Nation/World

Pope Francis has appointed Seattle Coadjutor Archbishop Paul D. Etienne as the archbishop of Seattle and accepted the resignation of Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain.

After the consistory to create new cardinals in early October, Pope Francis will have chosen more than half of the men who will enter the Sistine Chapel to elect his successor.

The Archdiocese of Seattle has issued a second statement confirming that a priest did not bless the medically assisted suicide of a parishioner.

Pope Francis is expected to talk about the health epidemic during a Sept. 4-10 trip to Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius.

Pope Francis announced he will create 13 new cardinals Oct. 5, choosing prelates from 13 different nations as a sign of “the missionary vocation of the church that continues to proclaim the merciful love of God to all men and women of the earth.”

“We have caused a climate emergency that gravely threatens nature and life itself, including our own,” the pope said in his message for the Sept. 1 ecumenical day of prayer.

Departures have come despite rhetoric toward migrants from U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration’s attempts to discourage asylum-seekers and turn the countries to the south of the U.S.-Mexico border into filters for impeding the path of migrants.

In an Aug. 26 letter to local Catholics, Bishop Michael F. Olson of Fort Worth said recent “purported apparitions, messages and miracles” of Mary that he had cautioned Catholics about weeks before “are, in fact, a fabrication.”