French Christians are reeling after the brutal murder of Ashur Sarnaya, a 45-year-old disabled Iraqi Chaldean Catholic, stabbed in the throat outside his Lyon apartment.

Pope Leo XIV turned 70 on Sept. 14, and more than 2 million prayers and works from 72 countries around the world were offered for him for the occasion through an OSV News-organized initiative, making up one very special “spiritual birthday bouquet” of prayer, love and support.

Human rights campaigners have accused the Belarus government of using imprisoned Catholic priests as “hostages,” as a Polish Carmelite became the latest detained for alleged espionage.

Pope Leo XIV said a proposal to create an AI-version of him so people could have a virtual audience with the pope pretty much horrified him.

Clerical sexual abuse continues to be “a real crisis,” one that the Catholic Church still must learn to deal with, particularly in improving the way it helps survivors while also ensuring the rights of the accused are respected, Pope Leo XIV said.

The U.S. Department of Education has pulled funding for programs in eight states that is aimed at assisting students who are both visually and hearing-impaired, sometimes referred to as deafblind.

In an overly frenetic world, the Gospel teaches the importance of stopping, resting and trusting in the Lord, Pope Leo XIV said.

Religion, at its core, is not a source of conflict but a source of healing and reconciliation, Pope Leo XIV said.

Amid his eighth apostolic visit to the U.S. Sept. 14-25, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople addressed attendees at a Sept. 16 State Department dinner in his honor, hosted by Deputy Secretary of State Michael J. Rigas.

The pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need expressed its “deep concern and solidarity” with the families of the victims of a brutal attack carried out on the night of Sept. 8-9 in Ntoyo in the area of St. Joseph of Manguredjipa Catholic Parish, which is in the Congolese province of North Kivu.