Catholic News Service

As the Russian military continues to bombard Ukraine, the Vatican is mobilizing efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to those suffering.

 Temptation's seductive proposals of happiness and freedom can lead one to being enslaved by the desire to possess material things and other people, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis said the Vatican "is ready to do everything to put itself at the service of peace" in Ukraine.

Italian Cardinal Agostino Cacciavillan, a former nuncio to the United States and the retired head of the Vatican investment office, died March 5 at the age of 95.

Representatives of 175 nations at the U.N. Environment Assembly endorsed an agreement to end plastic pollution and forge a legally binding agreement by 2024.

The Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in a 6-3 vote, saying a federal appeals court in 2020 should not have thrown out the death sentence.

The Supreme Court, in an 8-1 ruling March 3, said Kentucky's Republican attorney general could continue to defend an abortion restriction measure struck down by lower courts.

Retired Argentine Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, formerly a close colleague of Pope Francis, was sentenced March 4 in a sexual abuse case.

Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych called the attack on Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant by Russian forces "an irreversible attack on God's creation."

Blessed Titus Brandsma, the 20th-century martyr murdered at the Dachau concentration camp, will be canonized May 15 along with nine other candidates for sainthood, including Blessed Charles de Foucauld.

Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory and Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy concelebrated an Ash Wednesday Mass at St. Matthew's Cathedral where they called for prayers and aid for Ukraine.

Representatives from the business sector, faith groups and grassroots organizations that support immigration reform sent Congress a letter March 2, a day after President Biden's first State of the Union address, urging lawmakers to act on immigration because "simply put, the system is broken."

As Catholic officials in Tigray continue to call for meaningful peace talks, an international refugees organization is warning that Eritrean refugees in the northern region have nowhere to run.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Daniel R. Jenky of Peoria and Coadjutor Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria immediately succeeds him, becoming the ninth bishop of Peoria.

Catholic and Orthodox leaders in Europe have appealed to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, urging him to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to put an end to the bloodshed in Ukraine.

In his first State of the Union address March 1, President Joe Biden emphasized the crucial need to come together as a nation while facing challenges of the continuing pandemic, rising inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Coexistence between older and younger generations can bring about a better appreciation for life that is often lost in today's fast-paced society, Pope Francis said.

Texas Catholic leaders and other opponents of the death penalty are urging Texas officials to grant clemency to a 53-year-old Latina woman set to be executed in late April.

The Ukrainian Catholic Archdiocese of Kyiv-Halych and the Ukrainian Embassy to the Holy See said they had received information that Russia planned airstrikes on the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Kyiv.

Pope Francis approved an amended law that grants new fathers employed at the Vatican up to three days of paid paternity leave, the Vatican said.