Catholic News Service

Pope Francis has appointed Fr. Austin A. Vetter, a priest of the Diocese of Bismarck, North Dakota, to be the bishop of the Diocese of Helena, Montana.

Too many Christians today are "as long as" Christians, obeying God "as long as" God and the church meet their conditions and criteria for what is acceptable, just and righteous, Pope Francis said.

Climate change, water resources, inculturation and indigenous practices were among the topics discussed during the first afternoon session of the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon.

The University of Notre Dame's de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture will award its 2020 Notre Dame Evangelium Vitae Medal to Vicki Thorn, founder of the post-abortion healing ministry Project Rachel.

Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, could not get a word out. He was supposed to be the keynote speaker at the 16th annual Immigration Law and Policy Conference at Georgetown University Law Center the morning of Oct. 7, but he'd barely said, "Thank you," before chanting protesters drowned him out for several minutes.

Pope Francis named Spanish Archbishop Alberto Ortega Martin as the new apostolic nuncio to Chile, the Vatican announced.

In an Oct. 4 statement, the Catholic bishops of Indiana said the federal government's decision this past summer to end a 16-year moratorium on executing federal inmates is "regrettable, unnecessary and morally unjustified."

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill said Oct. 3 he has overseen the return of the remains of 2,246 aborted fetuses back home to Indiana after they were discovered in September at the Illinois home of the late Dr. Ulrich "George" Klopfer.

The Supreme Court announced Oct. 4, just three days before it begins its new term, that it will add an abortion case to its docket.

Pope Francis joined Amazonian church workers and indigenous people Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, to plant a tree in the Vatican Gardens.

A group of national pro-life leaders gather outside the Supreme Court Oct. 2 to release a petition bearing 250,000 signatures that calls on the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions.

Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, New York, said late Oct. 3 he welcomes an apostolic visitation by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, New York.

Pope Francis recognized the miracle needed for the beatification of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, a mentor and friend of St. John Paul II.

A series of violent events on the Amazonian border shared by Brazil and Peru has placed isolated indigenous people at risk, church workers say.

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a "statement of interest" in a lawsuit brought against the Archdiocese of Indianapolis by a teacher fired from his job at a Catholic high school because he is in a same-sex marriage.

During the summer of 2019, the bishop of El Paso, Texas, decided his diocese would open a fund to help a growing number of immigrants piling into shelters on the other side of the U.S. border in the sister city of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico.

Peruvian church leaders called for dialogue and an end to corruption amid a political crisis that erupted Sept. 30, when President Martin Vizcarra dissolved Congress and the legislature then voted to remove him from office.

A U.S. District Court judge Oct. 1 temporarily blocked a Georgia law that would ban abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is around six weeks.

Pressure from land conflicts and decline of expectations and perspectives have led the indigenous populations in Brazil to register some of the highest suicide rates in the country, said the Indigenous Missionary Council, linked to the Brazilian bishops' conference.

A person who claims to preach the Gospel by convincing people of their beliefs in Jesus is not evangelizing, but proselytizing, Pope Francis said.