“Prayer that leads to action” is needed to counter a bewildering rise in mass shootings and gun violence, said Atlanta Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer.

Meeting a group of pilgrims from the Italian diocese his father’s family came from, Pope Francis said the family “remains a key value” even though it is “a reality that has changed so much and continues to change.”

A Catholic hospital in Tulsa, Okla., said the federal government has presented it with a choice to either extinguish a candle in its chapel’s sanctuary or risk its ability to treat patients covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, jeopardizing its ability to operate at all.

Safeguarding minors and vulnerable persons must be a priority for everyone in the church, Pope Francis said.

The U.S.-born archbishop tapped by Pope Francis to help find new bishops said a good candidate is “a pastor, capable of being close to the members of the community, starting with the priests for whom the bishop is father and brother.”

Conditions for religious freedom are “worsening” around the globe, a U.S. government body monitoring international religious freedom said in a recent report.

Interreligious dialogue requires sincerity and mutual respect to be fruitful, Pope Francis told Christian and Muslim leaders.

When Pope Francis told reporters the Vatican had some kind of “mission” underway to promote an end to the war in Ukraine, journalists naturally were intrigued.

North Carolina legislators appear poised to pass a ban on abortions after 12 weeks despite objections from the state’s governor.

A Catholic response to those experiencing gender dysphoria “must both affirm God-given sex and recognize the struggle of the person in front of us,” Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City said in a new pastoral letter.