Pope Francis in a letter released Thursday encouraged U.S. bishops meeting for a weeklong retreat near Chicago to unify as the Roman Catholic Church deals with a “crisis of credibility.” In the eight-page letter addressed to the bishops, Francis said church leaders must reckon with parishioners’ pain, heal divisions, and devise specific approaches that go beyond “creating new committees or improving flow charts.”

The stage is set for the College Football Playoff championship, with Alabama and Clemson facing off once again. The Crimson Tide knocked out the Oklahoma Sooners Saturday night in the Orange Bowl 45-34, while the Clemson Tigers earlier in the day crushed the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 30-3 in the Cotton Bowl. The Tide will take on the Tigers next Monday in Santa Clara, Calif. It will be the fourth consecutive year in which those two teams have met in the playoffs, the third time in the title game.

Richard Overton, the nation’s oldest World War II veteran, died Thursday in Texas. He was also believed to be the oldest living man in the United States at 112 years old. The U.S. Army veteran was recently hospitalized with pneumonia and died at a rehab facility in Austin.

Overton was born in 1906. He was in his 30s when he volunteered for the Army and was at Pearl Harbor just after the Japanese attack in 1941. He served in the all-black 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion.

The Illinois attorney general’s office found that 500 more Catholic clergymen have been accused of sexually abusing children than the six archdioceses in the state have publicly identified, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said Wednesday. The archdioceses listed 185 clergy members as having been “credibly” accused of child sexual abuse, she said, but the actual total is around 700.

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved a sweeping criminal justice reform bill Tuesday night that will adjust sentencing rules and expand job training programs and other efforts to help former inmates stay out of prison. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said while the bill gives judges more discretion when sentencing nonviolent offenders, language was added to ensure the law does not go easy on those who pose a threat to the public. “It lowers mandatory minimums for nonviolent drug offenders,” Cruz said.

President Donald Trump signed a memorandum Tuesday authorizing the Pentagon’s new Space Command, which will better organize U.S. operations in space. Vice President Mike Pence made the announcement at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. He said a four-star general will lead the new command, establishing unified control over all military space efforts. “It will develop the space doctrine, tactics, techniques and procedures that will enable our war fighters to defend our nation in this new era,” Pence said. “A new era of American leadership in space has begun.”

President Donald Trump and his legal team on Sunday continued to lash out at the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.