Pope Francis’ comment that Ukraine should have the “courage of the white flag” and engage in negotiation to end its war with Russia was dismissed by the Ukrainian government and church leaders.

High school juniors and seniors are invited to enter an annual religious liberty essay contest hosted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, along with the USCCB Secretariat of Catholic Education and Our Sunday Visitor Institute.

Artificial intelligence risks giving technology a “pseudo-religion” status by shaping the way people engage with information and reality, a leading expert on artificial intelligence said.

A survey of attitudes among young people in eight countries about religious beliefs, prayer and social issues found that while about 25 percent identified as being atheist or agnostic, believers and non-believers were very likely to both agree about the severity of environmental problems and the danger of political corruption in the world.

– Encouraging negotiations to end Russia’s war on Ukraine, Pope Francis called for the warring sides to have the “courage of the white flag,” a term usually associated with surrender.

Pope Francis has asked Catholics to dedicate 2024 to intensifying their prayer lives in preparation for the celebration of the Holy Year 2025, and the Vatican has published a resource guide to help them.

Jesus frees Christians from all fear because not only is he the Good Shepherd who protects his flock, but also because he has “conquered the world” and death, the papal preacher said.

Ask women religious leaders on the front lines of the fight against human trafficking and the exploitation of cheap migrant labor, and you hear less about government programs and more about educating the migrants.

Spending most of her life in Armentières, a northern small French town bordering Belgium, Roseline Hamel, 84, would never have expected it to take such a dramatic turn when her brother, Jacques, 86, was murdered while celebrating Mass at his little church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in France’s Normandy region on July 26, 2016.

Catholics should not be afraid to bear their sins before God whose mercy is a model for the church’s ministers, Pope Francis said.