Catholic News Service

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Vatican's ambassador to the United States, has urged Missouri Republican Gov. Mike Parson to respect "the humanity" of death-row inmate Ernest Lee Johnson and "the sacredness of all human life" and stop his Oct. 5 execution.

In a Sept. 30 talk at the University of Notre Dame, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito defended the court's use of what has been termed the "shadow docket" for the court's emergency orders and summary decisions.

When Christians recognize their own weakness and frailty, they discover God's love and care for them, Pope Francis said.

In their Plenary Council process, the Catholics of Australia have been called, like the biblical patriarch Abraham, "to step into a future which he could not control and which he did not fully understand," said Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth.

The second Synodal Assembly of German Catholics ended with overwhelming support for a range of proposals that, if adopted, would bring widespread reform to the church.

Greed and selfishness continues to prevail despite the vast amount of wealth in the world, Pope Francis said.

Because of climate change, rising seas threaten to displace millions of people and cost billions of dollars, study warns.

A federal appeals court backed the Biden administration in a Sept. 30 ruling saying officials can resume using a Trump-era public health provision to expel migrants who crossed the border illegally, citing coronavirus concerns

The Vatican announced that Pope Francis will formally launch the process of the Synod of Bishops with a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

All Christians are called to be missionaries, which at its most basic level involves living in such a way that other people ask what motivates their love and concern, Pope Francis said.

Against the background of lay Catholics' anger about a Vatican decision not to censure Cologne clergy for mishandling abuse cases, German Catholics — bishops, clergy and laity — gathered in Frankfurt for the start of the three-day Synodal Path Assembly.

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco is asking "all Catholics and others of goodwill" to join a prayer and fasting campaign for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic Democrat who supports legal abortion.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, said diocesan celebrations coinciding with the World Meeting of Families 2022 will allow Catholic families to be in "spiritual communion" with Pope Francis and delegates in Rome.

Pope Francis appointed a dozen new members to the International Theological Commission, including two professors from the Catholic University of America, the Vatican announced.

Panelists at one Sept. 27 forum during an online conference on immigration law and policy noted that the asylum process, like much else in the U.S. immigration system, is in need of its own fixes.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said current conditions in Haiti allowed for the return of some of the estimated 14,000 Haitian migrants who crossed earlier in September from Mexico into Del Rio, Texas.

The ceremony is due to be held on Oct. 21, and to be attended by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Irish President Michael Higgins. However, Higgins has now pulled out of the event, claiming that it had been "politicized.

The pope's message Sept. 29 came during a "Youth4Climate" gathering, which included Greta Thunberg, in Milan Sept. 28-30, ahead of the U.N. COP26 climate summit in November.

In the search for truth, Catholic communicators must learn how to listen above all else, the Vatican said.