No physical limitation or setback can diminish the value of any human being because each person is a unique and beloved child of God, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis will celebrate the fourth annual Sunday of the Word of God Jan. 22 and, like he did last year, will confer the ministries of lector and catechist on several lay people, according to the Dicastery for Evangelization.

The U.S. Catholic bishops marked Religious Freedom Day Jan. 16 by encouraging Catholics engaged in public life to examine their consciences and heed the late Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis in prioritizing truth and reason.

The call to faith in Jesus always is a call to service and mission, Pope Francis told seminarians, priests and staff of the Pontifical North American College.

Deadly violence hit Christians in Africa Jan. 15, with a Catholic priest in northern Nigeria burned to death and as many as 17 Christians killed in a blast in eastern Congo.

St. John the Baptist is a model for Christian witness, leading others to Jesus and then stepping out of the way so they follow the Lord and not the person who evangelized them, Pope Francis said.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is best honored when people “recall to mind and heart that the issues Dr. King placed before our nation have not been adequately accomplished,” and strive to continue his work, Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory said during a Jan. 15 Mass honoring the legacy of the late civil rights leader.

As the nation celebrates the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan. 16, both personal conversion and action are needed to build what the slain civil rights leader called “the beloved community,” said Catholic clergy and lay leaders.

The death of Australian Cardinal George Pell was a shock because just five days earlier he had concelebrated the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI and “seemed in good health,” said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals.

As the U.S. observes Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, Sister Jane Marie Klein, 84, looks back on the tragic night he was murdered and how it stayed with her.