Father Ibrahim Shomali celebrates an outdoor Mass in an olive grove outside the Salesian Monastery in Beit Jalla, West Bank, Jan. 18.

Hundreds of confirmation candidates in the Archdiocese of Winnipeg and their parents and caregivers gathered for fellowship, faith formation and prayer as they prepare to receive the sacrament.

Dr. Evelyn Billings, who with her husband, John, pioneered research that led them to develop a form of natural family planning supported by the Catholic Church, died Feb. 16 after a short illness. She was 95.

The Catholic Church has long accepted the possibility of preventing ovulation in a woman who has been raped, but withdraws that option if there is a possibility that ovulation may have already occurred, said the president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life.

When Pope Benedict XVI, 85, announced his resignation, he said that “both strength of mind and body are necessary” to carry out the papal ministry in the modern world.

A Feb. 20 deposition was a “long-awaited opportunity” for New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan to discuss decisions he made on clergy sex abuse cases as Milwaukee’s archbishop, his spokesman said.

Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien, 74, announced he would not participate in the conclave to elect Pope Benedict’s successor because he did not want media attention focused on him instead of the election of a new pope.

Religious brothers say they are an invisible group in the Church, but that it’s not such a bad thing because it allows them the freedom to be ordinary men performing an extraordinary ministry.

Indonesian Cardinal Julius Darmaatmadja, the 78-year-old retired archbishop of Jakarta, said Feb. 21 that his health and particularly the “progressive deterioration” of his eyesight led to his decision not to travel to Rome for the conclave to elect a new pope.

A man holds images of cats before Pope Benedict recites his final Angelus as pope from his apartment window overlooking St. Peter’s Square Feb. 24.