Catholic News Service

Continuing his occasional series of "Mercy Friday" visits, Pope Francis surprised the students at a school renamed in March in honor of a student who died of leukemia at the age of 11.

In the aftermath of Iraq's elections, Christians want to see a government formed that is free from the sectarianism that has torn apart the country, and they want Iran's influence to diminish. Both issues have played a huge role in politics since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. 

The world lacks tenderness today, but families can help bring it back, Pope Francis said.

Revised guidelines governing Catholic and non-Catholic health care partnerships will be on the agenda of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' spring general assembly June 13-14 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Holy Communion is exclusively for Catholics in a state of grace and not something to be shared between friends like beer or cake, said a former senior adviser to two popes.

Nicaragua's bishops have suspended their participation as mediators and witnesses in a national dialogue, citing a "lack of consensus among the parties" on resolving the political crisis engulfing the Central American country.

This year's National Catholic Prayer breakfast took on a decidedly Kansas flavor, as Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City and Sam Brownback, a former House and Senate member and governor of Kansas, addressed nearly 1,000 gathered at a Washington hotel May 24.

Visits by church leaders to Ebola-affected communities in Congo are helping prevention efforts, while the urban nature of the latest outbreak of the deadly virus is of greatest concern, the country's bishops said.

Loving wealth destroys the soul, and cheating people of their just wages and benefits is a mortal sin, Pope Francis said.

The Nicaraguan bishops' conference has denounced death threats against an outspoken bishop who has opposed corruption and supported students in the protests consuming the country.

Catholic bishops in Nigeria led thousands of people across the country in peaceful protests against repeated killings by herdsmen in a conflict over fertile land.

Days before his 27th birthday in 2013, O'Donnell arrived at St. Columbanus Parish in Chicago's South Side Park Manor neighborhood and since then has embraced his ministry to the African-American community.

The pope will meet June 1-3 with "five priests who were victims of abuses of power, of conscience and sexual abuse" at the hands of Chilean Fr. Fernanando Karadima or his followers.

Everyone who has received the sacrament of confirmation has received the gift of the Holy Spirit, who guides them and gives them the strength to follow God's will, Pope Francis said.

The Baltimore Archdiocese said May 22 it has removed a 77-year-old priest from ministry after learning of allegations of child sexual abuse against him dating to the 1970s.

Bishop George Thomas told the congregation at his installation Mass May 15 that as the new bishop of Las Vegas, he will pour his "heart and life among you each and every day."

A simple, good-humored and humble shepherd, Bishop Anthony Milone, who was an auxiliary bishop in the Omaha Archdiocese from 1982 to 1987 and head of the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings, Montana, from 1988 to 2006, died May 17 in Omaha. He was 85.

To be true shepherds, bishops must embrace the virtue of evangelical poverty and shun the perks of living like kings who rule rather than serve, Pope Francis told the bishops of Italy.

An abuse survivor, who had been disparaged for being a homosexual, said that Pope Francis told him that God made him that way and loved him for who he was.

About 130 leaders of young adult ministries from more than 60 dioceses across the country gathered at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington May 15-17 for the National Young Adult Ministry Summit to talk about the best ways to reach out to young adults.