In a wide-ranging interview with top staff of America magazine, Pope Francis decried increased polarization within the Catholic Church, affirmed the need to involve more women in church administration but ruled out women priests and emphasized the importance of the ministry of individual bishops over the role of a bishops’ conference.

Father Ivan Levitsky, a hieromonk and rector of the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, and Father Bohdan Geleta, who works at the church, were detained by Russian troops Nov. 16, and the church was illegally searched the following day.

After learning that Cardinal Angelo Becciu and a relative of his secretly recorded a phone call with Pope Francis, the Vatican’s chief prosecutor said his office is considering a new charge — one of criminal conspiracy — against the cardinal, who has been on trial since July 2021 for financial malfeasance.

Violence against women is “a social scourge that is also linked to cultural attitudes, ingrained mentalities and prejudices,” so education, prevention and swifter justice are needed to end it, Pope Francis said.

Being so distracted that one does not notice God’s presence in daily life is a warning sign that one is not being vigilant enough, Pope Francis cautioned.

Nine months after Russia launched its war on Ukraine, Pope Francis wrote to the Ukrainian people expressing his admiration for their courage and commitment to their country in the face of so much death and destruction.

Residents of Maryland and Missouri that voted during the midterms to approve recreational marijuana use must closely monitor the local regulatory details and local impacts on youth, according to a national watchdog group.

The Supreme Court of Georgia Nov. 23 reinstated a law that bans abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is about six weeks into a pregnancy.

Just ahead of Thanksgiving Day, “a time where we celebrate what we are most grateful for in our lives,” the nation awoke Nov. 23 “to the somber and agonizing news of more souls lost because of a senseless act of violence” at a Walmart in Chesapeake, said Bishop Barry C. Knestout of Richmond, Virginia.

As much as Father Lukasz J. Willenberg misses being part of a regular parish family back home in the Diocese of Providence, ministering to members of the U.S. Army as a military chaplain for the past eight years has brought him an unparalleled level of joy.