Catholic News Service

Kenyan Catholic bishops have announced plans to convene a national dialogue forum in the face of a political crisis, which they say has left the country's ordinary people on the brink of despair.

The Vatican announced Nov. 9 that Pope Francis has recognized that Pope John Paul I, who served only 33 days as pope, lived the Christian virtues in a heroic way.

A Catholic official in Bangladesh said government officials ought to apologize to India after a Bangladeshi man was convicted of raping a 71-year-old nun in India two years ago.

The Mass is not a show, but a beautiful, transformative encounter with the true loving presence of Christ, Pope Francis said.

For decades during the Great Depression and afterward, Capuchin Franciscan Fr. Solanus Casey was the "go-to" guy for those who were sick, poor, afflicted or discouraged in their faith.

The nation's leaders "must engage in a real debate about needed measures to save lives and make our communities safer," said the chairman of the U.S. bishops' domestic policy committee.

The Philippine bishops' conference started a prayer vigil to protest thousands of killings in the government drive to eradicate drug abuse and drug dealing.

A man dressed in black tactical-style gear and armed with an assault rifle opened fire inside a church in a small South Texas community on Sunday, killing 26 people and wounding about 20 in what the governor called the deadliest mass shooting in the state's history. The dead ranged in age from 5 to 72 years old.

Hypocrisy, like that of the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' time, is not the only temptation that continues to plague religious communities, Pope Francis said. Pride also is a great danger.

As civil war escalates in South Sudan, the world's youngest nation, refugees fleeing violence gather over the border in northern Uganda to ask God for peace.

Hope in the Lord's promise of everlasting life does not disappoint, Pope Francis said.

"No more, Lord, no more (war)" that shatters dreams and destroys lives, bringing a cold, cruel winter instead of some sought-after spring, Pope Francis said.

The threat of violent extremism remains in the Philippines even after the end of a five-month siege by terrorists in a southern city, said Catholic and Muslim officials.

Chief Nicholas Black Elk merged the Lakota and Catholic culture in a way "that drew him deeper into the mystery of Christ's love and the church."

The Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett, a Notre Dame law professor, to a lifetime appointment as a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.

The sin of racism must be recognized, confronted and overcome, Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl said in a new pastoral letter, "The Challenge of Racism Today."

Like stained glass windows, the saints allow the light of God to permeate the darkness of sin in the world, Pope Francis said on the feast of All Saints.

The "horrendous act" by a driver in a pickup truck who mowed down pedestrians and bicyclists in New York late in the afternoon Oct. 31 "weighs on all of our hearts," said the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Catholic bishops of Texas have questioned why federal immigration agents detained a 10-year-old girl -- in the United States since she was baby -- who has cerebral palsy.

A death penalty case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court Oct. 30 examines whether a Texas death-row inmate was given effective counsel when he was sentenced to death in 1997.