Catholic News Service

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.

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.