Pope Francis had hoped his trip to Kazakhstan this week would offer a chance to meet with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church—who has justified the war in Ukraine—and plead for peace.

“We can speak lightly and, perhaps, skeptically about the grace of office,” writes British Jesuit Father James Hanvey. “In Queen Elizabeth, we saw that grace working.”

Indigenous groups have pressured Catholic leaders to denounce a series of papal bulls dating back to the 15th century that granted the monarchs of Portugal and Spain the right to colonize non-Christian lands.

This fall, Michigan voters will decide on whether a woman's right to abortion can be part of the Michigan Constitution. The Catholic Conference urges voters to vote no.

Here are 15 big Catholic stories you might have missed from the last three months.

“I asked her, ‘Auntie, you’re not leaving?’ and, after a moment of silence, she answered ‘I don’t know, I want to wait,” Comboni Sister Gabriella Bottani said of her aunt, Comboni Sister Maria De Coppi.