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Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Cardinal Louis Sako is concerned by rising tensions between the United States and Iran, fearful that his country, Iraq, could be caught in the middle of any potential conflict. It has also made a proposed visit by Pope Francis to Iraq next year uncertain, he said.

Members of the Dominican general chapter elected 51-year-old Father Gerard Francisco Timoner to be the master general of the worldwide religious order. Father Timoner, a native of the Philippines, is the 88th superior of the Order of Preachers, founded by St. Dominic Guzman, and the first Asian to lead the order.

Opening the Vatican tombs of a princess and a duchess July 11 in a search for the remains of a young Italian woman missing for more than 30 years, the Vatican found no human remains at all.

"Every life is valuable, always," Pope Francis tweeted after offering prayers for Vincent Lambert, a 42-year-old French man who died July 11, nine days after doctors stopped providing him with nutrition and hydration.

The parish where Sister Maria Emilia Molenda Kuche works stretches along the banks of the Amazon River and far up the Yavari River, an area sparsely populated by Tikuna, Yagua and Kukama Indians. It takes about eight hours to reach the village closest to the parish team's headquarters in this riverside town. The most distant is five days' travel upriver. When the parish team visits, members never know what they will find, said Sister Kuche, 73, a member of the Missionaries of Christ Crucified, a Brazilian religious congregation. Sometimes more people than expected show up; sometimes there is no one.

Across a stream and down a dirt road at the edge of this Amazonian town, a carefully tended crypt marks the burial place of Notre Dame de Namur Sister Dorothy Stang. The missionary from Dayton, Ohio, was shot to death in 2005 in retaliation for her defense of small-scale farmers who resisted land-grabbing by rich loggers and ranchers.

Amnesty International accused the Philippine government in a hard-hitting report of maintaining a 'large-scale murdering enterprise'

Pope Francis named six superiors of women's religious orders, a consecrated laywoman and the superior of the De La Salle Christian Brothers to be full members of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Migrant shelters in Mexico – including many affiliated with the Catholic Church – have long provided a safe place for guests to rest, refresh and reflect on rough journeys through areas rife with risks such as kidnap, extortion and rape. But with the Mexican government stepping up efforts to stem the flow of migrants through the country, shelters have come under scrutiny not seen since the laws prohibiting the provision of humanitarian assistance to migrants were removed in 2011.

At a July 1 consistory, Pope Francis formally approved Blessed John Henry Newman’s canonization along with those of Sister Mariam Thresia, Giuseppina Vannini, Dulce Lopes Pontes and Margarita Bays.

At a shelter in southern Mexico, a Franciscan nun does her best to prepare migrants for the risks and realities of the journey northward.

KRAKOW, Poland - An Ikea worker in Poland has filed a lawsuit after being fired last week for posting Bible verses opposing homosexual behavior on the company’s intranet.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - The bishops on either side of the Rio Grande, where several migrants died last week, expressed Friday their sorrow over the deaths.

VATICAN CITY - The head of the Vatican’s Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary released a note Monday reaffirming the inviolability of the seal of confession and the importance of other forms of secrecy in the life of the Church.

ABU DHABI - The emirate has authorized construction of 19 non-Muslim places of worship for communities residing in Abu Dhabi for over 33 years, of which 17 will be Christian churches or chapels. In Abu Dhabi on Feb. 4, Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmad al Tayyeb signed a document on human brotherhood for world peace and common coexistence.

MATAMOROS, Mexico - Tania Vanessa Ávalos, the wife and mother of the migrants who died trying to cross into the US this week, has found strength in faith and prayer amid her grief, the local bishop has said.

COLOGNE, Germany - German Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki thanked Pope Francis for ‘fearlessly’ calling Catholics in Germany to be a missionary church in a letter published Saturday.

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican has told bishops and priests in China that they must follow their own consciences in deciding whether to register with the government, and it urged Catholics in the country not to judge them for the choices they make.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said in an article published Friday that the unity of the Church has always prevailed over internal struggles and affirmed that there is currently only one pope.

ROME, Italy - The Global Rosary Relay aims to have 1 billion Hail Marys said for the sanctification of priests June 28, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.