Short Reads

Pope Francis has urged European Catholics to take in some of the thousands of migrants streaming in from Syria and other countries amid the world’s largest refugee crisis on record, and in his address to Congress today he urged leaders to welcome and respect immigrants coming to the U.S. But just how closely public opinion aligns with the pope’s […]

Although Europe is struggling to manage the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflicts in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere, the countries facing the biggest refugee impacts are the ones closest to the fighting.

As the UN looks to adopt new goals for the next 15 years, sub-Saharan Africa still lags behind other developing regions in the areas of poverty, health care and education.

Pope Francis will celebrate Mass on an enormous scale Sunday, with 2 million people expected to gather on a mile-long parkway in downtown Philadelphia. We gathered key facts about Communion and U.S. Catholics for the occasion.

Members of Congress today are less likely to be immigrants, especially compared with other periods of history when surges of new arrivals occurred, a new analysis by the Pew Research Center finds.

The urgency expressed by Pope Francis on global poverty and inequality is grounded in harsh reality. 4.4 billion people – 71% of the global population of 6.2 billion – lived on $10 or less per day in 2011, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of the most recently available data.

A majority of all Hispanic adults identify as Catholic and a large majority of Hispanic Catholics speak Spanish fluently. Eight-in-ten Hispanic Catholics use mostly Spanish or are bilingual. In fact, they are more likely to be Spanish speakers than non-Catholic Hispanics (68%).

We surveyed non-Web panel members by mail and assessed how much, if at all, their non-participation would affect the outcome in a poll conducted exclusively online.

Just what is "economic inequality"? Depends on whom you ask.