Catholic News Service

When he addresses, via video message, the U.N. General Assembly Sept. 15, Pope Francis is expected to speak about using the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity to rethink economic, political and environmental policies in a way that will benefit humanity and the earth.

Parts of Syria's north where Kurds, Christians and Yazidis have practiced religious freedom in recent years are reportedly again under attack by mainly Turkish military and their allied Syrian Islamist fighters.

Bolivia's bishops want environmental concerns to play a key role when voters go to the polls to elect a new government in October. The Oct. 18 vote has been postponed twice because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz of Lingayen-Dagupan, former president of the Philippine bishops' conference, died in a Manila hospital Aug. 26 after complications from COVID-19, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines announced.

Christians must work with members of other religions in responding to "a world wounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and by the scourge of religious intolerance, discrimination, racism, economic and ecological injustice and many other sins," said a new document from the Vatican and the World Council of Churches.

Catholics will mark the World Day of Migrants and Refugees during the ecumenical celebration of the Season of Creation, highlighting the obligation, as Pope Francis says, to listen to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, said Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny.

A new survey of heads of German Catholic religious orders found abuse allegations against at least 654 members over a period of decades, reported the German Catholic news agency KNA.

Twenty-six weeks after his last weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis will resume his audiences with the public present, but in a Vatican courtyard.

Christians cannot stand idly by and watch as millions of people are deprived of their basic needs because of others' greed, Pope Francis said.

Catholic leaders joined their voices with members of the Navajo Nation in opposition to the Aug. 26 execution of Lezmond Mitchell, the only Native American on federal death row.

The German bishops plan to seek talks with the Vatican about its instruction on parish reforms in the Catholic Church. The German Catholic news agency KNA reported the bishops said they want lay Catholics to be involved in the discussion.

Officials reported that at least 12 people had died as Tropical Storm Laura lashed Haiti and the Dominican Republic with strong winds and torrential rains, causing widespread flooding in low-lying communities.

Some of the few Masses available for Catholics in California's Bay Area came to a halt the weekend of Aug. 22 as bishops urged parishioners to pray for one another, for firefighters, and to stay home as air quality diminished in some parts of the state because of some of the largest wildfires in California history. 

August has been a roller coaster for Fr. Matthew Hood, who was ordained to the priesthood — some might say for the second time, but in reality, for the first time — Aug. 17, 2020, for the Archdiocese of Detroit.

On Aug. 19, Pope Francis called Bishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa of Pemba, Mozambique, to express concern about his diocese, and to support Lisboa during a defamation campaign launched by Mozambique's president.

Situations of persecution, of mourning and of violence were on Pope Francis' mind Aug. 23 as he recited the Angelus prayer with visitors in St. Peter's Square.

Peru's Catholic bishops have stepped up their response to the COVID-19 emergency, announcing a new pastoral program and moving ahead with projects to improve the country's health response.

People started lining up shortly after noon outside the 16th-century Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in southern Mexico City. Most practiced social distancing as best they could on a bustling sidewalk; all were clutching empty food containers.

Prayers offered by a pair of prominent Catholics during the closing night of the Democratic National Convention focused on addressing the needs of people on the margins of society and a planet facing environmental catastrophe.

Archbishop Antonio Filipazzi, papal ambassador to Nigeria, said the government was not doing enough to protect its citizens from violence, insurgents and other social vices. He also said the people being killed were not just Christians, but also Muslims.