The FBI is offering a $5,000 reward for each church for information leading to an arrest. Mr. Ceniceros said the diocese is offering an additional $5,000 for each church, adding that the same person or persons are believed to be responsible for all three incidents.

Lawmakers in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca have approved a measure to decriminalize abortion, despite vocal church opposition.

Two more Australian states have passed legislation criminalizing priests who fail to report the abuse of children disclosed during confession.

In anticipation of the 2019 World Day for Migrants and Refugees, a group of bishops, women religious, lay ministers and others interested in the plight of migrants spent the days prior to the Sept. 29 observance listening to tales of hope, dashed dreams, resilience and uncertainty that are in abundance among migrants in this border region.

U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, former head of the Vatican's doctrinal congregation and retired archbishop of San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, died Sept. 26 in Rome. He was 83.

Less than two weeks before the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon was scheduled to begin at the Vatican, the Brazilian bishops' Indigenous Missionary Council reported that the number of indigenous land invasions and indigenous murdered in Brazil in 2018 soared.