Catholic News Service

Visitors, tourists and employees who want to enter Vatican territory will be required beginning Oct. 1 to show proof of vaccination, recovery from the coronavirus or a negative COVID-19 test.

To listen to the Holy Spirit, members of the church must listen to each other and especially to those who are marginalized, Pope Francis said, explaining how dioceses are to help the church prepare for the Synod of Bishops.

In God's view, human greatness is measured by how one serves or helps someone who cannot offer anything in exchange, Pope Francis said.

Church has always led on issues related to mining, illegal logging and land grabbing, says new leader of Malaybalay Diocese in country's food basket region.

The Biden administration has reinitiated and expanded an immigration program aimed at reuniting some immigrant parents in the U.S. with their children left behind in Central America.

President Joe Biden's coronavirus vaccine mandate for workplaces with more than 100 people on the payroll is rooted in existing law governing worker protections, said a trio of public health law experts.

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington has collected and donated nearly half a million dollars to assist the restoration and rebuilding efforts of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which was extensively damaged in a fire two years ago.

Italy's highest court of appeal has ruled that public school classrooms can approve the presence of the crucifix because it does not discriminate against anyone.

Catholic bishops in Guinea criticized the country's Sept. 5 military coup and called for the unconditional release of deposed President Alpha Condé as well as all those arrested with him.

Pope Francis praised Catholic lay movements and associations for living out the Gospel in their everyday lives and for promoting education, social support and evangelization in the world's peripheries.

Patrick Raglow and the resettlement staff at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City expect to be very busy very soon. They are preparing to welcome to Oklahoma 1,800 Afghans who were part of the emergency evacuation in August as the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan's government. "We expect a trickle by the end of the month (September) and then a more rapid flow of people the remainder of the year," Raglow, the agency's executive director, told Catholic News Service.

The U.S. bishops' migration committee chairman Sept. 15 welcomed a move by House members to include language in the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill to provide a pathway to U.S. citizenship for beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and other immigrants. "We are pleased that the House Committee on the Judiciary has taken this important step, setting up an opportunity for many undocumented persons to receive legal status and a pathway to citizenship," said Auxiliary Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville of Washington, who heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration.

Venezuelan Americans in Florida are sending a message to GOP politicians: They can be persuaded to switch political sides for those who favor a path toward citizenship for those with Temporary Protection Status.

Pope Francis has not devalued the Torah and does not question the fact that the Torah is crucial for modern Judaism, Cardinal Kurt Koch told two prominent Jewish leaders.

Catholic bishops in Kenya have banned politicians from addressing congregations in churches over concerns that the leaders were abusing the purity of places of worship.

In the face of widespread evidence of humanity's dark side, speakers a prayer service Sept. 13 — on the eve of the opening of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly — identified unmistakable signs of hope. Bishop Gregory J. Mansour of the Maronite Diocese of St. Maron of Brooklyn said there is a "great and edifying effort" by the United Nations to counter "totalitarian forms of government that trample the rights of the people they are called to serve."

Church leaders in Nicaragua said "the political and social situation must not continue the same" as the country marks a bicentennial marred by political repression, mass migration and a scandalous response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A document released in advance of the Sept. 15 bicentennial from the Archdiocese of Managua's justice and peace commission said the church "wants to be a voice of encouragement and hope" in Nicaragua.

A Vatican official urged Mexican bishops to prioritize migrant ministries — even in dioceses without significant migrant flows — saying, "No diocese exists in Mexico that can avoid this call."

The world needs Christians who are "signs of contradiction," who demonstrate the beauty of the Gospel rather than hostility toward others, Pope Francis said. Celebrating Mass on the final day of his apostolic trip to Slovakia Sept. 15, the pope said the country needed such prophets who are "models of fraternal life, where society is experiencing tension and hostility," especially toward those who often feel unwelcome.

A joint report by the Kino Border Initiative and Network, the  Catholic social justice lobby, details complaints lodged against U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents against those seeking asylum at the Arizona-Mexico border.