From Catholic News Service

Funny thing about recent Hollywood comedies, many of them are anything but. Whether marred by a post-"Hangover" desire to be outrageous or by actions or situations entirely unrelated to normal human behavior, they usually wind up being more tiresome than tickling.

Sustainable development in rural areas is key to making poverty and hunger a thing of the past, Pope Francis said.

One day before the anniversary of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, neighboring Mary Help of Christians School held a prayer service to pay tribute to the victims.

An independent investigation into the much-discussed encounter that went viral between Catholic high school students, a Native American tribal leader and members of another protest group on the Lincoln Memorial grounds in Washington in January found no evidence that the students of Kentucky's Covington Catholic High School issued "offensive or racist statements."

Father Augustus Tolton, the first African-American priest ordained for a diocese in the United States, was born into slavery and endured myriad obstacles, both inside the Catholic Church and out, as he relentlessly followed his call from God.

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor released an updated list of people who had assignments in Arkansas and against whom credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor were filed.

National Marriage Week USA and World Marriage Day are opportunities for "building a culture of life and love that begins with promoting and defending marriage and the family," said Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia.

2018 was an especially strong year both for documentaries and for fictional films exploring real-life issues, the ramifications of racism in particular. Other timely topics included the place of social media in contemporary life and the centennial of the end of World War I.

The declaration signed by Pope Francis and Sheik Ahmad el-Tayeb, the grand imam of al-Azhar, during the pope's trip to the United Arab Emirates "is a clarion call for robust dialogue that leads to peace," said the Catholic chairman of the National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue and the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.