Gina Christian

Hundreds of civilians have been killed since March 6 as Syria's security forces battled armed supporters of former Syria president Bashar Assad.

Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, is spearheading a march and vigil to protest the Trump administration's plans for mass deportations on the feast of St. Óscar Romero. Seitz will be joined by Cardinal Fabbio Baggio of Bassano del Grappa, Italy, the undersecretary of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, as well as bishops from the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

"I hope that today, Ukraine can give America hope to not be afraid," said Metropolitan Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia. "Say what you have to say. Say what is true. Witness. Make a stand for the immigrants, for the poor, for the unjustly fired."

Catholic bishops along both sides of the Texas-Mexico border issued a statement during a Feb. 28 press conference that capped a Feb. 26-28 meeting, held biannually for 40 years "to coordinate efforts in our shared mission to proclaim the Gospel."

A Kansas military chaplain who served during two wars is a step further along the path to possible sainthood, thanks to a declaration made by Pope Francis, currently in Rome's Gemelli hospital for severe respiratory illness.

Hope in Christ and that God's truth will prevail amid Russia's war on Ukraine was the message that Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the patriarchal head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, shared time and again during his Feb. 15-21 Jubilee Year pastoral visit to the United States.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that aims to expand access to in vitro fertilization, or IVF, a practice the Catholic Church warns is enormously destructive to embryonic human life.

A diverted trip, a grounded flight and an unexpected stay in Canada showed that "Jesus ... is in charge, not us," said Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York in a Feb. 15 homily.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey announced he has engaged a law firm to investigate whether the current president of Seton Hall University, Msgr. Joseph R. Reilly, "acted appropriately" regarding disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

Sunday Mass attendance in person at Catholic churches in the U.S. is back to pre-pandemic levels — although just under one quarter of the nation's Catholics are in the pews on a regular weekly basis.

As deadly wildfires ravage Los Angeles, Catholics are mobilizing to help those impacted.

A lawyer for abuse survivors has accused San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of "endangering kids" by allegedly refusing to release the names of credibly accused priests — charges the archdiocese strongly denies, citing its compliance with the church's norms for handling clerical abuse.

Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez of Philadelphia has announced a new initiative to open hearts, rather than shutter parishes, in countering declining numbers both of faithful and of active priests in an archdiocese he has long called home.

Several Catholic high schools are mourning former students among the victims of a Jan. 1 terrorist attack in New Orleans.

The Catholic University of America is facing a "structural deficit of $30 million" that the school "must address through both budget cuts and revenue growth," said president Peter Kilpatrick in a Dec. 6 email to alumni. Kilpatrick pointed to a number of challenges in the nation's higher education landscape, citing "rising costs and increased competition for students."

In a Dec. 11 column for the archdiocesan newspaper, the Chicago cardinal wrote that "receiving the Eucharist is not a private action but rather a communal one, as the very word 'communion' implies."

Gayle Benson — owner and CEO of the NFL's New Orleans Saints, and owner and governor of the NBA's New Orleans Pelicans — was presented with the Catholic Near East Welfare Association's Faith & Culture Award at a Dec. 9 gala in New York.

The apostolic nuncio to Syria says he hopes the war-torn nation will "move toward reconciliation" and at least "some prosperity" under democratic rule, following former Syrian President Bashar Assad's ouster in a lightning offensive by rebel groups.
 

Jesuit Father Hans Zollner — the founder and director of the Institute of Anthropology at the Pontifical Gregorian University and a former member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors — joined several safeguarding experts in releasing a joint proposal in Rome Nov. 18 advocating a change in church law on the handling of sexual abuse cases.