Listening to others is the first essential ingredient of good communication and a condition of genuine dialogue, Pope Francis said.

A Salvadoran cardinal with a front-row seat to the country’s violent past said many have forgotten the country’s trials and tribulations, including its “fratricidal war,” but it’s necessary to remember the past if El Salvador is ever to attain peace.

Saying he was worried about Ukraine and how a possible Russian-Ukrainian conflict could spread, Pope Francis proclaimed Jan. 26 as a day of prayer for peace in Ukraine.

Amending a written statement made to a panel investigating clerical sexual abuse in his former Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, retired Pope Benedict XVI said he was present at a 1980 meeting to discuss the transfer of a priest accused of misconduct.

Highlighting the importance of the Bible in the life of faith and the role of lay women and men in sharing the Gospel, Pope Francis formally installed eight men and women in the ministry of lector and eight others in the ministry of catechist.

Speakers at the annual March for Life on Washington’s National Mall Jan. 21 spoke of a likely tipping point in the current protest against legalized abortions in the United States, but they also urged the crowd to remain vigilant in their advocacy and support for the pro-life movement.

The Catholic Church’s opposition to abortion “is a response of love for both mothers and their children in the womb,” said the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee in a statement issued to mark the Jan. 22 anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision making abortion legal in all 50 states.

The Supreme Court Jan. 20 rejected a request from Texas abortion providers to immediately send their challenge of the state’s abortion law to a federal District Court, where a judge had previously blocked the law.

Likening the pro-life cause to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington in 1963, Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of Boston said dreams can take a long time to come true.

The Catholic Church and its people stand ready not only to help expectant mothers bring their pregnancies to term but to assist women who have had abortions, said Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities.