Note from the Assistant Editor:

"If tomorrow I say that Michelangelo's Pieta is going to be auctioned, it can't be done, because it's not the property of the Church. It's inside a church, but it belongs to humanity."

One of the things which secular Westerners find so mind blowing about Islamic terrorist attacks is the irrationality of the evil.

Why are the so-called Christian countries so spineless in the face of the Muslim terror?

Pope Francis has caused controversy by appearing to suggest that a Lutheran wife of a Catholic husband could receive holy Communion based on the fact that she is baptized and in accordance with her conscience.

Personally, I would prefer Pope Francis to be less prone to shifting spiritual questions to the internal forum in order to escape a clear and consistent exposition of the principles involved.

Francis has steadily prepared the Church for change. It's foolish to ignore the signs.

Togetherness is a sure thermometer for measuring the health of relationships: if something is not going well in a family, or if there is some hidden wound, it is immediately clear at the table.

"I want a happy Church with the face of a mother, who understands, accompanies, caresses," the Holy Father told Italian Catholics.

To any Catholic in turmoil because the present pope is not to their liking — read some church history. You will realize that turmoil and trouble have been with us since the time of the apostles.

Before concluding the reform cause is hopeless, three cautions are in order.

"Just because [co-habitation] has become more common and part of the culture does not mean we have to say it is something good or morally right."

A Catholic couple who founded the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) to save migrants drowning at sea last year are to launch a new rescue mission in the Aegean Sea.

The Lafayette Diocese has converted an old ambulance into a mobile confessional called a spiritual care unit.

The court's first bench voted 4-1 in favour of an injunction that allows four individuals to grow and consume marijuana for recreational purposes.

The Little Sisters' case is simple, straightforward, and based on moral premises that are widely shared outside of their faith and recognized in law.

Mr. Wang, part of the one-child generation, said many Chinese families had forgotten that having a large family was a natural part of life. A Chinese proverb says that having a son and a daughter makes a family complete.

Mary knew — better than any of us ever will — that God would work all things for good. And still she mourned, her heart shattered. Because hope does not banish suffering. It just makes it bearable.

It was once considered unbecoming, or annoying itself, to moan publicly about trifling personal ordeals. Now, in a seismic shift for the moral culture, abetted by technology, we tolerate and even encourage the "microcomplaint": the petty, petulant kvetch about the quotidian.

I believe that the anguish and hardship these great authors endure aids in inspiring more meaningful stories, whereby suffering becomes a means to redemption. Because this is what every human heart knows: There simply must be a happy ending after this life of pain.

Those big Catholic families we love can challenge young couples. Here is how to support them in your parish.

The pill is increasingly prescribed for non-contraceptive reasons, but is it really the cure-all we think it is?

Living chastely during engagement will teach you many things about one another. It will help you to grow in the virtues essential to marriage — generous love, sacrificial giving, self-restraint and good communication.

Mary barely speaks in the New Testament, but her image and legacy are found and celebrated around the world.