Brian Fraga

The U.S. Catholic bishops on Nov. 11 elected Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley as the new president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops during the conference's annual fall plenary assembly.

The USCCB will meet this week in Baltimore to discuss evolving immigration issues, revised ethical directives for Catholic health care facilities and hold an election that "will have consequences beyond the U.S. church."

"We can try to help our leaders understand that these people should not be pawns on their political chessboard," said Deacon Kevin Sartorius. "That's not fair. These are people who are in need of food."

Invoking a religious exemption, the Jesuit university said it would no longer recognize unions. Faculty members and labor scholars say that betrays a key principle of Catholic social teaching: workers' right to unionize.

The exhibit "The Ancestry of Pope Leo XIV: An American Story" features a chart of the pope's lineage that spans 15 generations. The exhibit also aims to shed light on the pope's ancestral ties to other countries.

"This is a time when you also have to do the right thing," said William Treanor. "You have to stand up for your values and the values of the university."

A majority of the court's six conservative judges questioned arguments that the state law does not infringe on freedom of speech and the First Amendment by engaging in viewpoint discrimination.

Catholic Health Association, Catholic Charities USA and Network warn that inaction jeopardizes the health and stability of millions of families across the U.S., especially the poor.

Bishop Joseph Tyson of Yakima, Washington, is calling for the release of José López, a local man who was arrested by immigration officers in mid-September. "There was a kind of racial profiling here," Tyson told NCR.

A lawyer seemed to have a conflict of interest when he represented sisters who claimed the future pope covered up their abuse allegations against two priests. Now, one sister says her lawyer "didn't really want to help us."

A Pew study finds many religiously unaffiliated people, so-called "nones," still have spiritual beliefs. Views run the gamut from agnostics to avowed atheists to agnostics. A 66-year-old atheist raised Methodist says the desert is his "dirt church."

The archbishops of Chicago and Detroit echoed the prayers and condolences of fellow bishops, but also called for action to rein in gun violence in America. The bishops' conference statement fell short of its earlier strong advocacy.

Law enforcement officials identified the assailant in the shooting at Annunciation Church as Robin Westman, a 23-year-old Minneapolis resident who left behind a racist and antisemitic manifesto on social media.

Kyle Langford, 24, is a longshot Republican candidate for governor of California, where he has stirred controversy for espousing white supremacist and antisemitic beliefs. "I know how to strike a nerve," he told NCR.

She and two sisters met with then-Bishop Robert Prevost of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2022 to report allegations. 

Cardinal Robert McElroy, installed as archbishop March 11, blames COVID-19, fallout from the Theodore McCarrick scandal, and an extended period of inflation and volatile financial markets for the shortfall. 

In a unanimous ruling the U.S. Supreme Court decided June 5 that a Catholic Charities agency in Wisconsin does not have to pay that state's unemployment tax.

The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked an effort by two Catholic dioceses in Oklahoma to establish what would have been the nation's first taxpayer-funded religious public charter school.

Surprise, hope, excitement and pride were reflected in many of the initial reactions to Cardinal Robert Prevost on May 8 emerging on the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica as Pope Leo XIV.

Among leading traditionalists, Cardinals Robert Sarah and Raymond Burke have garnered the most media attention. A few conservative-leaning outlets have even floated their names as papal front-runners.