Retired Pope Benedict XVI has hinted at his death in a condolence message for a former colleague who was a professor in Regensburg, Germany.

Powell, who was the nation’s first Black secretary of state, as well as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and national security adviser, died early Oct. 18 of complications from COVID-19 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside of Washington, where he was being treated for multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer. He was 84.

Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops, said in the process to create a more “synodal church,” one where every member contributes and all listen to each other, “we are touching something divine, and prayer is essential.”

Pope Francis said he knows “it often annoys people” when he promotes Catholic teaching on social issues like poverty, migration and ecology, but he is going to keep doing so because the Gospel demands it.

The Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center in New Haven has opened an online exhibition centering on the Knights of Columbus connection with baseball, which spans almost a century and a half.

All health care professionals have a right to conscientious objection, just as they have a right to denounce unjust harm inflicted on innocent and defenseless life, Pope Francis said.

A prominent Anglican bishop has joined the Catholic Church and will be ordained as a priest at the end of October.

Close to 12,200 people in the Archdiocese of San Francisco have joined the “Rose and Rosary for Nancy” campaign launched by Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone to urge prayers for a “change of heart” for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on abortion.

An English cardinal led tributes to a Catholic member of Parliament who was knifed to death while meeting local people in his constituency.

When the U.S. bishops gather for their fall assembly in Baltimore Nov. 15-18, it will be the first in-person meeting of the full body of bishops since November 2019.