While the June meeting of the U.S. bishops is often considered to be the more lackluster of their two annual gatherings, at least in terms of news content, as they meet in Fort Lauderdale, Florida this week, major topics are on the agenda including healthcare, immigration, and religious liberty – all of which correspond to pressing issues on the national scene.
In response to the Trump administration’s policy that separates children from their parents arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, Bishop Robert McElroy has announced that the diocese of San Diego will launch a program aimed at keeping asylum-seeking families together.
Pope Francis appointed on Friday Monsignor Michael William Fisher as a new auxiliary bishop to the Archdiocese of Washington.
More than 80 prominent and emerging Catholic leaders gathered this week in an effort to see how a unified American Catholic Church might offer a better way forward.“Though Many One: Overcoming Polarization through Catholic Social Thought,” hosted by the Initiative for Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, served as an attempt to break across current divides within the Church and to take advantage of the momentum of the Pope Francis papacy to positively influence public life.
Georgetown University’s Initiative for Catholic Social Thought and Public Life closed the first day of its summit on “Overcoming Polarization” with a panel talk to assess issues facing the Church today.
The chair of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People said a two-year project to revise the charter that guides the U.S. Church in protecting minors from sexual abuse is nearly ready to be presented to the full body of bishops.
In a 7-2 decision June 4, the Supreme Court sided with Colorado baker Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop in a case that put anti-discrimination laws up against freedom of speech and freedom of religious expression.
He was dubbed the “Father of Christian Rock,” but his influence and even his fan base was often more among secular musicians and music-lovers than his own tribe. But, for Larry Norman, Jesus was the most counter-cultural subject of all, and that’s what he wanted to write and sing about.
This 14-foot stainless steel sculpture of Mary, Mother of the Church, adorns the national shrine of the same name in Laurie, Mo. Sculptor Don Wiegand, who created the sculpture, described the subject of his work as “an ageless lady, depicting love, balance and grace.”
University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind., graduates were asked May 21 to take stock of where they are going and what they will do with their talents.
