Saint Richard Catholic Church & School

As November U.N. climate conference approaches, the world's nations remain far from the commitments needed to stave off the worst impacts of climate change.

A U.S. bishops' conference memo alleges that an unspecified number of transgender men have been "unknowingly admitted" to diocesan seminaries and houses of formation for religious orders. Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki wrote that "luckily" none of those seminarians had been ordained.

Heads of several bishops' conferences and councils around the world called for greater collegiality and communion among bishops to confront the challenges facing the church in Europe and across the globe.

After a monthlong battle with COVID-19, Venezuelan Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, who led the Archdiocese of Caracas for 13 years, died at the age of 79.

While denouncing as an "abuse of power" coercive measures to promote vaccination against COVID-19, a leader of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X said getting vaccinated "may sometimes be an eminently prudent act in the moral sense of the term."

World leaders must commit to rooting out the evil of racism, xenophobia and racial discrimination through meaningful legislation and action, said Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, Vatican foreign minister.

Pope Francis has refused the resignation of Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, the embattled archbishop of Cologne, Germany, and has instead granted him a six-month period of spiritual reflection following an investigation into his handling of clergy sexual abuse cases. 

Distinctly Catholic: The building crisis at the border threatens to dominate all other news stories as graphic, heart-rending images of desperate people hiding under a bridge or crossing a desert lead the news. President Joe Biden needs to reset his approach to immigration and he can start by leaning into his Catholic faith.

May we breathe in the suffering of the planet and the poor and breathe out solidarity, resiliency and action.

NCR Connections: In an attempt to bring more racial, ethnic, gender, age, geographic and ideological diversity to the publication, we are excited to announce a group of 13 new regular contributing writers.