Catholic leaders warn the exodus of Ukrainian women and children presents a prime opportunity for human trafficking, and they are taking steps to protect the refugees.

As the nation awaits the U.S. Supreme Court’s most significant abortion ruling in decades, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the chairmen of eight USCCB committees joined together “in prayer and expectant hope that states will again be able to protect women and children from the injustice of abortion.”

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is not just a tragic conflict between two nations, but the center of a spiritual battle wrought by the forces of evil that have pitted brother against brother, said the apostolic nuncio to Ukraine.

Pope Francis telephoned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the president addressed the Italian parliament via video link March 22.

A Vatican office led by a cardinal or archbishop has no more authority than one led by a layperson because all offices of the Roman Curia act in the name of the pope, said experts presenting Pope Francis’ new constitution on the Curia’s organization.

Nine years after taking office, Pope Francis promulgated his constitution reforming the Roman Curia, a project he began with his international College of Cardinals shortly after taking office in 2013.

Although Russia’s Catholics hold different views about the conflict in Ukraine, a spokesman for the country’s bishops said all are united in welcoming Pope Francis’ plan to consecrate their country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary March 25 in a service at the Vatican.

The British Parliament threw out an attempt to legalize assisted suicide in England and Wales.

Archbishop Georg Gänswein, private secretary of retired Pope Benedict XVI, has defended his boss and criticized the Munich abuse report, which made international headlines when it was released in January.

The church’s charitable outreach to people fleeing war, political instability, poverty and other threats is a requirement for followers of Jesus, the Administrative Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a March 17 statement.