International News

VATICAN CITY - As the world's attention is focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and its dire economic consequences, the Vatican urged nations not to forget the people of Syria, who are still living in a situation of violence and extreme need.

UNITED NATIONS - Protecting "our common home for present and future generations is one of the most urgent demands of our time," Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations, said Oct. 13.

MEXICO CITY - Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has asked Pope Francis to apologize for the church's role in the conquest of the Americas. It's the second time he has made such a request of the Pope in less than two years.

ASSISI, Italy - Thousands sang and applauded as Italian teen Carlo Acutis was beatified in a town dear to him and to many Christians around the world: Assisi.

VATICAN CITY -- Professing faith in God as the creator of all human beings, or even simply recognizing that all people possess an inherent dignity, has concrete consequences for how people should treat one another and make decisions in politics, economics and social life, Pope Francis wrote.

VATICAN CITY -- Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, thanked experts from Moneyval -- the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism -- for helping the Holy See in its efforts to ensure transparency and international cooperation in its financial dealings.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Shakeel Raphael projected an image of his brother Nadeem Samson on the screen, prison bars superimposed over the man's sorrowful face.

WASHINGTON -- If Judge Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to the Supreme Court, she will be the first Notre Dame Law School graduate to sit on the bench of the nation's highest court and the only sitting justice with a law degree not from Harvard or Yale.

Address by Pope Francis to the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 25:

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis asked members of the United Nations how they think they can respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and build a more peaceful, more just world when many of their countries spend billions on military weapons and when their treatment of the unborn, of refugees and of women shows so little respect for human life.