The Catholic bishops of Missouri on March 26 issued a statement offering their support to a ballot measure that would both limit abortion and certain types of medical or surgical gender reassignment procedures for minors who identify as transgender.

Pope Leo XIV has appointed four U.S.-based scholars and leaders as members of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development.

The “faithful service” of retired Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, who died March 26 at age 85, “leaves a lasting legacy on Long Island and throughout the universal Church,” said Bishop John O. Barres, the diocese’s current shepherd.

A Wisconsin priest arrested last year for child enticement and attempted sexual assault is facing new charges of possessing child sex abuse material.

A Catholic university in Qatar has closed its buildings as war in the Middle East continues — with the Iranian regime now explicitly naming American universities as “legitimate targets” in retaliation for strikes on two schools in Iran.

In an unexpected sign of hope in the Holy Land, Gaza City Christians of Holy Family Parish were able to celebrate Mass with the blessing of palms and a procession for Palm Sunday March 29.

Catholics in Chicago have expressed sympathy and sorrow over the death of a Loyola University Chicago student who was shot and killed March 19 near the school campus.

Pope Leo XIV named Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the substitute secretary for general affairs at the Vatican Secretariat of State, as the apostolic nuncio to Italy and the Republic of San Marino, the Vatican said.

Marking the start of Holy Week, Pope Leo XIV used his first Palm Sunday Mass to issue a forceful plea for peace, urging an end to war as he reflected on Christ’s Passion.

On the threshold of Holy Week and amid the U.S. and Israel-Iran war gaining new fronts, and harvesting new victims daily, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem issued an annual Easter message, calling the war an “expanding wreckage” and its timing a “deep darkness.”