Liberia’s health system is in “complete shambles,” a church aid agency said, as the death of a Spanish priest brought to six the number of caregivers at a Catholic-run hospital in the capital of Monrovia who have died of Ebola in August.

Pope Francis has echoed a century of papal pleas: “No more war!” But, referring to the outrageous violations of human rights taking place in northeastern Iraq, he also begged, “Stop these crimes!”

The only name Pope Francis wants divided Christians to call each other is “brother” or “sister.” “When one walks in the presence of God, this brotherhood results,” the pope told evangelical and Pentecostal Christians July 28 in Caserta.

Father Adolfo Nicolas, superior of the Jesuits, has named Thomas H. Smolich, outgoing president of the U.S. Jesuit Conference, to be the next director of Jesuit Refugee Service.

Iraqi Christian refugees braved temperatures as high as 122 degrees Fahrenheit to demand that the United Nations intervene to protect them from persecution by Islamist militants.

As the world marks the 100th anniversary of World War I, Germany’s Catholic bishops urged efforts to overcome “destructive self-interest” and acknowledged the shared guilt of churches for the conflict, which left 16 million dead.

Native American Catholics are being urged to become language “warriors” and to help preserve their culture in liturgy and song.

As the death toll in Gaza surpasses 1,000, violent demonstrations in the West Bank leave dead and wounded, and an entire Christian community is exiled from the Iraqi city of Mosul by Islamic extremists, Christians in the Holy Land find themselves facing harsh realities.

Being Christian is putting God first in one’s life, which means having “the courage to say no to evil, violence and exploitation,” Pope Francis said, visiting another southern Italian town scarred by mafia crime.

One of the dangers of a “sterile” form of celibacy is bitterness and gossip, Pope Francis told a group of priests and bishops in Caserta.