Paulina Guzik

Ad limina visits by bishops tend to make headlines in local churches when the bishops involved are in some kind of trouble. This time, however, the Peruvian bishops' visit to the tomb of the apostles made global news for a different reason: an unusual guest at their lunch and fraternal affection from the pope who is claimed by Peruvian faithful as their own.

Pope Leo XIV embraced the youth of Rome — both literally and with his words — during a Jan. 10 meeting with the young people of the Diocese of Rome, telling them to choose real relationships over digital isolation.

Pope Leo XIV strongly condemned the Church's failure to welcome survivors of sexual abuse, calling it a "scandal" that deepens their suffering, even though the issue was not a main topic at the Jan. 7-8 extraordinary consistory in Rome.

Hong Kong's prominent Catholic, media tycoon and pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai has been convicted of national security offenses under the city's controversial national security law.

Asked how Catholics across the world can help, CNEWA regional director Joseph Hazboun said first of all, with prayers "that this truce, this ceasefire, will hold and move forward towards a permanent peace agreement where Gaza will have the opportunity to flourish."

Historic momentum is felt across the Middle East as thousands gathered Oct. 11 in Tel Aviv, Israel, for the last mass gathering before the hostage release expected to take place Oct. 13, and tens of thousands of Palestinians started to make their way back to their homes in northern Gaza Strip. But those Palestinians have returned to see only mostly rubble left, with Fr. Gabriel Romanelli, the pastor of Gaza City's Catholic parish, saying the entire enclave has experienced a "tsunami" of destruction.

Just remember the children that died there, almost 70,000 civilians died, and to this there is no solution," Cardinal Konrad Krajewski said.

As the Pontifical Commission for the Protection Minors concluded its Sept. 29-Oct. 3 assembly in Kraków, "following five days of intensive dialogue, reflection and strategic planning," it prepares to publish its second annual report Oct. 16.

As fall begins, Catholics are watching closely for Pope Leo XIV's first major Vatican appointments. One of the most urgent vacancies to fill is his own former role — prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.

 The publication noted the pontiff's link to Leo XIII, whose 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum "railed against the new machine-driven economic systems converting workers into commodities."

In a quiet but powerful move, Vatican News has begun removing artwork by Fr. Marko Rupnik — the once-renowned mosaicist now accused of abusing over two dozen women — from its website. His mosaics, long used to mark major feast days online, were recently replaced or left blank — a shift many survivors say is long overdue.

In the first week of Leo pontificate, the leading expert on the abuse crisis — as well as several survivors and victims of abuse — has come to the defense of the newly elected Roman pontiff after two organizations advocating for victims of abuse raised concerns regarding Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost's record on the matter not long after he was elected.

As Ukraine experienced a deadly weekend with a barrage of attacks from Russia on Kryvyi Rih and Kyiv, the capital, the papal almoner handed a gift from Pope Francis — four ambulances — to local authorities in Zaporizhzhia. The papal point man on charity was also personally distributing bread to the needy population during his 10th mission to the war-torn country.

The same day Pope Francis was discharged from Rome's Gemelli hospital after a five-week stay for treatment for double pneumonia, a group of Vatican doctors took their Lenten alms initiative a step further and helped provide medical care to a group of migrants.

Poland's day of prayer for victims of clerical sexual abuse, scheduled each year for the first Friday in Lent, was overshadowed March 7 by a controversial opinion from the legal council of the Polish bishops' conference regarding an independent commission for the investigation of abuse cases that has been under development for the past two years.

Five years after the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church made national headlines in Poland, victims of abuse met with Polish bishops at the fringes of the plenary meeting of the bishops' conference. 

Laurence Gien, who was 11 when he was sexually abused by a priest in his native South Africa, told OSV News that when standing in front of bishops, cardinals and Francis himself, giving testimony about his lifetime trauma, he "was just trying to appeal" to church hierarchy, "to look deep inside and to change what needs to be changed and to realize the fundamental values of certain things that you cannot take for granted. And that was important for me."

The Polish bishops' conference expressed sympathy and prayers and appeals for funds after weekend flooding wreaked havoc across Central and Eastern Europe.

Taking over one of the most troubled dioceses in the country, Bishop Artur Wazny of Sosnowiec didn't waste time ahead of his June 22 installation.

Removing Fr. Marko Rupnik's art from public space "is not a Christian response," Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication, said at the Catholic Media Conference in Atlanta.