Catholic News Service

The creation care team of the Twin Cities archdiocese in Minnesota is leading plans to observe the worldwide Season of Creation, which begins Sept. 1.

God created every human being to be free to choose how to live in this world, Pope Francis said.

Bishop John Baptist Ye Ronghua, who led the reconstruction of the Catholic Church in northwestern China's Ankang area, died at age 91.

Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops, said he continues to have confidence in the Synodal Path of the Catholic Church in Germany.

Pope Francis' comments on the death of Darya Dugina, a 29-year-old commentator with a nationalist Russian TV channel, were meant to defend life and were not a political affirmation, the Vatican said.

An agricultural technical school in Eritrea is the latest to fall under government control, in a string of forced seizures of Catholic schools and hospitals.

The government of Pakistan has declared an emergency in the country after experiencing more than 14 inches of rainfall, and a death toll surpassing 1,000 people since June.

The Diocese of Trier transferred alleged or convicted perpetrators of abuse to new locations in and outside the diocese, where they reoffended against young people and children, said an independent commission's interim report on abuse in the diocese from 1946 to 2021.

The world will keep witnessing wars, violence and injustice as long as people fail to understand that true freedom comes from seeking God's will, love and mercy, Pope Francis said.

John Mundell, a parishioner of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Indianapolis, has been named director of the Vatican's Laudato Si' Action Platform initiative to catalyze the global church to act upon Pope Francis' ecological encyclical "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home."

Eleven peace activists arrested Aug. 2 on charges of disorderly conduct for blocking the door of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations appeared in New York City Municipal Count Aug. 22.

A number of Catholic and other faith-based associations and groups, including dioceses, have joined in supporting an amicus brief filed in a court case on how the Biden administration's proposal to broaden the interpretation of Title IX provisions could affect nonprofit organizations, including private schools.

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.