Catholic News Service

A New York auxiliary bishop has been removed from public ministry pending a Vatican review of a decades-old accusation of sexual abuse against him, a claim he denies, the Archdiocese of New York said in a letter released Oct. 31.

The government of East Timor, one of Asia's most Catholic countries, is blocking a planned trip by its president to the Vatican, where he plans to invite Pope Francis to visit.

Pakistan's Supreme Court has set aside the death sentence of Asia Bibi, a Catholic convicted of blasphemy, and ordered her release from prison.

The Sixth Commandment's mandate against adultery is a call to fidelity that applies not only to married couples, but to all Christians called to love others through their vocation, Pope Francis said.

A priest who said he was attacked by an unknown assailant in the sacristy at St. Michael Byzantine Catholic Church in Merrillville was placed on administrative leave after an abuse claim against him from decades ago was deemed credible.

How the Diocese of Buffalo handles cases of priests suspected of abuse was the subject of a report Oct. 28 by the CBS newsmagazine "60 Minutes," which talked to a woman who leaked diocesan files on those priests to a local TV station.

People must make "a serious examination of conscience to understand whether we are really capable of listening to the poor," the pope said in a message for the World Day of the Poor.

An attorney for the U.S. Catholic Bishops conference has confirmed that federal officials have asked the organization to keep documents and other files that might pertain to possible sex abuse allegations and other matters and to order the same of all dioceses around the country. 

Federal officials sought entry to two properties belonging to the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, seeking to survey the land for construction of a border wall on it, but in an Oct. 29 statement, Brownsville Bishop Daniel Flores said he did not consent to such use because such a structure "would limit freedom of the church to exercise her mission in the Rio Grande Valley."

A former nuncio to the United States acknowledged hearing rumors about the sexual misconduct of Archbishop Theodore McCarrick already in 1994.

"Forgive us if often we have not listened to you; if, instead of opening our hearts, we have filled your ears. As Christ's church, we want to listen to you with love" because young people's lives are precious in God's eyes and "in our eyes, too," the pope said in his homily Oct. 28.

The U.S. Catholic bishops stand with "our brothers and sisters of the Jewish community," the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said Oct. 27 after a horrific shooting earlier that day in Pittsburgh at the Tree of Life Synagogue, described as a hub of Jewish life in that city.

Six bishops representing episcopal conferences on five continents issued a joint statement calling on the international community to take immediate action against climate change.

The more than 250 Catholic bishops from around the world meeting at the Vatican in October missed an opportunity to confront the global sex abuse crisis, said Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia.

Humility, kindness and generosity are needed to create peace in the world, starting in one's own family, Pope Francis said.

An open letter to the U.S. bishops asks that at their Nov. 12-14 fall general meeting in Baltimore, they make it mandatory for bishops to become reporters of suspected sexual abuse.

Members of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in this southern Mexican city rose early Oct. 24 to feed but a fraction of the Central American migrants traveling in a caravan, which is trying to traverse Mexico and reach the United States border.

The bishops of Virginia's two Catholic dioceses said in a joint statement Oct. 24 that they wanted to assure Catholics in the state and the public "we are cooperating with the attorney general's office."

The Field Hospital: Hurricane Michael's Oct. 10 landfall brought near Category-5 strength winds when it came ashore at Mexico Beach, near Panama City on the Florida Gulf Coast. Two weeks after the storm came ashore, Michael's death toll has risen to 29 in Florida alone.

Days after the Catholic Church declared Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero a saint, a judge in El Salvador issued a capture order for a former military captain suspected of killing the religious leader in 1980 as he celebrated Mass.