Catholic News Service

The gathering of representatives of the world's religions is set for Oct. 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, and just a month before the critical U.N. climate summit.

Jesus is always praying for each and every person, desiring that his word would help people in their lives and that they never would feel alone, Pope Francis said.

Catholic and other Christian churches have become the main refuge for thousands of people forced to flee from their homes during conflict in Kayah, Chin, Kachin and Shan states in Myanmar.

After issuing revised guidelines for preparing for the next world Synod of Bishops, leaders of the synod's general secretariat held online meetings with the presidents and general secretaries of national and regional bishops' conferences.

The chairman of the U.S. bishops' migration committee marked the ninth anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program June 15 by urging Congress to act on creating a pathway to citizenship for its beneficiaries.

A Franciscan priest was killed in a hail of gunfire on his way to celebrate Mass and provide sacraments in a rural Mexican village known for drug cartel conflicts.

Pope Francis said the COVID-19 crisis has made it clear that human beings are valuable yet fragile, and it's important to keep that in mind when dealing with those fleeing from various crises in Central America.

Participants logged more than 370,000 miles in symbolic solidarity walks with migrants over the past four years, but the leaders of Caritas Internationalis know there are many miles to go in changing attitudes toward immigration.

Fr. Ronald Kunkel, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, has been named executive director of the Secretariat of Doctrine and Canonical Affairs for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, effective Aug. 9.

Catholic bishops in Eritrea have expressed anger at the forced takeover of church-run institutions as the government moved to confiscate or close more schools.

The Argentine bishops' pastoral team for aboriginal peoples rebuked comments from the country's president that perpetuated the viewpoint that the population predominantly arrived "on ships" from Europe.

Pope Francis seems to have no trouble using the word "sorry" and recommending others use it often. Then why, people wondered, did he not use the word when speaking about the horrific discovery of the remains of as many as 215 children in unmarked graves at a Catholic-run school for Indigenous children in Canada?

Poverty is the result of people's selfishness; it is not "fate" or the fault of the poor, Pope Francis said.

The papal mission to Afghanistan faces an uncertain future as foreign military forces, led by the United States, carry out a gradual withdrawal from the strife-torn nation, the priest who leads the mission said.

The controversial Kaliwa Dam project has been plagued by accusations of corruption and of failure to gain the consent of local Indigenous communities.

The days are long for Martha Hennessy as she waits in a Manchester, New Hampshire, halfway house to hear from federal prison authorities about how soon freedom will come.

German Cardinal Reinhard Marx said that following Pope Francis' refusal to accept his resignation over the church's handling of the clerical sexual abuse crisis, he would "not simply return to business as usual."

The Vatican bank showed a net profit of 36.4 million euros ($44.1 million) in 2020. Compared to a net profit of 38 million euros ($46 million) the previous year, "this is a very significant result" considering the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, wrote Cardinal Santos Abril Castelló.

Seminarians can learn more from the way their bishops, rectors, spiritual directors and formators live than from what they say, Pope Francis said.

To protect the members of Catholic lay movements from possible abuse by leaders, the Vatican has imposed term limits on leadership and ordered the groups to ensure all members have a voice in choosing their leaders.