News Briefs

In his message for World Food Day on Oct. 14, Pope Francis urged consumers to take responsibility for their use and waste of food and actions that harm the environment. • The Diocese of Baton Rouge has been helping flood victims deal with the stress of “letting go” and adjusting to a “new normal” in October through a new program, “From Flooding to Flourishing: Turning Trauma into Growth.” • Too much of the political discourse during this election year “has demeaned women and marginalized people of faith,” said Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, on Oct. 14.• On Oct. 13 Catholic leaders in Nigeria welcomed the release of 21 of the more than 200 girls who were kidnaped in 2014 from a school in Chibok and urged the Nigerian government to prioritize the release of the remaining girls. • A letter released on Oct. 12 from U.S. religious leaders, including two Catholic bishops, to President Obama and congressional leaders asks them to publicly renounce a contentious sentence in a recent report from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that equates religious freedom with discrimination.