A battle between the feared Zetas drug cartel and rivals at a prison left 49 people dead in the northeastern Mexican city of Monterrey, authorities said yesterday.
Pope Francis has invited a group of divorced and remarried Catholics to discuss the controversial issue of whether such individuals should be allowed officially to receive Holy Communion at Mass.
Priests must abandon the "cudgel of judgement" when hearing confession, Pope Francis said in a homily to his specially appointed "missionaries of mercy" before their send-off.
Pope Francis will officially authorise the use of indigenous languages in Catholic liturgies when he visits Mexico later this week. It is expected to be one of several such gestures he will make.
The Pope has made another urgent appeal for peace in Syria, calling on the international community to spare no effort to bring all the parties in conflict to the negotiating table.
Jewish scholars believe that the 2,000-year-old prophecy of the children of Esau (today's Western nations) and the children of Ishmael (today's Arab nations) uniting against the Jewish people as a precursor of the end of days is already being fulfilled.
A family vacationing in Rome who had planned to make just a quick stop at the Vatican were surprised when the Pope invited two of their children for a 10-minute ride on the Popemobile.
God does not want to condemn anybody, rather he seeks the salvation of everybody, said Pope Francis during his weekly general audience in St Peter's Square on Wednesday.