Catholic News Service

The "present ills of our economy" invite Catholics to reflect on ways to propose new and creative responses to vital human needs in a post-pandemic world, said Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City in the U.S. bishops' annual Labor Day statement.

The Mexican bishops' migrant ministry has disavowed a proposal from Mexico's National Immigration Institute that would establish a camp for migrants and asylum-seekers stuck in the southern city of Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala. The issue seems to have generated some confusion.

With several Northeast states now joining major metropolitan regions in the Gulf Coast as Hurricane Ida-related disaster areas, Catholic Charities agencies are using virtual deployment systems refined during the coronavirus pandemic to maximize their outreach to those in need.

Pope Francis' social encyclical on the environment has been the spark for a growing cadre of young adults to understand the integral connection between people and the Earth, care for creation and the harmful effects of climate change on all life.

Increasing calls to legalize euthanasia in several European countries, as well as the disregard for vulnerable people and the unborn, are signs of a "throwaway culture" that is gaining ground across the continent, Pope Francis said.

The Catholic church in Ethiopia says its operations in the northern state of Tigray have been severely affected, as the war between regional and federal forces disrupts money flow, banking services, fuel and telecommunication. An official at the bishops' social communication department clarified that an earlier statement suggesting the suspension of emergency interventions in the region was misleading. "The earlier statement was wrongly prepared," Habtamu Abrdew, social communications and public relations adviser at the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat, told Catholic News Service.

Lebanon's Maronite Catholic bishops warned that the future of the crisis-stricken country is "a matter of life or death," as the dire situation continues to unravel. In a statement following their Sept. 1 monthly meeting, the bishops denounced "the systematic humiliation of citizens" whether in banks, or in endless lines at gasoline stations, or with the lack of medicine and other essentials.

The Supreme Court ruled against blocking a Texas law banning abortions at six weeks of pregnancy. The 5-4 vote said the challengers to the Texas law — which went into effect Sept. 1 — did not adequately address the "complex and novel antecedent procedural questions" in this case.

While financial reforms in the Vatican are progressing steadily, cases involving corruption and malfeasance in the Eternal City are "a disease that we relapse into," Pope Francis said.

The Francis Chronicles: Redemption is the work of God, not of human beings, so be careful and do not listen to "fundamentalists" who claim holiness comes through following certain laws, Pope Francis said during his weekly general audience.

In his first interview since undergoing surgery in July, Pope Francis criticized the Western attempts to impose democracy on other countries in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan.

The chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan was due in part to a lack of foreseeing all possible eventualities, Pope Francis said in a new interview.

Pope Francis appointed Argentine theologian Emilce Cuda as the new head of office of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, a position she assumes Sept. 1. 

Mexican church leaders expressed solidarity with a caravan of migrants that was disrupted by security forces. Their reaction came after videos that surfaced showing an immigration agent kicking a migrant in the head.

Cardinal Raymond Burke thanked health care workers as well as people who have been praying for him as he continues  "intensive rehabilitation" from COVID-19.

Dioceses close schools as they assess damage and prepare to help those affected by one of the most powerful storms to hit the continental U.S. since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Pope Francis has approved a brief set of new norms for the Chapter of St. Peter's Basilica — whose priest-members provide liturgical and pastoral service in the basilica — that will only be in effect for one year while its statutes are being revised.

When people sincerely ask God "to purify our heart, that is when we will start making the world cleaner" because the best way to defeat evil is "by starting to conquer it within yourself," the pope said.

El Salvador has set a Jan. 22, 2022, date for the beatifications of Jesuit Fr. Rutilio Grande, Franciscan Fr. Cosme Spessotto and two laymen, the Salvadoran bishops' conference announced Aug. 27.

 Pope Francis held a private audience with Nadia Murad, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and survivor of the Islamic State-led genocide in Iraq, Aug. 26 at the Vatican.