Lawmakers are urging the Trump administration to offer government exceptions for international adoption visas so that children can be united with their adoptive families and “welcomed into safe and stable homes.” U.S. Sens. Kevin Cramer and Amy Klobuchar, along with U.S. Reps. Robert Aderholt and Danny Davis, asked the Department of State to restore a…

Pope Leo XIV on Monday warned that modern conflicts and widening social disparities are eroding respect for human life and equal access to health care, telling members of the Pontifical Academy for Life that “all lives are not equally respected and health is neither protected nor promoted in the same way for everyone.” Addressing participants…

Pope Leo XIV told the prelate of Opus Dei on Feb. 16 that “the process of updating Opus Dei’s statutes continues in its study phase and that no publication date can yet be foreseen,” according to a statement from the prelature. The pope received Opus Dei’s prelate, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, in audience at the Vatican…

BRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Feb. 12 strongly condemning Turkey’s expulsion of Christian missionaries under what lawmakers described as opaque “national security” pretexts. The resolution urges the capital city of Ankara to respect freedom of religion and allow those affected to return. The European Parliament, the EU’s directly elected legislature,…

DHAKA, Bangladesh — The Catholic Church in Bangladesh has congratulated the country’s newly elected government after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won a commanding two-thirds majority in the Feb. 12 parliamentary election — the first since a student-led uprising toppled former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024. Bishop Gervas Rozario of Rajshahi, vice president of…

Among the recent appointments of Pope Leo XIV, one in particular has been made with remarkable frequency: that of “chaplain of His Holiness.” What does this honorary title mean? In November 2025, the Holy Father bestowed this title upon his secretary, Peruvian priest Father Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga, officially incorporating him into the papal household,…