The seven-member preparatory commission for the assembly of the Synod of Bishops met at the Vatican March 13-16 and had an audience with Pope Francis on the last day of their gathering.
On Thursday faith groups called for governments and financial institutions to take 10 specific steps to accelerate action on climate change. More than 400 events were held in 42 countries as part of the multifaith day of action.
The need for "deep, spiritual conversion of all members of the church stands out" as a key theme of the "instrumentum laboris," the working document for Australia's Plenary Council, due to begin in October, said one of its authors.
Country music stars, conservationists and tens of thousands of Albertans came together to roll back plans for mountaintop-removal mining in the Rockies.
Students in coastal Goa, India, are using social media platforms to fight back the government's attempt to turn their state into a coal handling and transportation hub.
Germany's Catholic bishops are planning a set of conferences slated to address questions such as women's roles and LGBTQ acceptance, as the country faces another scandal of sexual abuse by clergy.
A new national protocol for responding to historical child sexual abuse and any new allegations in the Catholic Church in Australia will be more compassionate and just, said Archbishop Mark Coleridge, head of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference.
Retired Archbishop Philip Wilson, former president of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference who served as archbishop of Adelaide for 17 years, died Jan. 17. He was 70.
Australia's financial crime watchdog agency said it over-estimated by the equivalent of more than U.S. $1.5 billion the amount of money transferred from the Vatican to Australia between 2014 and 2020.
