Catholic News Service

Heads of several bishops' conferences and councils around the world called for greater collegiality and communion among bishops to confront the challenges facing the church in Europe and across the globe.

After a monthlong battle with COVID-19, Venezuelan Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, who led the Archdiocese of Caracas for 13 years, died at the age of 79.

While denouncing as an "abuse of power" coercive measures to promote vaccination against COVID-19, a leader of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X said getting vaccinated "may sometimes be an eminently prudent act in the moral sense of the term."

World leaders must commit to rooting out the evil of racism, xenophobia and racial discrimination through meaningful legislation and action, said Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, Vatican foreign minister.

Bishops and others in the Catholic Church often lament the declining number of Christians, but rarely do they examine their own behavior and failure to show others how much God loves them, Pope Francis told the presidents of European bishops' conferences.

The chairman of the U.S. bishops' migration committee and the head of Catholic Charities USA issued a joint statement Sept. 22 urging humane treatment of Haitians and other migrants as their numbers grow in southern Texas at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The establishment of an Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon that involves both the laity and the clergy is a sign of a church that listens to God through the voice of his people, Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno of Huancayo said.

Leaders highlight relationship between biodiversity loss and climate change in region where government revenues depend on timber, mining and oil.

John Garvey, president of The Catholic University of America in Washington since 2010, announced Sept. 22 that he will be stepping down from the role he described as "an honor and a privilege" at the end of June

Statement calls for government leaders to take urgent climate action and pledges that congregations will do the same.

A living faith draws strength from remembering the past while continuing to grow in love of God and service to others, Pope Francis said.

When Pary Gul, a Christian woman from Afghanistan, met Pope Francis Sept. 22, she gave him her wedding ring as a reminder of her husband, who has disappeared and may be dead.

Thousands took to the streets of Washington, making a stop at an ICE facility before heading to the U.S. Capitol, urging that Congress and the president take action on immigration reform.

Plans by the United States and Great Britain to give Australia the technology needed for nuclear-powered submarines go counter to global disarmament efforts, said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

The German bishops' plenary assembly began with urgent appeals for church reform and a reminder to heed admonitions from Pope Francis.

Retired Bishop Anthony Pilla of Cleveland, who led initiatives to bring diverse communities together to overcome poverty, racism and social inequity, died Sept. 21 at age 88, the Diocese of Cleveland said.

Catholic leaders side with tribes in rejecting argument that Indigenous groups have rights only to territory they have physically occupied since 1985.

Immigration advocates were dealt a blow at the beginning of a week that many believed would bring about history. They had hoped to include an immigration provision in the $3.5 trillion budget bill that would have granted legal status to 8 million farmworkers and essential workers, young adults brought to the U.S. illegally as minors, and recipients of a temporary program for migrants.

The ruling on a class action involving Famille Marie-Jeunesse opens the way for people who claim to have been physically, spiritually or psychologically abused within the Catholic group to join the legal case.

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.