Imprisoned Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez appeared unexpectedly on Nicaraguan television March 24, more than six weeks after refusing to be exiled from his country, opting instead to face his sentence of 26 years behind bars. 

Pope Francis has updated the procedures for investigating allegations of sexual abuse, expanding the rules of “Vos Estis” to include Catholic lay leaders, who have the same responsibilities over members as a bishop over priests.

Human composting and alkaline hydrolysis do not satisfy the Catholic Church’s requirements for proper respect for the dead, the U.S. bishops said in a recent statement.

The decision “to provide an unanswered activist’s case that abortion is a tool of justice for the marginalized,” Bishop Kevin Rhoades wrote, “is a grave mistake in judgment that creates scandal.”

The bishops urged “particular care” be taken “to protect children and adolescents, who are still maturing and who are not capable of providing informed consent” for surgical procedures or treatments such as chemical puberty blockers.

A conversation with Bishop Brennan about what it’s like to switch dioceses as a bishop and the future of parish life in an era of church closings and reorganization.