Author photo of Jack Kiyonaga

Jack Kiyonaga

Jack Kiyonaga is a writer and journalist living in Washington, D.C. He works on investigations, breaking news, feature stories and fiction. Jack is the former editor-in-chief of The Molokai Dispatch and a Master of Fine Arts candidate at New York University.

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Attendees applaud at the Vatican embassy Oct. 21, 2026, during the Justice Reimagined Awards and Celebration, a Catholic Mobilizing Network event honoring capital punishment opponents. (Courtesy of of Catholic Mobilizing Network/Maximilian Franz Photography)

Catholic group honors death penalty opponents, says church 'has something to say'

At its Justice Reimagined Awards and Celebration, the Catholic Mobilizing Network honored journalist Elizabeth Bruenig and Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley for their anti-death-penalty advocacy.

Joseph Dutton in 1921 (Courtesy of Hawaii State Archives)

Hawaii's new Brother Joseph Dutton Day honors layman's care for Hansen's disease patients

In addition to his state recognition, the sainthood cause for Joseph Dutton, who watched over the orphaned boys of Kalaupapa Hansen's disease settlement for 44 years, has been submitted to the Vatican.

A view of the Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond in 2017 (Wikimedia Commons/Famartin)

Virginia decriminalizes suicide. Some Catholics say this is complicated.

A recently passed bill decriminalizing suicide in Virginia has been championed by many as overdue relief for families of those who have died by suicide, but it also raises questions from a Catholic ethical perspective.

Grave markers are pictured in a file photo in Kalaupapa on Molokai, Hawaii, where Hansen's disease patients quarantined there for life were cared for by Sts. Damien de Veuster and Marianne Cope. An estimated 8,000 people are buried there. (OSV News/Courtesy of Hawaii Catholic Herald)

Kalaupapa, site of Catholic saint history, reopens to visitors

Kalaupapa in Hawaii was a settlement where people with Hansen's disease, or leprosy, were quarantined. Two saints spent years serving those exiled there. COVID-19 closed Kalaupapa to the public, but it is now reopened.

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