About 50 Hindu extremists burst into a Catholic school in southern India, demanding enrollment for two children, the Vatican missionary news agency Fides reported.

Twenty-five ethicists and lawyers from 11 European countries have stated their support for a proposed ban on patenting technologies derived from experiments on human embryos.

A coalition of religious investors want officials at 27 major companies to look deeper into the role human trafficking may play in the operation of their firms.

When tourists visit a Catholic church or shrine to view the art or architecture, they also should get a sense of the faith that inspired the work, the Vatican said.

Bishop Tod Brown of Orange asked a group of diocesan advisers July 6 to "explore possibilities" regarding the Crystal Cathedral, once the home church of the Rev. Robert Schuller, a noted TV preacher.

The Vatican reported a budget surplus for the first time in four years in 2010, but said contributions from Catholics and dioceses around the world had gone down.

Greece's Catholic Church faces disaster because the current economic crisis is forcing it to end vital social and charitable projects, said Archbishop Nikolaos Foskolos of Athens.

Mexico's electoral tribunal has ordered the Interior Ministry to sanction the Archdiocese of Mexico City for comments urging Catholics to not vote for political parties promoting liberalized abortion laws and same-sex marriage.

Pope Benedict officially began his summer vacation July 7, taking a helicopter from the Vatican to the hilltop town of Castel Gandolfo, less than 25 km south of Rome.

One of the most successful movie franchises of all time goes out in style with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (Warner Bros.).

Though this eighth installment in the series that began with 2001's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone may bewilder newcomers — if there are any of the uninitiated left, they will not find themselves mollycoddled by patient exposition — director David Yates provides a gratifying wrap-up to a decade of blockbuster adaptations.