Catholic News Service

Although Russia's Catholics hold different views about the conflict in Ukraine, a spokesman for the country's bishops said all are united in welcoming Pope Francis' plan to consecrate their country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The church's charitable outreach to people fleeing war, political instability, poverty and other threats is a requirement for followers of Jesus, the Administrative Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said.

Archbishop Georg Gänswein, private secretary of retired Pope Benedict XVI, has defended his boss and criticized the Munich abuse report, which made international headlines when it was released in January.

Cardinal George Pell has called for the Vatican's doctrine office to intervene and reprimand two leading European Catholic churchmen who called for changes in Catholic teaching on sexuality and homosexuality.

Ready to return to South Sudan after nearly a year of recovery from being shot in the legs, Bishop-designate Christian Carlassare of Rumbek met with Pope Francis.

 In a joint message for St. Patrick's Day, the Catholic and Anglican archbishops of Armagh said the war in Ukraine is a lesson to Northern Ireland to "never take peace for granted." 

The Administrative Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops March 16 called for "the immediate cessation of Russia's armed aggression and unprovoked war on Ukraine."

Asking God to forgive all people tempted by violence, Pope Francis prayed for an end to the war in Ukraine and the fratricidal killing of both combatants and civilians caught in the crossfire.

Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary during a penitential prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica March 25, the Vatican said.

A Ukrainian family who was repeatedly denied entry into the U.S. by Border Patrol agents at the U.S.-Mexico border was allowed entry March 10, bringing back debate about a public health measure that keeps migrants out.

Putin did not invade Ukraine out of concern that NATO would encroach on his borders, but concern about "the disease of democracy that could spread like a virus, and that's deadly for oligarchies and authoritarian rulers," said the archbishop who serves as a "foreign minister" for the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

The call to prayer is an "active mission," one that does not take a believer from the world but prompts the believer to bring to God the pain and concerns of the world — including the war in Ukraine, Pope Francis said.

Financial and judicial reforms are meant not only to bring the Vatican up to date with international standards of transparency but also to make the church's structure reflect "an increasingly evangelical style," Pope Francis said.

 Russia's war on Ukraine "seems to have changed" the world, said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state.

Appealing again for an end to the war in Ukraine, Pope Francis said those who invoke God to promote or justify violence "profane his name."

Franciscan Father James E. Goode, whose evangelizing work among Black Catholics became known throughout the US and earned him the title "dean of Black Catholic preachers," died in his sleep March 4 in New York. 

"I've come with the three most sophisticated Gospel weapons: prayer, fasting and alms," Cardinal Konrad Krajewski told reporters in Western Ukraine March 10 as he prepared to head toward Kyiv and other cities under Russian bombardment.

A day after a US House commission's hearing on holding Putin accountable for "war crimes and aggression against Ukraine," his military forces carried out an airstrike on a maternity hospital.

For Daróczi Gábor, mayor since 2010 of the sleepy Hungarian town of Barabás, making daily visits to the border with Ukraine was the last thing he thought he would have to do during his tenure.

A Paris court sentenced four men in connection with the 2016 killing of Father Jacques Hamel, giving them sentences ranging from eight years to life in prison.