NATION/WORLD

Pope Francis personally expressed his thanks to the four dozen people who read through hundreds of reports about the listening phase of the Synod of Bishops and, after 12 days of prayer, reflection and discussion, drafted a working document for the continental stage of the synod process.

In a meeting with the president of the German bishops' conference, Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch apologized for offending people and said he never intended to imply that supporters of the German church's Synodal Path were doing something similar to what a group of Christian supporters of the Nazis did in the 1930s.

As insecurity and political chaos continue in Burkina Faso, Cardinal Philippe Ouédraogo called for prayers as the best way out of the crises.

A federal court in Indiana sided with the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and one of its Catholic high schools in a lawsuit filed by a former guidance counselor who said her contract was not renewed because of her same-sex union.

While their life journeys and the stages of their sainthood causes diverged, two men born in Italy are set to be canonized together Oct. 9: Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini and Blessed Artemide Zatti.

The Gospel's message of hope to the suffering and downtrodden is sorely needed in today's world, which is "enslaved by selfishness and full of contradictions and divisions," Pope Francis said.

The Vatican hosted the global premiere of a new documentary on the urgent need to address climate change on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the same day the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 2015 Paris Agreement entered into force for the Holy See.

Doctors in Belgium violated a woman's right to life when they improperly handled her request for euthanasia, the European Court of Human rights ruled.

Embracing a consistent ethic of life must include working to create economic and social systems that foster relationships and build the common good, rather than focusing only on what are seen as traditional life issues such as abortion and euthanasia.

To know oneself is a gift and a grace that allows Christians to properly discern between feelings and convictions, Pope Francis said.