Catholic News Service

Pope Francis named Archbishop Bernardito Auza, who has represented the Vatican at the United Nations since 2014, to be nuncio to Spain and Andorra.

Church leaders in Northern Ireland encouraged their political parties to quickly re-establish their self-governing institutions to stop the British government from imposing a liberal abortion law on the province.

The genocide conducted by the Islamic State against Christian communities in Iraq and Syria has turned into continued harassment by Iran-backed militias and shows no signs of abating soon.

Pope Francis appointed the former archbishop of Aparecida, Brazil, to oversee the spiritual life of a controversial religious association in the South American country.

Three new dioceses have been carved out of the Archdiocese of Mexico, a move Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes of Mexico City said will bring pastors "closer to the all the inhabitants."

To help the church grow in love and faithful witness to God, Pope Francis has declared the third Sunday in Ordinary Time to be dedicated to the word of God.

Christians have a moral obligation to show God's care for all those who are marginalized, especially migrants and refugees, Pope Francis said.

The daily struggle here does not involve strife between the neighbor cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez on the Mexico side, but of keeping up with the policies, mandates and rules directed out of Washington causing chaos in their midst.

Untreated chronic illnesses, wounds and stress-related complications are some of the medical issues Abaco Islands residents are still facing in the wake of Hurricane Dorian.

A group of U.S. Catholic bishops, along with a Vatican representative and other priests, celebrated Mass Sept. 26 next to a field of chili peppers with farmworkers and their families and other immigrants.

Australia's Ballarat Diocese will pay up to $3 million (US$2.03 million) in a landmark compensation claim for clerical sexual abuse after a victim won an out-of-court settlement for abuse during the early 1990s by a former priest.

Refugee advocates are opposed to the decision announced by the Trump administration Sept. 26 that it plans to admit no more than 18,000 refugees in the next fiscal year.

The Australian states of Victoria and Tasmania have become the latest in the country to pass legislation criminalizing priests who fail to report the abuse of children disclosed during confession. The country's six states and two territories are all expected have such laws in place in coming months.

U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, former head of the Vatican's doctrinal congregation and retired archbishop of San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, died Sept. 26 in Rome. He was 83.

Pope Francis called on more religious orders of men and women, as well as foundations and benefactors, to get involved and help an international network of women religious in the fight against human trafficking.

While his responsibilities are greater and his prayer list longer, Pope Francis said he's basically the same person he was before he was elected in 2013, so he still goes to confession every two weeks.

The Field Hospital: Based in Glenside, Pennsylvania, the Calix Society "started over an alcoholic priest back in 1947." Five concerned laymen, all from the Minneapolis area, petitioned to have a 5 a.m. daily Mass celebrated to pray for an addicted priest's recovery.

The act of bearing false witness to destroy someone is an attack against the body of the church, Pope Francis said.

At a time of increasing urbanization, the "irreplaceable importance" of forests is being "taken for granted and underestimated," the Vatican's secretary of state said Sept. 23 at a high-level meeting at the United Nations.

The Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education temporarily lifted a decree that had taken away the Catholic status of Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis.