Pope Francis met with a group of Israelis and their family members who were freed after being held hostage in Gaza by Hamas and other Palestinian militants.

Methods of further incorporating “Laudato Si’,” Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on care of creation, into the life of the church at the local and national level was a point of discussion for the U.S. bishops in Baltimore during their fall general assembly Nov. 13, and included the suggestion of returning to the church’s longtime practice of abstaining from meat on Fridays.

Archbishop Charles C. Thompson of Indianapolis, chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, updated his fellow bishops Nov. 13 in Baltimore on his committee’s plans to implement the ministry of the lay catechist, a ministry set forward by Pope Francis in his May 2021 apostolic letter “Antiquum Ministerium.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrapped up its fall plenary assembly’s final public session Nov. 13 in Baltimore, in which the bishops discussed topics ranging from the recent election, to synodality, to care for the environment, to life issues, including abortion and immigration.

Retired Archbishop James P. Keleher of Kansas City died of natural causes in his home at the Santa Marta Retirement Community in Olathe Nov. 9. He was 93.

Efforts to slow climate change and mitigate its impact, particularly on the poor, are being thwarted by selfishness, the Vatican secretary of state told world leaders at the COP29 climate conference.

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland, whom Pope Francis removed from pastoral governance of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, in 2023, read an open letter Nov. 13 in Baltimore asking “what it will take for more than a few bishops to finally speak up against the false messages constantly flowing from the Vatican under the leadership of Pope Francis?”

President Joe Biden welcomed President-elect Donald Trump to the White House Nov. 13 for an Oval Office visit, a ritual part of the U.S. tradition of a peaceful transfer of power between presidents, and one that Trump declined four years earlier.

Leading British Catholics have urged their church to avoid involvement in the resignation of the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, who quit Nov. 12 after being implicated in a large-scale abuse cover-up.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted Nov. 13 in Baltimore to approve a new “mission directive” for 2025-28, a new way that the conference is presenting its strategic vision for the next four years.