Two days after the South Carolina Senate passed a six-week ban on most abortions in a 27-19 vote late May 23, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster signed the measure into law.

While the release of the working document for the Synod of Bishops on synodality is expected sometime in early June, Pope Francis tried to respond to some of the questions and concerns about the synod process that already have been raised.

Despite its growing use, the abortion pill’s safety has been repeatedly called into question by pro-life doctors and advocates since the FDA’s approval in 2000 of mifepristone.

People must end the “senseless war against creation” and help victims of environmental and climate injustice, Pope Francis said.

People of faith and those working in the fields of science, economics and politics need to work together to help care for life and humanity’s common home, said Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

A parish priest was shot dead as he drove on a rural Mexican highway May 22, marking yet another attack in what has become the most murderous country for Catholic clergy.

Christians should pray on Pentecost that the Holy Spirit would give them the courage and strength to share the Gospel, Pope Francis said.

At a time when Vatican-Chinese relations are strained because of apparent differences over an agreement to name bishops, the pope publicly marked the annual World Day of Prayer for the Catholic Church in China May 24, the feast of Mary, Help of Christians, “venerated and invoked at the Shrine of Our Lady of Sheshan in Shanghai.”

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles called on “all Catholics and people of goodwill to stand against bigotry and hate in any form” after the Los Angeles Dodgers reinstated plans to honor a self-described “leading-edge order of queer and trans nuns.”

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul released a May 23 report revealing decades of abuse by Catholic clergy against almost 2,000 children.