Catholic News Service

The July 4 mass shooting brought devastation to another community in the U.S., and such a tragic situation "has become shockingly commonplace in our country," said the chairmen of three bishops' conference committees.

Pope Francis will make back-to-back pastoral visits to two Italian cities at the end of September: Assisi for an Economy of Francesco event and Matera for the Italian National Eucharistic Congress.

While many people were disappointed that Pope Francis was unable to make his long-awaited visit to Congo and South Sudan, Cardinal Pietro Parolin assured the people that the pope had not given up on visiting them.

Pope Francis has named Maltese Archbishop Joseph Spiteri, nuncio to Lebanon for the past four years, as the new nuncio to Mexico.

The agenda for the Second Assembly of Australia's Plenary Council was disrupted July 6 after more than 60 of the 277 members staged a protest over issues regarding women in the church, including the defeat of a motion to formalize support for the ordination of women as deacons.

Police officers successfully drove dozens of anarchist rioters away from Holy Redeemer Church in Portland late July 1. The Portland Activists online calendar had announced night rally at nearby Peninsula Park with the intent to "Abolish SCOTUS."

Taking steps to address racism and abuse, the Catholic Church in Australia has officially endorsed the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which calls for a First Nations voice to Parliament to be enshrined in the nation's constitution.

A growing number of Christian churches, dioceses, religious orders and organizations — including five Catholic dioceses in Ireland and two in Canada — are announcing they will divest from fossil fuels.

The Supreme Court June 30 rejected a challenge to New York's vaccine mandate for health care workers with no religious exemption.

Expressing their disappointment at not being able to visit South Sudan, Pope Francis, Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby and the Rev. Iain Greenshields, the Church of Scotland leader, urged the country's squabbling leaders to uphold their commitments to peace.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Reuters news agency, Pope Francis condemned abortion, dismissed the idea that he's preparing to resign and said he still hopes to be able to visit Russia and Ukraine in the fall.

Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, a former Vatican official, a longtime champion of the poor, a prime mover behind the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon and a "good friend" of Pope Francis, died July 4, just over a month before his 88th birthday.

Catholic leaders praised the Supreme Court's June 30 decision that gave the Biden administration the go-ahead to rescind a Trump-era "Remain in Mexico" immigration policy requiring asylum-seekers at the southwest U.S. border to wait in Mexico for their asylum hearings.

Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was sworn in as the 17th president of the Philippines June 30, succeeding Rodrigo Duterte.

Meeting with a delegation from the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople June 30, the pope said that as war continues to rage in Ukraine, it is a time not for "talking and discussing, but for weeping, for helping others and for experiencing conversion ourselves."

For the first time in the history of Germany, less than half the German population registered as members of one of the two large churches: Catholic and Protestant.

Church representatives from French-speaking Africa have urged closer regional cooperation in Catholic peacebuilding to offset mounting economic and security challenges across the continent.

Like Sts. Peter and Paul, the church must go out to evangelize and not be bound by the chains of routine and spiritual mediocrity that stifles the Gospel message, Pope Francis said.

In a letter titled Desiderio Desideravi ("I have earnestly desired") and released June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Pope Francis insisted that Catholics need to better understand the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council and its goal of promoting the "full, conscious, active and fruitful celebration" of the Mass.

The archbishop of San Antonio offered prayers for dozens of people found dead as well as more than a dozen survivors discovered June 27 in sweltering conditions in a semitruck.