GRAND-BASSAM, Côte d’Ivoire – The regional conference of West African bishops has commended a regional economic union for its efforts to promote peaceful transfers of power, while also noting areas of concern, including religious intolerance and youth unemployment.

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – After two people were killed in a shooting at a classroom in a San Bernardino elementary school on Monday, the city held a prayer service for the victims and the school community at Our Lady of the Assumption.

CINCINNATI, Ohio – U.S. immigration authorities should show mercy on a detained Catholic mother with a special needs child, who fled Mexico when drug cartels began to persecute her family, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati said this week.

DENVER, Col. – On the fateful voyage that embarked from Southampton and never made it to New York City, a passenger on the RMS Titanic named Major Archibald Willingham Butt was tasked with a special mission.

BAMAKO, Mali – Four people have been arrested in Mali in connection with the February kidnapping of a nun who remains missing.

ASUNCION, Paraguay – The Bishops of Paraguay made an urgent appeal for peace after hundreds of demonstrators set fire to the National Congress building in Asuncion on the night of March 31.

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican office which governs the use of the extraordinary form of the Roman rite has given priests permission to say a special Mass for the feast of Our Lady of Fatima this year, noting the importance of the apparition's centenary.

CHICAGO, Ill. – As violence continues to plague the city of Chicago, Pope Francis has sent words of encouragement, solidarity and hope to the people who live there.

CARACAS, Venezuela – Shortly after Venezuela's supreme court revised its decision effectively stripping the legislature of its powers this weekend, one of the country's cardinals responded by calling the reversal a mere “cosmetic retouching.”

MOCOA, Colombia – The bishop of the Colombian city scourged by landslides on Saturday has described a “complex and chaotic situation”, and appealed for humanitarian aid for the city's inhabitants.