Catholic News Service

In Greece, nearly 600 fires have gutted hundreds of homes and scorched at least 200,000 acres of land.

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago offered prayers for slain police officer Ella French and her family and friends "as they cope with the terrible reality that their loved one was taken from them in another act of senseless violence."

A federal judge sided with an Indianapolis archdiocesan high school and the Indianapolis Archdiocese in a lawsuit filed against them by a former guidance counselor whose contract was not renewed because of her same-sex marriage.

More than 100 people walked about 6 miles from the Onondaga Nation to Columbus Circle in downtown Syracuse to honor victims and survivors of residential schools for Indigenous children.

When U.S. service members were in a foreign land, unsure of the way and unable to speak the language, brave locals came to their assistance. Now, the Afghans who served as interpreters and guides for the U.S. military need help adjusting to a new country.

Prosecutors asked Vatican judges to revoke an order to give lawyers representing Cardinal Angelo Becciu video and audio depositions of their main witness.

Young people have a key role to play in bringing about transformations needed to slow global temperature rise, Catholic leaders say.

Three First Nations are working with the Archdiocese of Vancouver to look for remains of at least 12 students who attended the former St. Paul's Indian Residential School. The investigation is complicated because it is roughly where the parking lot sits at St. Thomas Aquinas Regional Secondary School in North Vancouver.

Spanish Cardinal Eduardo Martínez Somalo, the former "camerlengo" or chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church and former prefect of the Vatican congregation for religious, died Aug. 10 at his Vatican apartment. He was 94.

Archbishop Heiner Koch says he will appoint a pastoral minister as a contact person for gays, a pledge he made when he met with representatives of the Lesbian and Gay Association of Berlin-Brandenburg.

Jesus wants to nourish the souls of those who are spiritually famished from the loneliness and anguish that come from life's difficulties, Pope Francis told pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square Aug. 8.

The Catholic bishops of Colorado in a joint letter Aug. 6 reiterated their previous statements affirming "the use of some COVID-19 vaccines is morally acceptable under certain circumstances," but said they objected to mandating that Coloradans get vaccinated against the coronavirus. 

A poll whose results were released Aug. 5 by the Public Religion Research Institute showed large differences between religious groups in their attitudes toward getting the COVID-19 vaccine for themselves or for their children.

Johnny Young, who overcame crushing poverty in his youth to serve as a U.S. ambassador in four countries under three presidents and later as director of the U.S. bishops' Migration and Refugee Services, died July 24 at age 81.

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Vatican's ambassador to the U.S., told a gathering of some 10,000 young people asscoiated with the Neocatechumenal Way to realize that they have "something to do so that the church may become the church." 

A U.S. bishop charged with addressing immigration issues has raised objections to a July 26 announcement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that it would begin "expedited removal" proceedings, or fast-tracking deportations, of some immigrant families who entered the U.S. illegally and do not qualify for asylum.

Two fully vaccinated Jesuit university presidents who recently tested positive for COVID-19 have spoken out about their experience as an urgent reminder of the need to get vaccinated

As indoor mask mandates are returning in areas of the country hard hit by a new wave of the coronavirus, U.S. bishops have been informing their dioceses of this new policy impacting Masses, Catholic schools and church events. This is particularly true in Louisiana where bishops have been announcing this change in letters to their respective dioceses or public announcements the first week of August. Their announcements followed the Aug. 2 statewide mask mandate issued by Gov. John Bel Edwards requiring anyone age 5 and up to wear a mask indoors in K-12 schools, businesses, universities and churches as the state tries to bring down the rising number of COVID-19 infections. The mandate is in effect until at least Sept.1. Louisiana is currently experiencing the worst outbreak of new COVID-19 cases per capita in the nation, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A Rwandan immigrant awaiting trial for the arson of the cathedral in Nantes turned himself into police for killing the French provincial of the Montfort Missionaries.

Italian police have launched an investigation after postal workers discovered an envelope containing three bullets and addressed to "the pope."