A month before this Independence Day, a group of 100 scholars warned about “the recent deterioration of U.S. democracy.” America has been covering this topic from all angles; here are highlights from our archives.

Activists who oppose the death penalty said the Justice Department’s temporary stop of federal executions is a step in the right direction — but not enough.

The Vatican’s bioethics academy and the World Medical Association on Friday called for an all-out effort to combat vaccine hesitancy and correct the “myths and disinformation” that are slowing the fight against the coronavirus.

“This is a time to say, ‘Yes, let’s speak about the hunger...for the presence of God.’ This is the moment, and I think the bishops want to do that. But some of our pastoral leaders are making it difficult.”

The Justice Department is halting federal executions after a historic use of capital punishment by the Trump administration, which carried out 13 executions in six months.

My grief did not unfold neatly or in any predictable way as the “stages of grief” might suggest.

“Essential” workers have returned to “normal,” confronting the low wages, poor-to-no benefits—including no paid sick time or company-sponsored health insurance—they faced before the crisis.

“Lebanon cannot be left prey to the course of events or those who pursue their own unscrupulous interests,” Pope Francis said on the day of prayer and reflection for peace in Lebanon.

Pro-lifers and pro-choicers should both want to help women and families be in a place to choose to have another child.

Pope Francis has agreed to meet in December with Indigenous survivors of Canada’s notorious residential schools amid calls for a papal apology for the Catholic Church’s role in the abuse and deaths of thousands of native children.

How is it possible that God uses a sinner, a frail and weak person, to do His will? Everything has been prepared in God’s plan.

There is the faith that we profess, and then there is the experience of faith by which we believe. One is a list of notions. The other is an encounter with a person.

The pope said business leaders should shift their focus to production, creating jobs and “investing in the common good, not hiding money in tax havens.”

Forgiveness and healing can begin only after the most difficult part is addressed: confronting the past, speaking the truth, revealing the worst.

The parish council at the Jesuit-run Holy Trinity Catholic Church released a statement saying that the church “will not deny the Eucharist to persons presenting themselves to receive it.”

The United States is not the only nation struggling with the problem of outspoken priests becoming entangled with the partisan politics of the day.

It is important to engage in conversations about complex and even controversial subjects using our faith and intellect.

“Only a free church is a credible church,” Pope Francis declared in his homily on June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.

Pope Francis congratulated retired Pope Benedict XVI on the 70th anniversary of his priestly ordination.

“We are deeply saddened by the information coming out of two former residential boarding school sites in Canada,” Chieko Noguchi, the spokesperson of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said.