"In principle, it was accepted by the synod," the pope said, according to Eugenio Scalfari, a co-founder and former editor of La Repubblica, an Italian daily. "This is the basic result: the evaluations of the facts are entrusted to confessors, but at the end of the processes—whether quick or slow—all the divorced who ask for it will be admitted."

Pope Francis said that women "must be protected and helped in this dual task: the right to work and the right to motherhood."

The Heritage event comes after a series of undercover videos released this summer showed physicians and others associated with Planned Parenthood describing the harvesting of fetal tissue and body parts during abortions at their clinics and discussing the sale of post-abortion fetal tissue.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters. "The challenge is nothing less than to chart a course out of hell. And that’s not going to happen overnight, but I am convinced that the steps that we worked on today, if followed up on, if worked on in good faith, can begin to move us in the right direction."

Rainfall this week has helped disperse haze in several regions of Indonesia severely affected by forest and peat fires. The Voice of America news service reports that the governor of Riau province in northern Sumatra said Wednesday a 90-minute rainfall cleared much of the smoke and improved visibili

Syriac Catholic bishops, meeting in Lebanon during their annual synod, called for a diplomatic solution to achieve peace in Syria and Iraq.In a statement released at the conclusion of the synod, the bishops pleaded for an end to the civil was in Syria, now in its fifth year and urged countries&mdash