NUBA MOUNTAINS, Sudan – After watching for years as newly independent South Sudan has succumbed to civil war fought largely along ethnic lines, displacing one-third of the population, church leaders in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan are working hard to ensure that their small enclave of liberated territory will not go the way of its neighbors to the south.

VATICAN – Pope Francis added an Italian teenager to the list of people he will formally recognize as saints Oct. 14 during the monthlong meeting of the world Synod of Bishops on young people.

OXFORD, England – Spain's Catholic Church has voiced "deep concern" over plans by the new government to curb religious teaching and re-examine past accords with the Vatican.

NEW DELHI – Catholic and other leaders have urged that a bishop accused of sexually assaulting an Indian Catholic nun be removed from his position.

NAIROBI, Kenya – Catholic bishops in the Central African Republic have distanced themselves from a group that is promising to defend the church and avenge the deaths of priests.

NEW YORK – A front-page New York Times article published July 16 detailed the alleged abuse of two seminarians in the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey, by then-Bishop Theodore E. McCarrick in the 1980s that resulted in settlements to each man.