Catholic News Service

Ten months after a marble statue of Our Lady of Fatima in the Rosary Walk and Garden outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception was vandalized and destroyed beyond repair, a replacement statue was blessed Oct. 23 by Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory.

Bishop W. Shawn McKnight, of the Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri, asked for prayers after three people died following an Oct. 24 shooting at a high school in St. Louis.

"Spiritual arrogance" -- thinking one is holier or better than others -- is a temptation everyone faces and is a form of self-worship, Pope Francis said.

At the 77th annual dinner of the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation, Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist and author Peggy Noonan asked participants: "How can you not be romantic about life?"

Saying it is committed to "respectful dialogue" with China's communist government and to "fostering the mission of the Catholic Church and the good of the Chinese people," the Vatican announced it has renewed its agreement with China on the appointment of bishops.

As France begins a national debate on euthanasia, Pope Francis urged politicians from the country's northern region to reject the "throwaway culture" and instead focus on providing care and relief to those nearing the end of their lives.

The Catholic Church renewed its apology to child sex abuse victims following the publication of a report that claimed sexual offenses against children in the U.K. were at epidemic proportions.

The Second Vatican Council was "not only meaningful, but necessary," retired Pope Benedict XVI said in a letter to a conference about his theological work at the Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Catholics, and all people of faith, must engage in the "critically important work" of fighting injustice, racism and other societal ills that prevent people from living in peace, Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory said in an Oct. 13 address at Fairfield University in Connecticut.

The bishop of a diocese in South Sudan is appealing for food as his region in the county's south has been hit by rebel atrocities.

A key part of fostering "the communion, participation and missionary commitment of all the baptized," a key goal of the current synodal process, is recognizing the responsibility lay Catholics share for the future of the church and helping them recognize it, too, Pope Francis told members of the Mariannhill Missionaries.

Convinced that poverty, inequality and economic systems are killing millions of people each year and threatening the dignity of many more people, Pope Francis appointed an economist to the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Pope Francis expressed his hope that a new center for Catholic-Jewish relations in Poland will "foster appreciation of the common heritage, not only of the two religions, but also of the two peoples."

A study of U.S. priests released Oct. 19 details clerics' "crisis of trust" toward their bishops as well as fear that if they were falsely accused of abuse, prelates would immediately throw them "under the bus" and not help them clear their name.

After Ukrainian women were released in a prisoner swap with Russia, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church said their stories "simply break the heart, make the blood run cold in your veins."

Pope Francis will travel to Asti Nov. 19 for a private family celebration of his cousin's 90th birthday, and he will celebrate a public Mass the next morning in the Asti cathedral, the Vatican said.

Catholic leaders, experts and members of civil society spoke during a dialogue session ahead of COP27, the next United Nations climate change conference.

The world still has not learned "the essential lesson" of the Cuban Missile Crisis that "the only way to eliminate the nuclear danger is through careful, universal, verifiable steps to eliminate nuclear weapons," said Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of the U.S. bishops' landmark pastoral letter "The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response."