Legal abortions most likely increased in the United States in the first six months of 2023 compared with 2020, according to a New York Times analysis of data from the Guttmacher Institute, which opposes abortion restrictions.

After an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that a financial relationship exists between the Vatican and Moscow, the Vatican bank said Sept. 9 that it “does not receive nor invest money from Russia.”

Risking and ultimately losing their lives to shelter Jews persecuted by the Nazis, “the martyrs Józef and Wiktoria Ulma and their seven children” were models of “evangelical love,” Pope Francis said.

Rather than engage in petty gossip which leads to scandal, Christians are called by Jesus to be direct yet loving in offering help to an errant friend, Pope Francis said.

Rescuers continue to search through the rubble in the hopes of finding survivors after a powerful earthquake struck Morocco the night of Sept. 8, killing close to 2,500 people and causing widespread destruction.

The four attacks spanning some 77 minutes would kill 2,977 people that day. They would not be the only victims of those Sept. 11 attacks. More than 4,600 first responders and survivors have since died from cancers and other ailments incurred by toxic dust, fumes and fibers from the debris; thousands more continue to suffer.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York told OSV News the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, which will be marked with solemn ceremonies across the U.S., should be observed with memories of lives lost and impacted by the day’s events.

When California in 2021 relaxed its physician-assisted death rules — easing access to the lethal means for residents to take their own lives — several lawmakers behind the change cited a desire to aid the terminally ill, invoking a sort of legislative altruism.

From its beginning in 2021, the church’s synod on synodality has raised a question: Where is this worldwide process of listening to the people of God, especially those on the margins, going?

Inviting others into their rich liturgical traditions, fostering belonging in small communities and reaching out to the secular world via podcasts and “coffee shop ministry,” many Eastern Catholic parishes have unique ways of bringing people to full life in Jesus Christ as his disciples.