Pope Francis, the newly elected leader of the Roman Catholic Church, has been greeted by a wide array of media responses, and while many have focused on his record with social work, his stance on gay marriage and abortion has divided opinions.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, had served as the cardinal of Buenos Aires, Argentina, since 1998 before he was elected Wednesday to succeed the retired Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. He chose to be named after St. Francis of Assisi, the Catholic saint known as an early church reformer.

Many news websites have focused their coverage of Pope Francis on his social work with the poor – NBC News described him as prizing "compassion, humility and simplicity," reminding readers that back home in Buenos Aires he takes the bus to work instead of using the services of a private chauffeur. As a member of the Jesuit Society of Jesus, he has taken a vow of poverty and dedicated his life to working with the poor and suffering. more >>

A seminary in Pennsylvania has filed a motion to intervene on behalf of two Texas universities suing the Department of Health and Human Services over their "Preventive Services" mandate.

Westminster Theological Seminary of Glenside filed the motion Friday in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas Houston Division.

"Westminster claims an interest in the transaction that is the subject of this action. Westminster is a graduate level theological seminary which adheres to the historic Reformed understanding of the Christian faith," reads the motion in part. "As such, it is resolutely opposed, on biblical and First Amendment grounds, to the federal agencies' mandate being challenged here that requires it to provide its employees health insurance coverage for, and thereby encourage its employees to use, abortifacient drugs." more >>

In April of 2007, a mentally disturbed student showed up at the campus of his school, Virginia Tech, brandishing two semi-automatic pistols, and murdered 32 students, teachers and school employees and wounded 17 others. Then he took his own life.

It was the one of deadliest mass shooting incidents in American history.

The nation was in shock, as it is now following the December mass murder at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. more >>

For the past few days, I have been restless, often waking from dreaming with the burdens of the aborted unborn and the victims of sex selection abortions and sex trafficking on my heart. Then seemingly out of nowhere, I felt, not heard a whisper in my spirit: "Alveda, let God order your steps."

"The steps of the godly are directed by the LORD. He delights in every detail of their lives." Psalms 37:23 (NLT)

I allowed myself time to fully wake up and then I asked myself: "Self, are you allowing God to order your steps?" The answer surprised me. I realized that while sometimes I do allow God to order my steps, this isn't always the case. I realized too that God wanted me to actually love those whose cause I've been championing, really love them. more >>

The Arkansas House of Representatives voted Wednesday to override the governor's veto and ban abortions for women who are 12 weeks or greater into their pregnancies, thus passing the most restrictive law of its kind in the nation.

The House voted 56-33 to override Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe's veto on the Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act on Wednesday, just a day after the Senate voted to do so by a tally of 20-14. Only a simple majority was needed in each legislative chamber to override the veto.

The law requires abortion doctors to test for a fetal heartbeat before going through with the procedure. If a heartbeat is detectable and the woman has reached the 12-week gestation mark, an abortion cannot be performed. more >>

In the U.S. it is illegal in only four states to have an abortion solely based on the fetus' gender, but now at least nine states look to join them with their own bans.

Utah, Florida, New York, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Kansas, Colorado and North Dakota have legislation in the works that would ban sex-selective abortions if their bills pass. Currently, only Arizona, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma have laws against sex-sective abortions.

Dr. Stephen Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, told The Christian Post in an interview on Tuesday that gender-selective abortions were not much heard of 20 or 30 years ago (shortly after abortion was legalized), but has now "become more common with Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean immigrants coming on shore." more >>