Catholic News Service

The world needs lawmakers who are capable, inspired by love and dedicated to serving the most vulnerable, Pope Francis told Catholic and Christian legislators.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who was expected to meet Pope Francis at the Congress of World and Traditional Religions in Kazakhstan, will not attend the interreligious gathering in September, a senior Russian Orthodox bishop said.

Many of Ukraine's Catholics remain "upbeat and determined" despite fears of intensified Russian attacks on Ukraine's Independence Day, said a senior priest, who added that parish life was also continuing under tight surveillance in occupied areas.

Fifty years have passed since St. Paul VI instituted the ministries of lector and acolyte, opening them to the laity, and Pope Francis wants a formal "dialogue" with the world's bishops' conferences to discuss their experiences with the ongoing promotion of the church's ministries so they foster unity and evangelization.

Participants will face a packed agenda and heated debate at the upcoming fourth plenary assembly of the Synodal Path reform project on the future of the Catholic Church in Germany.

Marking the six-month anniversary of the start of Russia's war against Ukraine, Pope Francis renewed his appeal for prayers for an end to "the horror of war."

Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Alex D. Aclan has been hospitalized in intensive care after suffering a stroke Aug. 20.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are facing a severe water shortage during the heat of the summer months due to the lack of water infrastructure, said the justice and peace commission of the Catholic ordinaries of the Holy Land.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is set to break a record for border captures when the fiscal year ends at the end of September, as the total number of apprehensions inched closer to the 2 million mark at the end of July.

A center that began with a grant from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development has become the go-to place in New Bedford, Massachusetts, for essential workers during the pandemic and to speak about sexual harassment.

Retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland, who was the ninth archbishop of Milwaukee from 1977 until his retirement in 2002, died overnight at Clement Manor in Greenfield after a long illness, the archdiocese announced Aug. 22. The prelate, who lived at the residence, was 95.

2021 "was the most disastrous in the country's history" in terms of violence and rights violations against Indigenous peoples, according to a report from the Brazilian bishops' Indigenous Missionary Council.

A U.S. District Court judge in Maryland has ruled that Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' overseas relief and development agency, must offer health care coverage to the spouses of gay employees as long as the employees' jobs are nonreligious in nature.

The arrest of Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez marks another escalation in the repression against the Catholic Church in the Central American country.

An independent commission investigating sexual abuse in Portugal's Catholic Church urged more victims to submit testimonies, especially during summer home visits by citizens living abroad.

A preliminary Vatican investigation into allegations against Cardinal Marc Ouellet concluded there was not sufficient evidence to warrant opening up formal proceedings against the cardinal for sexual assault, a Vatican spokesman said.

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan met with migrants bussed from Texas by Gov. Greg Abbott and said the church's perspective is to see them "with the eyes of Jesus." 

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Bishops, is named in a list of alleged abusers filed in support of a class-action lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Quebec.

A recent report on the public relations strategy used by Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki during a clerical sex abuse scandal has provoked renewed controversy, even after the cardinal's March return from his six-month sabbatical initiated by Pope Francis.

Pope Francis called on the international community to help the people of Somalia who are at risk of famine due to severe drought.