Catholic News Service

Lebanon's "political authority has murdered its people," Cardinal Bechara Rai, Maronite patriarch, said at the closing Mass of the synod of Maronite Catholic bishops from around the world.

Retired Bishop Arturo Lona Reyes of Tehuantepec — known as "bishop of the poor" and famed for promoting an indigenous church — died Oct. 31. He was one day shy of his 95th birthday and had tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in October.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI has declined the inheritance of his brother Georg, who died in July, reported the German Catholic news agency KNA.

The Supreme Court, with a full bench, will hear oral arguments by teleconference Nov. 4 about a Catholic social service agency that had been excluded from Philadelphia's foster care program for not accepting same-sex couples as foster parents.

Andrew T. Walther, president and chief operating officer of EWTN News Inc., died in New Haven of complications related to leukemia Nov. 1.

The Eight Beatitudes describe the path to holiness, but the call to meekness seems particularly challenging today, Pope Francis said.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced Pope Francis to forego his usual practice of celebrating Mass on the feast of All Souls in a cemetery, in Rome or nearby, with people who were visiting the graves of their loved ones.

The Vatican Secretariat of State has sent an explanatory note to nuncios around the world insisting that when Pope Francis spoke about civil unions, he was not changing or challenging "the doctrine of the church, which he has reaffirmed numerous times over the years."

After the surprise resignation of Cardinal Angelo Becciu in October, Pope Francis named Cardinal-designate Silvano Tomasi as his special delegate to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Students and faculty at Rome's Pontifical North American College are under quarantine after several students tested positive for COVID-19.

Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki would resign from his office if the sexual abuse study he commissioned implicated him in any cover-ups, according to the Cologne Archdiocese.

Corruption is an "ancient evil" that continues to plague the Catholic Church in different ways, Pope Francis said.

Italian-born Cardinal-designate Silvano Tomasi, a supporter of migrants' rights, said he feels "more American than anything else."

After someone attending Pope Francis' weekly general tested positive for COVID-19, the Vatican announced the audiences would return to being livestreamed without the presence of pilgrims and visitors.

Increased El Salvador government military presence along the country's northern border with Honduras because of how it is affecting the free movement and livelihood of rural communities.

French bishops ordered a "death knell" to ring from every church of their country Oct. 29 after three people were hacked to death in a basilica in the southern Mediterranean city of Nice.

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of an international meeting of young economists and entrepreneurs with Pope Francis in Assisi, Italy, the young people went online.

Norbertine Father Alfred Aloysius McBride, who was nationally known as a leader in education and catechetics, died Oct. 23 at age 91.

Europeans must not see their rich history simply as a fond memory of a time long gone, but they must look to it as a guide to overcoming divisions and challenges aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis said.

The rise of nationalism and the ideological divide that springs from it could create the same circumstances that led to the rise of the Nazi party in Germany and World War II, Pope Francis warned.