As fears of a widening war in the Middle East grew again in early August, Pope Francis pleaded with the region’s leaders to exercise restraint and engage in dialogue.

Earnestly listening to Latino Catholics in the church, including their perspectives in Catholic content, and showing their diversity in media visuals are crucial ways for Catholic media to reach those audiences, Latino Catholic leaders told Catholic communications professionals during a panel discussion June 20.

Dozens of technologists and Catholics gathered at Microsoft in Redmond for a conversation about ethics in artificial intelligence between an “unlikely pair,” as they were introduced: a papal adviser and the head of Microsoft.

During a week of extreme high temperature warnings, altar servers on a pilgrimage to Rome found many ways to cool off and strengthen their faith by visiting the city’s underground catacombs, cavernous basilicas and a temporary pilgrimage center near St. Peter’s Square.

The beautiful sanctuary, rich in blues and gold, and filled with art reflecting Mary’s apparitions, also houses the relics of St. Catherine.

A retired FBI agent will head up the U.S. bishops’ consultative safe environment body, while a clergy abuse survivor, a nursing professor and two clinical social workers are also among the board’s Aug. 1 appointments.

While bishops around the world are asked to designate their cathedrals or other significant churches as special places of pilgrimage and prayer for the Holy Year 2025, the Vatican is not asking them to dedicate and open a “Holy Door” at those churches.

Blessed Solanus Casey serves as a role model for offering disappointments up to God and bearing wrongs patiently, Bishop Robert J. McClory of Gary, Indiana, told the faithful gathered at St. Bonaventure Monastery to celebrate the porter’s feast day.

The U.S. Senate on Aug. 1 failed to advance a bill that would have expanded the child tax credit, a provision some Catholic organizations have long sought as a pro-family and anti-poverty effort.

The staff of the international Catholic relief arm Caritas Jerusalem are expressing praise and gratitude for God’s seeming miraculous intervention on a Gaza church compound July 29.