Catholic News Service

Some of the few Masses available for Catholics in California's Bay Area came to a halt the weekend of Aug. 22 as bishops urged parishioners to pray for one another, for firefighters, and to stay home as air quality diminished in some parts of the state because of some of the largest wildfires in California history. 

August has been a roller coaster for Fr. Matthew Hood, who was ordained to the priesthood — some might say for the second time, but in reality, for the first time — Aug. 17, 2020, for the Archdiocese of Detroit.

On Aug. 19, Pope Francis called Bishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa of Pemba, Mozambique, to express concern about his diocese, and to support Lisboa during a defamation campaign launched by Mozambique's president.

Situations of persecution, of mourning and of violence were on Pope Francis' mind Aug. 23 as he recited the Angelus prayer with visitors in St. Peter's Square.

Peru's Catholic bishops have stepped up their response to the COVID-19 emergency, announcing a new pastoral program and moving ahead with projects to improve the country's health response.

People started lining up shortly after noon outside the 16th-century Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in southern Mexico City. Most practiced social distancing as best they could on a bustling sidewalk; all were clutching empty food containers.

Prayers offered by a pair of prominent Catholics during the closing night of the Democratic National Convention focused on addressing the needs of people on the margins of society and a planet facing environmental catastrophe.

Archbishop Antonio Filipazzi, papal ambassador to Nigeria, said the government was not doing enough to protect its citizens from violence, insurgents and other social vices. He also said the people being killed were not just Christians, but also Muslims.

Nearly a decade after the slaying of 72 migrants on a ranch in northeastern Mexico, church leaders and migrant shelter operators are once again demanding the authorities properly investigate one of the country's most notorious crimes.

As part of what seems to be a new trend for the Supreme Court, it will once again take up a religious liberty case in its new term with oral arguments Nov. 4 in a case about a Catholic social service agency excluded from Philadelphia's foster care program for not accepting same-sex couples as foster parents.

The derecho storm that ravaged Iowa Aug. 10 caused an estimated $4 billion in damages, and Gov. Kim Reynolds requested an expedited Presidential Major Disaster Declaration for the state to assist with the recovery.

Authorities found the body of Robert Chiles, a member of St. Joseph Parish, Aug. 18 after a search of the Detroit River where he and Fr. Stephen Rooney, St. Joseph's pastor, went missing Aug. 16 after a boat capsized.

The University of Notre Dame announced Aug. 18 that it is suspending its in-person classes for undergraduates for two weeks after a rise in COVID-19 cases on its campus in South Bend, Indiana.

A human rights activist and church social worker was shot dead in the Philippines Aug. 17 in what colleagues say was most probably an extrajudicial killing carried out by state agents.

Priests in El Salvador have called on the nation's bishops to conduct their own investigation into the murder of a Salvadoran seminary rector.

Church teaching on giving priority to the well-being of the poor and marginalized is not a political or ideological choice; it lies at the very heart of the Gospel, Pope Francis said.

By the time of their online Zoom caucus Aug. 17, organizers of Democrats for Life knew their effort to modify the party platform language on abortion was a nonstarter.

For Homeboy Industries to receive the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation's 2020 Humanitarian Prize is "validation of our work of 32 years," said Jesuit Fr. Gregory Boyle, who founded the nonprofit organization with the goal of improving the lives of former gang members in East Los Angeles.

About 100 current and former Democratic lawmakers from several states urged the Democratic Party's Platform Committee Aug. 14 "to moderate its official position on abortion," saying many party leaders support abortion policies "radically out of line with public opinion."

Cardinal Maurice Piat of Port-Louis, Mauritius, has praised public responses to an oil spill that devastated the island's coastline, as one prominent lay Catholic demanded "honest information" about the disaster.