During a brief question-and-answer period with reporters on the papal plane returning to Rome from Belgium Sept. 29, the pope was asked specifically whether he thought Israel had gone too far in its most recent strike on Lebanon.

Every crisis, including what the Catholic Church can experience when people no longer care about religion or have distanced themselves from the faith, is meant to wake Christians up from their slumber, make them ask questions and to change, Pope Francis told bishops, priests, religious and pastoral workers.

Amid ongoing and potentially escalating conflict in both the Middle East and Ukraine, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin cautioned gathered delegates at the 79th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York Sept. 28 that, “peace is only possible if it is wanted.”

Hezbollah’s central headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs were struck multiple times Sept. 27 by Israeli missiles, shaking the Lebanese capital. The next day Iran-backed Hezbollah confirmed the military organization’s leader Hassan Nasrallah died in the strike.

Students at the world’s oldest Catholic university applauded Pope Francis for his calls to protect the environment and promote justice, but he was challenged when it came to his vision of the role of women in the church and society.

The Catholic Church teaches today what it has for two thousand years: Human life begins at conception and any deliberate participation in the killing of that defenseless life is a mortal sin.

Oct. 7 will mark a year since the brutal Hamas attack on Israeli communities and the no less brutal Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip that immediately followed.

Exhumed in May 2023, four years after her death, Benedictine Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, foundress of the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, was discovered preserved from decay.

The first World Youth Day to be hosted in a country where Christians are a minority will seek to instill young people with the courage to share the Gospel while fostering interreligious dialogue, organizers of the event said.

The English and Welsh bishops have criticized a decision by the British government to put “buffer zones” around all abortion clinics, which could see Christians arrested for offering private prayers.