Peter Feuerherd

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, the Detroit prelate who for many American Catholics defined faith-based social justice activism in the post-Vatican II church, died April 4. He was 94. 

Some 94 million people live in coastal areas in the U.S., despite storms like Sandy. While communities have rebuilt after natural disasters, climate change and rising oceans present challenges to long-term planning.

A small group of New Yorkers is volunteering to protect piping plovers, a threatened species in their own backyard. The group tries to keep beachgoers away from protected dunes and sand harboring the long-legged bird.

As a reflection of Passionist Fr. Thomas Berry's influence, the order's retreat house in New York, now undergoing extensive renovations, will reopen next year with a renewed ministry aimed at offering an environmental and social response to the cries of both the poor and the Earth.

At St. Elizabeth of the Hill Country Parish in Boone, North Carolina, Fr. Brendan Buckler is among a number of pastors in the Charlotte Diocese who are dubbed restorationists; some parishioners do not feel welcomed by the old-fashioned liturgical tradition.

Much of Thomas Merton's writing on civil rights remained an afterthought, until the murder of George Floyd in May, and subsequent protests. 2020 has seen Catholics return to Merton's words on race.

At the conclusion of each Mass at St. Francis Xavier, a Jesuit church in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, people are invited to recite a pledge to uphold racial justice.

Those who went through seminary for the Newark Archdiocese during McCarrick's tenure already knew of his long history of sexual abuse, with the Vatican report a kind of "imprimatur" validating their experiences.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York's 14th District said she receives inspiration on issues such as health care and climate change from her Catholic faith as well as political ideology.

The battle for New York's 14th District offers a study of contrasts between two Catholics: U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and John Cummings, a former police officer and a teacher for 22 years.

Outrage against Trump immigration statements and policies, or equating the Black Lives Matter protests with Latinos, will not persuade reluctant Latinos who lean Republican, according to a polling expert.

Suspended over allegations of sexual exploitation of a woman, Fr. Jeremy Leatherby was excommunicated only after he refused to acknowledge Pope Francis and Sacramento's Bishop Soto during the Eucharistic Prayer.

In Portland, Oregon, police and Black Lives Matter protesters have clashed downtown for more than two months. NCR talks to Catholic activists in Portland about their call and compares the response of Archbishop Alexander Sample.

Eric Spacek, risk control manager for Church Mutual Insurance, based in Merrill, Wisconsin, shares best practices for churches that are reopening for in-person Mass in the U.S.

St. Bernard's staff members say that the parish lost about two dozen parishioners to COVID-19, and now that restrictions are easing, like in 17,000 other U.S. parishes, they wonder whether people will return to Mass and sacraments in person.

As he's sought out to discuss Camden's policing turnaround, former Chief Scott Thomson cautions that the city's story is not a miracle, but the result of a conscious strategy to make the police more visible while enlisting the embattled citizenry's support.

Fr. Aidan McAleenan, a priest of the Oakland, California, Diocese, has called Bishop Michael Barber a liar and a racist, making his remarks via a Facebook video that has since been removed.

Stories about recent Catholic school closings caused some to wonder if the flurry of such actions over the past two months signaled an unexpected impact of the pandemic.

Whether or not Catholics return to their parishes after the pandemic will depend on what those parishes were like before. But according to authors of a new study, it's clear that change will be needed.

Amid the pandemic, Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Gerard Battersby notified Christ the King Church that Fortunate Families could no longer be welcomed at Christ the King or any archdiocesan facility.