New guidance and policies on ministering to people experiencing gender dysphoria released Jan. 16 by the Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa, call for compassion and coherence with the church’s teaching on gender and identity.

Sister André, a Catholic convert raised in a Protestant family, was born Lucile Randon Feb. 11, 1904. She lived through the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic and through 10 pontificates.

Authorities say Sunday's bombing in Kasindi, a town in North Kivu province, killed at least 14 people and injured more than 60.

Deadly violence hit Christians in Africa Jan. 15, with a Catholic priest in northern Nigeria burned to death and as many as 17 Christians killed in a blast in eastern Congo.

Pope Francis imparted the final blessing at the funeral of Cardinal Pell, who decried his papacy as a “catastrophe.”

Cardinal Pell, who died Tuesday, had written a memo outlining his concerns about Pope Francis' papacy, which was published soon after his death.