Pope Francis has named a Brazil-born husband, father of two children and teacher of religion in an Italian school to be the secretary of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life.

The U.S. bishops’ quadrennial document on Catholic participation in public life will get a tweaking rather than a wholesale update, but will be supplemented with a new introductory note, parish bulletin inserts, additional social media and video components.

Work is proceeding — and quickly — on next October’s synod on synodality, according to Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, in a Nov. 15 report to his fellow bishops.

The coronavirus pandemic, combined with inflation and a reorganization of the U.S. bishops’ communication arm, have altered the budget picture for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in the 2020s.

The U.S. bishops gave their consent for the advancement of the sainthood causes of three U.S. Catholics at the local diocesan level.

The U.S. bishops’ three-year eucharistic revival, which will culminate in a National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in 2024, is in full swing, according to Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minn.

U.S. Bishops

From his diocese near the border with Mexico, Bishop Mark J. Seitz has aimed to highlight the work he sees as a path toward the Gospel: serving the poor, the stranger, who cross over into the U.S. regardless of how they entered.

A Ukrainian Catholic archbishop asked his fellow U.S. bishops Nov. 16 to pray for Ukraine, and, if possible, to go to Ukraine and pray there for its people, inviting them on a trip he is embarking on in February.

The U.S. bishops took on the task during their fall general meeting in Baltimore of considering proposed Mass texts for the feasts of Our Lady of Loreto and the recently canonized St. Paul VI.