Catholic News Service

Visiting the imprisoned is an act of mercy that has implications for all Christians and not just those involved in prison ministry, Pope Francis said.

At a time when "situations of injustice and human pain" seem to be growing around the globe, Christians are called to "accompany the victims, to see in their faces the face of our crucified Lord," Pope Francis said.

While other U.S. bishops are preparing for their general meeting in Baltimore Nov. 11-13, the bishops of New York state are packing their bags for Rome.

Sister Helen Prejean, Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, Texas, and the Catholic Mobilizing Network have been joined by celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Rihanna, Meek Mill and Kim Kardashian West in urging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to stop the scheduled Nov. 20 execution of death-row inmate Rodney Reed.

Bishops from New England shared with Pope Francis some of the joys, challenges and sufferings of the church in the Northeast and, really, throughout the United States, three of the bishops said.

Catholic bishops from the European Union marked 30 years since the breaching of the Berlin Wall with tributes to those who worked for peaceful change, as well as warnings against resurgent "ideologies behind the building of walls."

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley broke ground Nov. 3 for the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in south Oklahoma City.

When they meet Nov. 11-13 in Baltimore, the U.S. bishops are expected to vote on a revised set of strategic priorities to take them into the next decade.

The Field Hospital: Our Lady of Guadalupe Circle is a national coalition of indigenous people, Catholic clergy, women religious and lay people dedicated to healing the relationship between the Catholic Church and Canada's First Nations.

A Catholic bishop in southern India has dismissed allegations of being a womanizer and fathering two children; he says the claims are a retaliatory response from priests opposed to his administrative reforms.

Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese are hitting the streets across the country to demand an end to rampant corruption and poor public services. Cutting across sectarian lines, they also want the current government of entrenched politicians dating back to Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war era to step down.

Following a proposal made during the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon, Pope Francis restructured several dioceses in the Brazilian Amazon to better address the needs of local Catholics.

Christians who preach the Gospel must see people who do not know Christ as children of God and not as nonbelievers worthy of hostility and contempt, Pope Francis said.

Ethiopia is now managing nearly a million refugees from South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, Yemen and even Syria, said Ethiopian Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel. Because so many Ethiopians are refugees, those who remain in the country work to make newcomers feel welcome.

Six Catholic organizations have joined with other religious groups and denominational bodies in endorsing a wide-ranging platform calling for urgent attention to the nation's democratic principles with the national election one year away.

In life, Christians face the choice of either being open to encountering God's generosity or closed in on their own interests, Pope Francis said.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in consultation with the members of the bishops' conference Administrative Committee, has taken the highly unusual step of disinviting a fellow bishop from the conference's fall general assembly.

Jesus invites everyone to always go to him, which, Pope Francis said, also means no longer making life revolve around oneself.

The Trump administration Nov. 1 announced a proposed rule to allow faith-based adoption and foster care agencies to follow their deeply held religious beliefs and not place children with same-sex couples.

At times of great crisis in the Catholic Church, God intervened to renew it through the example and witness of saints, said Archbishop Leonard P. Blair of Hartford, Connecticut.