“We implore the House Committee on Appropriations to reverse course on these bills that currently expand taxpayer funding of abortion,” Cardinal Dolan and Archbishop Naumann said.

A smiling and standing pope patted the children on their heads as their parents held them, according to photos of the encounter released by the Vatican.

Washington, Colorado and Oregon are now among the U.S. states that have legalized the process of converting human bodies into soil, a procedure the Catholic Church said fails to show “respect for the body of the deceased.”

“You go through a lot of emotions visiting a plantation, walking in the same steps as your ancestors,” said Angela Wilson, a descendent. “It can be eerie. It can be exhilarating.”

A Wisconsin bishop has taken the unusual step of removing a priest from the ministry after he made a series of divisive remarks about politics and the pandemic.

Pope Francis, Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury and the Rev. Jim Wallace, moderator of the Church of Scotland, marked the 10th anniversary of South Sudan’s independence and again promised to visit the country when it has a stable peace.