Carol Zimmermann

St. Patrick's Day parades, long-held traditions in towns and cities throughout the country where onlookers and participants alike get their green on, have been called off or postponed indefinitely, amid fears of coronavirus spread.

Initially the coronavirus impacted study abroad programs and spring break travel or service opportunities for U.S. colleges and universities.

Fordham University in New York announced March 9 that it was suspending public classes on all of its New York-area campuses and would continue these courses online March 11.

Nathaniel Woods, a 43-year-old inmate in Alabama was executed by lethal injection March 5 after the U.S. Supreme Court, which initially granted a temporary stay, denied the inmate's petition to put his execution on hold.

Chief Justice John Roberts, accustomed to writing in-depth opinions on court cases, penned a rare statement March 4 denouncing remarks made earlier that day by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, at a rally outside the Supreme Court.

In oral arguments March 4, the Supreme Court justices expressed mixed views about a Louisiana law that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a local hospital and if the abortion providers have the legal standing to challenge the state law on behalf of their patients.

Amid concerns over the current outbreak of the coronavirus, several U.S. Catholic colleges and universities have canceled their international programs in Italy this semester or are closely monitoring the situation and prepared to cut programs short if necessary.

While school systems around the country are discussing what to do in response to the coronavirus, St. Raphael Academy in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, had to put its plans into immediate action when a member of the school community tested "presumptive positive" for a strain of coronavirus after participating in a recent school trip to Italy.

In a 5-4 vote Feb. 25, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a U.S. Border Patrol agent could not be sued for the 2010 shooting death of a Mexican teenager on the Mexican side of the border.

Realizing that many people are hesitant to fill out the upcoming census, the U.S. Census Bureau is calling on religious leaders to help promote it.

Jesuit Father James Martin, who for the past few years has been writing and speaking about how the church can better minister to LGBT Catholics, brought his message to about 400 Catholic college and university presidents and school officials Feb. 2 at the annual conference of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities in Washington.

A Jan. 28 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington said the National Labor Relations Board could not order a Pittsburgh Catholic university to approve an adjunct faculty union.

A Jan. 28 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington reversed a 2017 ruling by the National Labor Relations Board ordering a Pittsburgh Catholic university to bargain with its adjunct faculty group.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Charities USA and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, known as CLINIC, expressed disappointment with the Supreme Court's Jan. 27 order allowing the Trump administration to go forward with a new rule meant to limit immigrants' use of government benefit programs.

During oral arguments Jan. 22 about the constitutionality of excluding religious schools from a scholarship aid program, a divided Supreme Court seemed like it might lean toward finding a way to allow religious schools to participate.

A federal judge in Maryland issued a preliminary injunction Jan. 15 blocking the Trump administration from enforcing an executive order that would allow state and local government officials to reject resettling refugees in their jurisdictions.

Texas Catholic leaders were quick to take a stand against a Jan. 10 announcement by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott that the state would no longer resettle refugees.

CNN reached an undisclosed settlement Jan. 7 with Nick Sandmann, a Kentucky Catholic high school student who sued the cable news outlet for defamation over its coverage of an incident that occurred after last year's March for Life.

Year in review: Amid the multiple mass shootings that took place in the U.S. during 2019, Catholic leaders spoke out against them, urged legislators to make changes to put a stop to these actions and asked Catholics to pray and work toward possible solutions.

2019 was a busy year for the U.S. Supreme Court. In its new term, which began in October, the justices examined the status of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, gun ownership restrictions and, as it does most terms, the death penalty.