Catholic News Service

Pope Francis and his international Council of Cardinals met in-person at the Vatican April 25, discussing the war in Ukraine, the Vatican press office said.

Deirdre McQuade, who for more than a decade shared perspectives of U.S. bishops' and the Catholic Church's teaching on the sanctity of life, died April 21 after a bout with metastatic breast cancer. She was 53.

Speaking in a conference with Mexico's foreign relations secretary, the Vatican secretary of state lauded church-state relations in Mexico as exemplary.

 A federal judge at an April 25 hearing said he would grant the requests of three states to force the federal government to keep in place a public-health order at the U.S.-Mexico border.

After nearly two hours of oral arguments April 26, the Supreme Court justices had mixed views on the Biden administration ending a Trump-era immigration policy called "Remain in Mexico."

If young people recognize all that they have received with gratitude and older people take the initiative of relaunching hope in young people for their future, then nothing can stop the flourishing of God's blessings among people, Pope Francis said.

The chairman of a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' committee welcomed a White House action that will restore regulatory provisions that were in place for decades as part of a key environmental protection law.

Catholic leaders were thankful that death-row inmate Melissa Lucio was granted a last-minute stay of execution April 25.

Having "the smell of sheep" for one military chaplain serving in Ukraine has now meant being surrounded by the smell of burned homes and lives.

There is no such thing as a "good" or "bad" nation because wickedness can be found everywhere, Pope Francis said.

Those who are called to be missionaries of mercy are entrusted with the important task of being the face and the voice of God's love to those in need, Pope Francis said.

In a cavernous warehouse on the edge of Lublin, Piotr Piskorski sees too much empty space, especially near the pallets of baby formula, canned soups and vegetables and individual servings of instant noodles.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the chairman of its Committee on Migration have voiced their support for the Biden administration's initiative to welcome Ukrainian refugees to the US.

In an Easter message to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, Pope Francis prayed that the Holy Spirit would "transform our hearts and make us true peacemakers, especially for war-torn Ukraine."

The mercy shown by God to his children can transform hearts and makes Christians become channels of that mercy to those in need, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis renewed his call for an Easter truce in Ukraine, as many in the country commemorate Christ's resurrection under the shadow of war.

On April 21, Texas executed a 78-year-old inmate, Carl Buntion, by lethal injection shortly after the governor of Tennessee temporarily blocked the execution of a 72-year-old prisoner, Oscar Smith, citing issues with preparations of the lethal drugs to be used.

Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki said the life and work of Project Rachel founder Vicki Thorn, who died unexpectedly April 20, stand "as a living testimony to an unwavering and unconditional defense of life at all stages, and to the mercy of God's love."

Peru's Catholic bishops published a two-page plea to the country's leaders, urging them to address the current political crisis with "greater responsibility" and take "radical measures" to fight corruption.

The planned second meeting between Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill has been canceled out of concern it could cause "confusion," and there will be no papal visit to Kyiv while war rages, Francis said in an interview with the Argentine daily newspaper La Nación April 21.