Closely watched off-year elections in several states will offer the first major opportunity for voters to weigh in at the ballot box since President Donald Trump began his second term — with cost-of-living, an area of Catholic social concern, once more playing a role.

Across Europe, Catholic families are turning Halloween into a celebration of light, life and holiness. Known as “Holywins” — a play on “Holy” and “Halloween” — the movement began in Paris in 2002 and has since spread to Poland, Belgium, Italy, Spain and beyond.

Pope Leo XIV encouraged an international group of young adults to reach out to their peers and invite them to be active members of a parish community rather than trying to live their faith alone.

Brazilian Cardinal Orani João Tempesta of Rio de Janeiro appealed for peace after a police operation targeting a local drug trafficking gang resulted in the deaths of more than a hundred people.

A human connection of love and care between a teacher and student is a key part of the educational process, Pope Leo XIV said, and one that is even more important at a time when so many students experience fragility.

When the Catholic Church celebrates World Mission Sunday for the 100th time in 2026, it will focus on theme, “One in Christ, united in mission.”

When St. John Henry Newman is proclaimed a doctor of the church on Nov. 1, staff and students at his old university will be counting on a boost of confidence for Oxford’s once-excluded Catholics.

Pope Leo XIV’s recognition of St. John Henry Newman as a “doctor of the church” will be an ecumenical celebration, a sign of esteem for the excellence and ongoing relevance of his teaching, first as an Anglican and then as a Roman Catholic, said a key figure in preparing the declaration.

The Trump administration indicated it would restrict the number of refugees it admits annually into the country to 7,500, with most of that number to be white South Africans.

Kierre Williams entered the plea Oct. 28 in Washington County, Nebraska, District Court, admitting to first-degree murder in the 2023 stabbing death of Father Stephen Gutgsell.