Pope Francis called on divided Christians to overcome their doctrinal differences and walk together in love, expressing hope especially for greater unity between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, Pope Francis’ envoy for peace in Ukraine, returned to Moscow in mid-October for meetings with Russian government officials and leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Before the standing-room-only congregation gathered in Trenton’s St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral for the first statewide Mass for Life, Bishop David M. O’Connell framed his homily around the words “Duty to Protect” when it comes to protecting all human life, especially “the child in their mother’s womb, the child in the mother’s arms and beyond.

The Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, which met in Rome in 2019, paved the way for the current synod on synodality, said the region’s top cardinal.

Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington said he hopes U.S. voters who are as concerned as he is about the “anger and vitriol” of the current election cycle will take time away from the media to think and pray about the values important to them as Catholics.

As Israel has escalated its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon across a United Nations-drawn boundary between the two countries, more than a million people have fled their homes.

The celebration of World Mission Sunday is a popular day for a pope to canonize new saints — not only those who ministered or gave up their lives in lands traditionally known as mission territories, but women and men from every walk of life and from around the world.

If members of the Synod of Bishops are serious about sharing their experience of “synodality” with all members of the Catholic Church, then they must identify concrete ways to do so, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich told members.

Pope Francis met with a group of transgender and intersex Catholics, along with LGBTQ+ allies and a medical doctor specializing in transgender healthcare, during a nearly 90-minute audience at his residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

Jennie Bradley Lichter, president-elect of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, said challenges for the group’s cause on both political and cultural fronts also present an opportunity to demonstrate “leading with love.”