The president of Bolivia welcomed a pledge from Pope Francis “to take concrete, joint actions against the impunity of sexual crimes” in the South American country, where credible accusations of clerical sexual abuse have provoked outrage and caused a reckoning for the Catholic Church.

Pope Francis had a 40-minute private meeting at the Vatican with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

With a well-attended Mass that sent people forth with a rousing rendition of Richard Smallwood’s “I Love the Lord” — served up by the choir of New York’s St. Paul the Apostle Church and soloist Paulist Father Steven Bell — the third annual Outreach gathering of LGBTQ+ Catholics came to a close after a weekend of thoughtful discussion panels held at the Lincoln Center campus of Fordham University.

The Ukrainian Catholic bishops of the U.S. are calling attention to the profound psychological consequences of Russia’s war on Ukraine, urging the faithful to “be the conduits that direct God’s healing touch to our suffering brothers and sisters.”

Catholics in some of the affected states are complementing the government’s effort to prevent disaster with principles of Pope Francis’ landmark 2015 environmental encyclical “Laudato Si'” firmly in mind.

The Latin language in the Catholic Church faces two major hurdles: the increasingly exclusive access to Latin instruction worldwide and the difficulty of transmitting the ancient language’s modern value to seminarians from non-European backgrounds, said the new president of the Vatican’s Latin academy.

– President Joe Biden’s special envoy for climate issues is counting on Pope Francis’ support to get nations attending the next U.N. climate summit to adopt bold measures to mitigate climate change.

Celebrating a special Mass June 18 at Mount Calvary Parish in Forestville to commemorate the next day’s Juneteenth federal holiday, Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of Washington said that historic event offers an important reminder to work for freedom and justice.

Catholics need to recover a sense of awe and adoration before the Eucharist, knowing that it is “the real and loving presence of the Lord,” Pope Francis told members of the committees organizing the National Eucharistic Revival and the National Eucharistic Congress in the United States.

Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez called for “respect for the belief of others” at a noon Mass hours before the Los Angeles Dodgers honored a controversial drag group at its annual Pride Night event.