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.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced its “Healing and Hope” initiative as a “new component” of the USCCB’s National Catholic Mental Health Campaign.

As tens of thousands of Palestinians were fleeing their homes as Israel launched a major new ground offensive in Gaza City, Pope Leo XIV expressed his “profound closeness to the Palestinian people in Gaza.”