Former President George W. Bush in an opinion piece for The Washington Post published Sept. 13 made his case for the reauthorization of PEPFAR, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, calling that program pro-life — despite claims to the contrary from some pro-life advocates who have expressed concern some of the program’s funds could be diverted to pay for abortions.

The Justice Department and the manufacturer of an abortion drug asked the U.S. Supreme Court Sept. 8 to overturn a lower-court ruling that would limit access to the drug, setting the stage for the high court to weigh in on the future of the drug’s availability.

A Holy See delegation at a Sept. 11-14 meeting of nations that are parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions urged nations that have not yet done so to sign the treaty, which “prohibits under any circumstances the use, development, production, acquisition, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions.”

Plans for the “Casa USA” campus — with backing from other Catholic health care organizations, individuals and the patronage of Lansing Bishop Earl A. Boyea — call for duplicating Padre Pio’s hospital complex for the first time outside of Italy, including an exact replica of the original friary church of the Capuchin Franciscan who is also known as St. Pius of Pietrelcina.

Nick Silverio had founded the Gloria M. Silverio Foundation and the nonprofit’s program, A Safe Haven for Newborns, in memory of his wife of 32 years who was killed in a car accident Dec. 7, 1999.

In an endless cycle of violence against Christians in Nigeria, seminarian Na’Aman Danlami Stephen of the Diocese of Kafanchan was burned to death on Sept. 7 when a terrorist group called Fulani herdsmen attacked the rectory at St. Raphael Church in Fadan Kamantan.

In a message to religious and political leaders gathered at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, Pope Francis pleaded with ordinary citizens and governing officials to have the “audacity of peace.”

Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who said Pope Francis tapped him not to mediate but to encourage dialogue that could end Russia’s war on Ukraine, flew to China Sept. 12, Italian media reported.

A New Mexico archbishop said the state’s temporary ban on openly carrying firearms in and around Albuquerque is not “a threat to the Constitution.”

After a severe storm set off flooding that breached dams in eastern Libya, leading to the deaths of thousands of people, Pope Francis sent his condolences and prayers.