Catholic leaders and organizations in the U.S. continue to aid Venezuela as that nation recovers from two deadly earthquakes that struck seconds apart June 24.

As America’s 250th anniversary was celebrated across the States and the world, with Pope Leo XIV accepting the Liberty Medal for the occasion, U.S. Ukrainian Catholic bishops asked Americans to consider the meaning of freedom through the experience of a nation still fighting to preserve it.

A Catholic priest working for peace and reconciliation in the Central African Republic was killed by armed men near his residence in the town of Zemio on June 29.

French Catholics attached to the traditional Latin Mass but loyal to Rome are expressing deep sadness after the Society of St. Pius X consecrated four bishops without papal approval, prompting the Vatican to declare the group in schism and excommunicate six SSPX bishops.

Ezra Jin Mingri, founder and pastor of an underground church in China and a prisoner of conscience in that country, was released from imprisonment and reunited with his family in the U.S. shortly before Independence Day, U.S. officials said.

Another Nicaraguan bishop remains missing after being apprehended by police, drawing a rebuke from the United States for the ongoing “attacks on religious freedom” in the increasingly authoritarian country.

The Vatican has released the framework for a fall meeting with the heads of Eastern Catholic Churches and presidents of bishops’ conferences, marking the 10th anniversary of “Amoris Laetitia” and focusing on the Church’s pastoral approach to families.

A provision of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that stopped Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid payments for a year expired July 4, allowing the nation’s largest abortion provider to regain access to hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid funding.

When the papal coat of arms was hung at the balcony of the papal Castel Gandolfo residence July 5, locals knew that their main summer protagonist was on the way.

After spending the morning praying for migrants on the island of Lampedusa, Italy, Pope Leo XIV celebrated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence with the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See and his family.