Pope Francis has expressed his closeness to the small Catholic community in Turkey after gunmen attacked a church during Sunday morning Mass Jan. 28, leaving at least one worshipper dead.

A Latin Mass that took place at the U.S. Capitol in January was not authorized by the Washington Archdiocese, which has procedures in place for such requests, church officials told OSV News.

Creative approaches to Catholic education are signs that Catholic schools are adapting to new needs, said Mary Pat Donoghue, executive director of the Secretariat of Catholic Education for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Catholic Polytechnic University, a new Catholic university focused on STEM education and research, aims to enroll its first class of students this fall. The Los Angeles-area university seeks to provide students a unique “deeply Catholic” postsecondary education that excels in science and technology.

Steeped in tradition, ecclesiastical heraldry is a regulated system of self-identification, adopted by the church from medieval society, which operates as a science and an art form with its own rules and regulations.

Pope Francis again insisted that an informal blessing of a gay or other unmarried couple is not a blessing of their union but a sign of the Catholic Church’s closeness to them and its hope that they will grow in faith.

Seeing young people involved in ecumenical initiatives is a sign of the Holy Spirit at work, Pope Francis said.

“Religious ‘Nones’ in America: Who They Are and What They Believe,” released Jan. 24 by Pew Research Center, found that about 28 percent of U.S. adults are religiously unaffiliated.

Ohio lawmakers voted Jan. 24 to override Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s recent veto of legislation that bans certain types of medical or surgical gender reassignment procedures for minors who identify as transgender and also prohibits athletes from competing on sports teams corresponding with their self-perceived gender identity opposite their biological sex.

Divided Christians will draw closer to one another only by loving God and loving their neighbors, serving one another and not pointing fingers in blame for past faults, Pope Francis said.