Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, an influential figure in Democratic politics who was also U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary in the Clinton administration, died on Sept. 1.

The Ukrainian bishops did not hold back during a nearly two-hour private audience with the pope.

Howard University celebrated the blessing and dedication of its Sister Thea Bowman Catholic Student Center on Aug. 28.

Pope Francis mentioned Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., at the close of his Mass in Ulaanbaatar on Sunday. Might this mean the great priest-paleontologist is finally being recognized by the Vatican for his genius?

The 30-year-old priest flew to Italy with an unnamed 18-year-old woman who is a recent graduate of McGill-Toolen Catholic High School in Mobile, which Father Crow also attended.

On the plane home from Mongolia, Pope Francis answered several questions about this October’s synod of bishops.

Since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has constantly looked to the peripheries both in the choice of countries to visit and men to make cardinals.. And he has consistently looked to the East where he detects the first signs of a new springtime for the Catholic Church

Among the hundreds of onlookers from several countries at the back of the square were many Catholics from mainland China, present in defiance of an order from the authorities in Beijing prohibiting not only the bishops of mainland China but also the country’s Catholics from traveling to Mongolia.

Without daily prayer and respect for the structure and unity of the church, “our strength will fail, and our pastoral work will risk becoming an empty delivery of services, a roster of duties that end up inducing only weariness and frustration,” Pope Francis said in Ulaanbaatar on Sept. 2.

The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ domestic policy committee said the nation has “urgent work” to do to really show a “radical solidarity with working families.”