Meeting hundreds of Nigerian Catholics who live, work and study in Rome, Pope Francis asked them to make their Rome parishes places where cultural, ethnic and linguistic differences are respected and shared.

Media outlets have a responsibility to share the truth, not spread ideologies, Pope Francis said.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on International Justice and Peace called upon the faithful to renew prayers during Holy Week for an end to the Israel-Hamas war.

Dressed in red vestments, the color of the Passion, Pope Francis presided over the Mass, the solemn beginning of Holy Week, but he skipped the homily and did not have an aide read any prepared remarks.

The Palm Sunday procession at the foot of an 85-foot-tall Egyptian obelisk in St. Peter’s Square recalls the martyrdom of many early Christians and the fast-thinking foresight of an Italian Renaissance sea captain.

A permanent deacon in the Diocese of Lafayette, La., whose then-teenage son was molested by the priest he once served alongside, is now excommunicated after leaving his ministry, because he formally left the Catholic Church, according to the recent decree written by his bishop.

Russia’s Catholic archbishop has echoed condemnations of a March 22 terror assault which left dozens dead and injured at a Moscow concert venue, although a bishop from war-torn Ukraine warned the atrocity should also remind Russians of what his country was suffering at their hands.

Catholic communities across the U.S. have been supporting migrant families arriving in the United States fleeing crisis situations by participating in the Welcome Circles, a program developed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Migration and Refugee Services.

If there can be said to be a vanishing population in the United States, one demographic immediately stands out: people living with Down syndrome.

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities that left 1,200 dead and over 250 kidnapped, Lo’ay Ayyad, 48, a father of two and a successful veteran tour guide in the region, has been largely unemployed as the tourism industry has come to a halt and he has used up almost all his savings.