Marking World Alzheimer’s Day Sept. 21, Pope Francis asked people to pray for all those affected by the illness, including families and caregivers.

During a U.N. education summit, the Vatican’s secretary of state reiterated Pope Francis’ pre-pandemic call that education is “one of the most effective ways of making our work and history more human.”

During his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square Sept. 21, the pope reflected on his trip to Kazakhstan Sept. 13-15 to support the small Catholic minority there and to attend the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.

As Hurricane Fiona swept across the Caribbean, leaving behind numerous victims and material destruction, Pope Francis called for greater solidarity in assisting all those affected.

Retired Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, the longtime bishop of Galveston-Houston and a tireless social justice advocate throughout his priesthood, episcopacy and in retirement, died Sept. 19. He was 91.

Several U.S. Catholic bishops slammed the actions of Republican politicians who have recently begun to send out of their states groups of women, children and men seeking refuge.

While the report summarizing tens of thousands of U.S. listening sessions in the first phase of the Catholic Church’s synodal process has been submitted to the Vatican, the experience of synodality is just beginning.

Catholics across the country continue to feel wounded by the clergy abuse crisis, seek a more welcoming church in which their “lived reality” is prioritized over rules and regulations, and desire lifelong spiritual, pastoral and catechetical formation as disciples, according to a report synthesizing the 10-month synodal process in dioceses.

Close to 200 bishops at the beginning of their ministries in dioceses and eparchies around the world met Pope Francis Sept. 19 at the end of a week of conferences.

Pope Francis once again called for peace in the Caucasus region as the escalating conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia prompted renewed fears of war.