Kate Scanlon

After lawmakers returned to Washington from their August recess, they faced a familiar deadline: Passing legislation to fund the federal government and avert a shutdown at the end of September.

Trump's comments came amid his federalization of the police force in the nation's capital and after he activated the National Guard in what he called an effort to combat crime in Washington.

As the Trump administration seeks to implement its hardline immigration policies, it has increased enforcement actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in immigration courts, prompting alarm from Catholic immigration advocates.

Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, expressed concern Aug. 22 about "safeguarding human dignity" of detainees after the state's governor announced plans for a migrant detention center dubbed "Cornhusker Clink."

"Even as we pray for the repose of the souls of the victims and for the consolation of their survivors, we urge you to spare Mr. Windom's life," their letter said. "Every human life, given by God, is sacred."

Some immigrant religious workers are facing legal limbo, and Catholic advocates are pushing the Trump administration to address the backlog in their visa category.

The Trump administration on July 22 said the United States would withdraw from the United Nations' cultural agency UNESCO, a group that has partnered with the Holy See on human development and cultural heritage projects.

During a contentious hearing, a top Republican on the House Committee on Homeland Security on July 16 appeared to walk back a previous statement that Catholic entities are among the nongovernmental organizations subject to a probe by the committee about their work with migrants.

As the Trump administration implements its hardline immigration policies, a record-high share of U.S. adults said immigration generally benefits the country, a new Gallup Poll found.

The Trump administration plans to appeal a federal judge's July 11 ruling that bars immigration officers in Southern California from conducting immigration enforcement actions based solely on a person's race or the fact that person is speaking Spanish.

The U.S. House on July 3 approved the bill that would enact key provisions of Trump's legislative agenda on taxes and immigration, meaning the legislation will reach the president's desk for his signature.

Mercy Sr. Mary Haddad, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, called the legislation a moral failure, citing its cuts to safety-net programs like Medicaid and SNAP.

 In a dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said President Trump's effort is an attempt to  rewrite the long-standing legal interpretation of the practice.

The contrast reflected the sharp ideological division in the U.S. bishops conference over prioritizing opposition to abortion versus highlighting severe cuts to safety net programs included in the president’s plan. 

A group of Orthodox churches filed a federal lawsuit over a new law in Washington state requiring clergy to report child abuse or neglect without exceptions for clergy-penitent privilege that is also being challenged by that state's Catholic bishops.

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 18 upheld a Tennessee state law banning certain types of medical or surgical gender reassignment procedures for minors who identify as transgender.

If Donald Trump succeeds in ending the policy, "It would be like stealing his future, the future that we came to the United States to seek."

The Washington State Catholic Conference previously supported a version of the legislation to make clergy mandatory reporters that did include an exception.

Pope Leo may bring unique insight to the problem of polarization in the U.S. and in the U.S. church, analysts say.

In July, a state judge denied the effort to shut down the nonprofit, arguing the state's case violated the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, among other issues.