Catholic News Service

In response to more than 2 million refugees fleeing the conflict in Ukraine in recent weeks, the president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services said it is "alarming to see the scale of the suffering" in the region.

Two cardinals arrived at separate destinations on one mission entrusted to them by Pope Francis: to bring relief, hope and encouragement to suffering Ukrainians.

Pope Francis has "relieved" Bishop Daniel Fernández Torres of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, of the pastoral care of the diocese, the Vatican announced without providing an explanation.

During his 22-year tenure as the Diocese of Erie's shepherd, the late Bishop Donald W. Trautman "gave himself totally to his role as bishop," Bishop Lawrence T. Persico said of his predecessor.

Thirteen priests from outside the US ministering in the Diocese of Little Rock have had to stop working, and in some cases have had to return home, because of federal delays in processing immigration paperwork.

Russia and Ukraine are two of the world's largest wheat-producing countries. Their decreased exports due to war may affect U.S. farmers already struggling from droughts.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, leader of Russia's dominant religious group, has sent his strongest signal yet justifying his country's invasion of Ukraine — describing the conflict as part of a struggle against sin and pressure from liberal foreigners to hold "gay parades" as the price of admission to their ranks.

Honduran church leaders have called for a thorough investigation into the abduction and murder of a priest in the Diocese of San Pedro Sula, a crime causing outrage in the Central American country.

As the Russian military continues to bombard Ukraine, the Vatican is mobilizing efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to those suffering.

 Temptation's seductive proposals of happiness and freedom can lead one to being enslaved by the desire to possess material things and other people, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis said the Vatican "is ready to do everything to put itself at the service of peace" in Ukraine.

Italian Cardinal Agostino Cacciavillan, a former nuncio to the United States and the retired head of the Vatican investment office, died March 5 at the age of 95.

Representatives of 175 nations at the U.N. Environment Assembly endorsed an agreement to end plastic pollution and forge a legally binding agreement by 2024.

The Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in a 6-3 vote, saying a federal appeals court in 2020 should not have thrown out the death sentence.

The Supreme Court, in an 8-1 ruling March 3, said Kentucky's Republican attorney general could continue to defend an abortion restriction measure struck down by lower courts.

Retired Argentine Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, formerly a close colleague of Pope Francis, was sentenced March 4 in a sexual abuse case.

Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych called the attack on Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant by Russian forces "an irreversible attack on God's creation."

Blessed Titus Brandsma, the 20th-century martyr murdered at the Dachau concentration camp, will be canonized May 15 along with nine other candidates for sainthood, including Blessed Charles de Foucauld.

Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory and Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy concelebrated an Ash Wednesday Mass at St. Matthew's Cathedral where they called for prayers and aid for Ukraine.

Representatives from the business sector, faith groups and grassroots organizations that support immigration reform sent Congress a letter March 2, a day after President Biden's first State of the Union address, urging lawmakers to act on immigration because "simply put, the system is broken."