Missouri’s bishops and Catholic groups in the state are urging voters to consider the needs of the poor when voting on a proposed constitutional amendment that they say would shift the burden of taxation onto lower-income residents. The Missouri Amendment 5, which is on the Aug. 4 primary ballot, would authorize legislative phase-out of the individual state…
Last week, I asked if the protests against building AI data centers marked the beginnings of a populism of the left. In the course of the editing process, an interesting question arose: Is there a specifically Catholic form of populism? Let’s start by explaining what we mean by populism. It is a political category with no…
The House of the Virgin Mary is a shrine located in Ephesus, Turkey, where the mother of Jesus is believed to have spent her final years. Thousands of miles away, nestled in a field outside Manila, a replica in the Philippines welcomes devotees in Asia’s biggest Catholic nation. “The idea began as a place of refuge,”…
(RNS and NPR) — Sister Theresa Aletheia and Sister Danielle Lussier stand out at daily Mass at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Lexington, Kentucky. Their heads are covered in waist-length teal veils, and black canvas work aprons cover their gray habits. The aprons feature an embroidered image of Jesus on the cross, alive…
As our country celebrates its 250th anniversary, we find politics and a certain strand of Catholicism interwoven at its highest levels. The Supreme Court has six Catholic judges and one former Catholic, some of whom have spoken about the importance of religion in the United States in ways that feel unseemly for a justice at best…
As African bishops continue to back Pope Leo XIV over the excommunication of the Society of St. Pius X, known as SSPX, the traditionalist group in Kenya rejected the schismatic tag as it moved to assure followers of its Roman Catholic identity. Fr. Pierre Champroux, the priest in charge of the SSPX’s Holy Cross Parish in Nairobi, claimed in…
(RNS) — While there is growing awareness of the severe humanitarian crisis in Cuba, in large measure brought on by the U.S. fuel blockade, few are paying attention to the damage that decades of sanctions are inflicting on the Catholic Church’s ability to serve the Cuban people. The United States has pressed economic sanctions on…
Catholic immigration advocates praised the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 30 ruling that upheld birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S., regardless of the immigration status of their parents. “A child born on American soil is an American, and that truth has been reaffirmed,” Missionary of Jesus Sr. Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of…
People who joined the Catholic Church this year wanted to grow in goodness and virtue, desired a deeper understanding of truth and sought a greater sense of inner peace, according to a new report released Thursday (June 18) by the Archdiocese of Chicago. The new Catholic converts were also motivated by an interest in liturgy,…
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Cardinal Camillo Ruini, former president of the Italian bishops’ conference and a towering figure in Italy’s post-Second Vatican Council culture wars, died on Tuesday (June 16) at the age of 95. Ruini had been admitted to the hospital in September to treat kidney problems, and his health declined in the following…
