Italy’s declining birthrate is alarming, and groups that assist Italian families must do more both in terms of lobbying and witnessing to the joy of family life, Pope Francis said.

Migration across the Mediterranean Sea is as old as humanity, and while some governments say they want to stop that movement of people, it will not and should not happen, Pope Francis said.

The Ukrainian government said it would sanction members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate.

Deacon Logusch, a child of Ukrainian immigrants and now retired after a career in chemistry and teaching, told about 40 Ukrainian parishioners gathered at St. Mary’s Assumption Nov. 27 that he hopes the world fully appreciates the long-standing and well-established territorial ambitions of Russian expansionism.

When Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory blessed a parish cemetery’s memorial plaque honoring the unknown enslaved people buried there, Nov. 26, he noted the poignancy of his participation in the service at St. Peter Claver Parish in St. Inigoes.

With most of the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic removed, Pope Francis is scheduled to return to a full slate of public liturgies in December and January.

After postponing his trip last July, Pope Francis has rescheduled for Jan. 31-Feb. 5 his trip to Congo and his ecumenical visit to South Sudan, the Vatican announced.

The head of the Archdiocese of New Orleans spoke of horror and pain in a Nov. 30 statement, following what police believe is the killing of a retired priest and possibly a church worker in the archdiocese.

Members of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs urged Christians to decry hate-filled statements and violence aimed at Jewish individuals, homes and institutions.

While formal dialogue about the theological and historical causes of the splits in Christianity are essential, so, too, is a recognition that “sinful actions and attitudes” have contributed and continue to contribute to divisions in the body of Christ, Pope Francis said.