Rhina Guidos

The Trump administration announced Aug. 12 a plan to deny permanent legal immigration status for those who use public funds such as food stamps or public housing.

Bishops in Venezuela recently called out the government in a letter written by the bishops' conference after the group's July 2019 gathering. 

"Once again in our nation we see the face of evil," Bishop Mark Seitz said. "... We see the effects of the sinful and insipid conviction that some of us are better than others of us because of race, religion, language or nationality."

Pope Francis joined other Catholic Church leaders expressing sorrow after back-to-back mass shootings in the U.S. left at least 29 dead and dozens injured in Texas and Ohio Aug. 3-4.

In a letter, two Baltimore bishops said that the president's recent comments about their city were "horrible, demeaning and beneath the dignity of a political leader."

Bishops and friends remember the recently-deceased Cardinal Ortega of Cuba. 

A recent newspaper report details claims that senior church leaders in the United States knew as far back as 2012 about complaints against a West Virginia bishop.

The Smithsonian Museum of American History is looking at the possibility of acquiring for its collection drawings made by children ages 10 and 11 at a Catholic Charities center in Texas.

Human trafficking survivors shared their experiences at a conference hosted by The National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the District of Columbia Baptist Convention.

Trump's policies have spread fear among immigrant populations in the U.S., but Catholic organizations have responded with renewed efforts to help those groups, a survey says.

Leadership of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in an op-ed cast blame on government policies for recent child deaths near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The bodies of a young father and his toddler are expected to be returned to El Salvador in late June for burial, days after they were swept up by a current in the Rio Grande River during an attempted border crossing into the United States.

Bishop Mark Seitz of the U.S. border Diocese of El Paso, Texas, walked and prayed with a group of migrants at the Lerdo International Bridge in El Paso June 27 as they sought asylum in the U.S.

While the sex abuse crisis consumed the June meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore, prelates who work on the border, such as Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, have been facing a different crisis also involving children. 

After a major newspaper published a story about alleged financial and sexual misconduct by a West Virginia bishop, a prelate overseeing the investigation for the Vatican expressed regret that he redacted his name out of documents detailing financial aspects of the scandal.

Texas Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, denies a characterization of how he handled an accusation by a woman who said she was manipulated into a sexual relationship with his former deputy, a priest.

President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on Mexico, whom his administration blames lately for an increasing number of immigrants at the southern U.S. border. 

On May 30, New Hampshire lawmakers garnered enough votes to abolish the death penalty in the state, overriding a veto from Gov. Chris Sununu and becoming the 21st state to ban capital punishment.

Bishop Edward Burns of Dallas questioned an affidavit and a dramatic raid by local police who descended on church property in the Texas diocese wearing "ski masks and SWAT gear" in mid-May saying they were looking for documents related to abuse investigations.

Many took to social media to denounce the May 18 killing of a Salvadoran priest while urging authorities to look at the crime as a possible retaliation for Fr. Cecilio Perez Cruz's criticism of the cutting of trees near the western town of Juayua.