Ukrainians had already experienced a “crisis of faith in the pope’s primacy,” Major Archbishop Shevchuk said, and that the pope’s latest statements were “deeply hurtful.”

Catholic clergy from Egypt have warned that ties with Orthodox and Islamic leaders are being derailed by a Vatican decision to allow the blessing of same-sex couples.

The president of the Polish bishops' conference has bitterly criticized demands for liberal change by the church in neighboring Germany and urged the pope not to allow them to dominate the Rome Synod on Synodality.

A prominent Russian Catholic urged his nation's bishops to condemn the mass arrest and beating of protesters, but the Moscow archdiocesan chancellor said the church could not comment on “political matters.”

Church officials' concerns stem from draft amendments to Russia's 1997 Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations, which would bar "clergy who receive religious education abroad" from ministering unless they obtain "recertification within a Russian religious organization" and "receive

An archbishop barred from reentering Belarus by authorities is seeking the assistance of the Vatican.

"Returning to Minsk, I was not allowed in at the Kuznica-Bialystok border crossing," Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of Minsk-Mohilev told the Catholic Information Agency, KAI, in neighboring Poland Aug. 31.

The oil spill off the coast of Mauritius has renewed attention as to how environmental disasters affect ecological and economic life.

In a message read in churches nationwide Aug. 16, the bishops said: “Blood has been shed in an active confrontation, leaving many physical and moral victims, including peaceful and innocent people of all ages.”

Archbishop Polak said the film showed required child protection standards were still not being observed in the Polish church.