It is not surprising that Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, an eminent paleontologist, got himself in trouble with church officials and his Jesuit superiors.

Fasting “at least for one day of the week from futile distractions” such as social media also can be a path toward a jubilee indulgence, according to norms published by the Vatican May 13.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith will publish its new norms for the discernment of apparitions and other supernatural phenomena May 17, the Vatican press office said.

“Human life is not a problem, it is a gift,” said Pope Francis at a meeting on Italy's longtime decline in births and population growth on May 10. “The problem is not how many of us there are in the world, but what kind of world we are building.”

A federal appeals court May 8 ruled in favor of the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, protecting religious schools' freedom to hire schoolteachers who will uphold their religious beliefs.

Although the Catholics invented the practice of excommunication to deal with severe sins, other religious groups have also adopted it for their own purposes.