Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.

Pope Francis reminded visiting pilgrims Wednesday that Christians today continue to be persecuted and to give their lives as martyrs throughout the world, even in Europe.

Pope Francis said that the 1945 bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki arose from a “desire for dominance and destruction” in his message for the 2020 World Day of Peace released Thursday.

Christians are experiencing “genocidal, religious-based violence” in many parts of Africa as Islamic terror groups gain greater traction on the continent, according to Save the Persecuted Christians, a U.S.-based charity.

Senegalese Archbishop Benjamin Ndiaye has summoned journalists to help wake people up to the gravity of the jihad threat posed by Islamists.

The German Catholic bishops’ conference has issued a statement declaring homosexuality to be just as “normal” as heterosexuality while adding that adultery can no longer be considered a “serious sin.”

A majority of practicing U.S. Catholics support President Donald Trump and give him a 52 percent job-approval rating, a poll revealed Monday.

“Like the rest of the West, the Vatican has a distorted narrative” of the situation in Syria, declared President Bashar al-Assad on Italian television Monday night.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has released a declaration on children and climate change that completely ignores children’s number-one environmental health risk: air pollution.

The president of the Latin-American Catholic Bishops’ Conference (CELAM) said that Europeans need to leave behind a “poetic” understanding of climate change to begin combating it effectively.

Pope Francis insisted Monday that corruption is a “cancer” that makes people look for easy money and ends up making everyone poorer.

A top Vatican bishop has confirmed Pope Francis’ wish to visit Beijing and establish formal diplomatic ties with the country, as reported Monday in China’s state-run Global Times.

The Claremont United Methodist Church has erected a Nativity scene portraying the Holy Family separated and held in cages at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The hugely popular Bible App has announced that Philippians 4:6 is the biblical “verse of the year” based on the number of times users accessed that passage.

The rate of destruction from climate change “is now so acute and so vast that it cannot be ignored” proclaims Wired magazine in a breathless essay Saturday insisting that the planet is “burning.”

A Nigerian bishop said this week that Christians need to be aware that witchcraft is real and represents “the state of unredeemed man.”

The PlayWay company has announced a new simulation game called “I Am Jesus Christ,” allowing players to assume the role of Jesus — walking on water, fighting Satan, and healing the blind.

The pope’s right-hand man for charitable outreach has returned to Rome from the Greek island of Lesbos with 33 migrants in tow and a harsh assessment of the state of affairs for migrants on the island.

Chinese Bishop John Fang Xingyao, president of the state-run Catholic Patriotic Association, said last week that allegiance to the nation must always predominate over allegiance to God.

The Vatican invested upwards of a million dollars to finance the Rocketman film, a biopic of singer-songwriter Elton John with a graphic scene of gay sex.

Pope Francis has compared U.S. President Donald Trump to the murderous King Herod who massacred innocent children in ancient Palestine while trying to kill the baby Jesus, a Jesuit journal revealed Thursday.

Pope Francis came out swinging against the war on Christmas Thursday, saying that secularists want to eliminate Christian symbols like the Nativity scene because they are afraid of the real meaning of Christmas.

Pope Francis recalled a massive storm that struck northern Italy last fall, saying that such natural disasters are nature’s way of sounding an alarm to make us more environmentally engaged.

ROME — The former bishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Joseph Zen, said Pope Francis’ new policies in dealing with the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) are “killing” the underground Church in that country.

Pope Francis upbraided political leaders for their half-hearted response to the climate crisis Wednesday, suggesting that their weak resolve in cutting emissions reveals a lack of political will.

Teenage climate scold Greta Thunberg issued another warning Tuesday to adults who allow global warming to continue, suggesting they fail to grasp the power of the young.

A gang of four Muslim men attacked a Christian street preacher in Norway, kicking him in the face and threatening to kill him if he did not convert to Islam.

ROME — “We are called to recognize in every person with a disability, even with complex and serious disabilities, a unique contribution to the common good,” Pope Francis said Tuesday.

Pope Francis told businesspeople to prioritize the urgent demands of social justice over increased productivity and profitability, even if it means martyrdom.

Pope Francis has sent the papal almoner back to the Greek island of Lesbos to pick up 33 asylum-seekers and bring them back to Rome.

The driver of a tour bus on the Galapagos Islands has been fined over $11,000 for having accidentally run over a tortoise in danger of extinction, damaging the creature’s shell.