NATION/WORLD

Here is the Vatican's English translation of the homily Pope Francis gave in Spanish July 7 during a Mass with victims of clerical sexual abuse.

Asking for forgiveness, Pope Francis told abuse survivors that "despicable actions" caused by clergy have been hidden for too long and had been "camouflaged with a complicity that cannot be explained."

Landmines wound innocent civilians, "prolong war and nurture fear" long after conflicts have ended, Pope Francis told delegates working on the full implementation of an international treaty banning the production and use of anti-personnel mines.

The Congregation for Clergy signed a formal decree approving the group's statutes and granting it "private juridical personality," which recognizes the group's autonomy as an organization of Catholics not operating in the name of the Catholic Church, but as having some accountability to the Vatican.

In three of the cases, the court simply declined to review them, meaning the rulings by lower courts prevail. In the other three, the cases were sent back to the appeals courts with instructions to reconsider them in light of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby.

As this summer marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, parishioners at St. Francis in Greenwood, Miss. have a vivid reminder of the related events in their town. They can look up and see where a bullet went through the window

In a narrowly tailored 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court June 30 said closely held companies may be exempted from a government requirement to include contraceptives in employee health insurance coverage under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

In a June 26 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that 35-foot buffer zones around abortion clinics -- meant to keep demonstrators away -- violates First Amendment rights.

At his weekly general audience June 25, Pope Francis continued his series of audience talks about the church, telling an estimated 33,000 people that there is no such thing as "do-it-yourself" Christians or "free agents" when it comes to faith. Pope Francis described as "dangerous" the temptation to believe that one can have "a personal, direct, immediate relationship with Jesus Christ without communion with and the mediation of the church."

In sharing the Gospel with others, Christians must be like St. John the Baptist, preparing the way for the Lord, pointing him out to others, then stepping aside, Pope Francis said.