Camillo Barone

Archbishop-designate Ronald Hicks sketched a pastoral tone rooted in simplicity, shaped by evangelization, attentive to immigrants and the poor, and focused on building a missionary church that reaches outward.

The Jesuit and writer's new book, Work in Progress, is "a memoir, and also a social justice document, a vocational narrative, and an examination of how ordinary work quietly forms a conscience."

Catholic leaders at the national and local levels are calling for calm, prayer and renewed respect for human life following the Jan. 24 killing of Alex Jeffrey Pretti in Minneapolis.

In Nuuk, Greenland's capital, a Catholic community of about 300 people — many of them Filipino immigrants — is following international debate over the future of their home with concern, detachment and quiet attention.

"These have been tense days, lived in a tense calm and with mixed feelings," said Archbishop Jesús González de Zárate, the Venezuelan bishops' conference president, in an interview with NCR days after the attack on Caracas.

"Like most leaders of any large organization, it's the people's issues, the financial issues and the strategic issues that keep them awake at night," Matthew Manion said.

Pope Leo XIV's words during his Angelus address came after a U.S. strike on Caracas killed at least 40 people, and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were captured and flown out of the country.

Catholic religious and others made a public appeal outside a federal field office Dec. 19 in Chicago: They wanted permission to bring Communion and pastoral care to immigration detainees on Christmas.

Bishop Ronald A. Hicks of Joliet succeeds Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who turned 75 in February.

 "Jesus said, in this world, you will have burdens, but I have come to help you to overcome the burdens," Fr. Dennis Zehren said.

Part 2 of NCR's three-part series examines the experience of the Annunciation community after the Aug. 27 shooting at the school's church in Minneapolis, and how parents began to navigate trauma and sought healing.

"We need to do more than talk," Fr. Gary Graf said. "We need to engage people in conversation. We need to step into the middle. We need to mediate in a sense."

In the darkest minutes and in the long days after a shooter killed two children and injured more than 20 people, prayer, fellowship and the simple presence of one another has comforted families.

In this tense environment, both faith-based advocates and labor leaders have found themselves working in tandem.

A coalition of Catholic clergy and sisters filed suit Nov. 19 after federal officials blocked them from entering the Broadview detention center to offer pastoral care and Communion.

"We decided from day one not to shut down any ministry, because we do not live in fear — we have faith," the pastor said.

The Fordham Pope Francis Global Poverty Report, compiled by researchers at Fordham University's Graduate Program in International Political Economy and Development, paints a mixed but increasingly polarized picture of human deprivation.

In Chicago's Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen, fear runs deep and families have been torn apart by ICE. Some immigrants have found a "second family" at St. Pius V, where priests have been supporting immigrant parishioners.

Twenty cardinal electors and influential cardinal non-electors spoke to NCR after Pope Leo XIV's election. In Part 2 of this series, the conclave opens and the cardinals make their crucial choice.

After Pope Leo XIV's election, NCR spoke with cardinal electors and influential cardinal non-electors who witnessed the inner dynamics of the conclave and the pre-conclave days. They shared what ultimately led them to Leo.