia is speaking out after that country’s parliament passed controversial legislation on foreign agents — a measure she said “risks jeopardizing the provision of services to the beneficiaries who need them the most.”

The Vatican has published new norms for the church to discern alleged supernatural phenomena, such as Marian apparitions and mystical visions, which streamline the discernment process for bishops, allow the Vatican to avoid making definitive judgments on the authenticity of the events and reaffirm that Catholics are not obliged to believe in the purported phenomena.