China bans “defamation” of Communist Party heroes

by Hong Kong contributor March 20, 2017

A draconian law adopted by the National People’s Congress is aimed at preventing Chinese citizens from challenging the Communist Party’s version of history.

In this Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017 photo, members of the Sisterhood Salaam Shalom, gather for a group photo after a unity vigil held at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

News, Politics & Society

How combating bigotry is strengthening bonds between U.S. Muslims and Jews

by Rachel Zoll - Associated Press March 20, 2017

Despite this surge of goodwill, questions remain about whether these new connections can endure.

News, Politics & Society

Pope Francis set to visit Egypt, paving the way for increased interfaith dialogue

by Carol Glatz - Catholic News Service March 20, 2017

The invitation came amid increasingly closer relations between the Vatican and al-Azhar University, which is considered the most authoritative theological-academic institution of Sunni Islam.

Pope Francis, right, and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame exchange gifts during a private audience at the Vatican, on March 20, 2017. (Tony Gentile/Pool photo via AP)

News, Politics & Society

Pope asks for forgiveness for Catholic Church’s role in Rwanda genocide

by Cindy Wooden - Catholic News Service March 20, 2017

Pope Francis asked God’s forgiveness for the failures of the Catholic Church during the 1994 Rwanda genocide and for the hatred and violence perpetrated by some priests and religious.

U.S. President Donald Trump chats with students from St. Andrew Catholic School in Orlando, Fla., on March 3. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos also joined the president. (CNS photo/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters)

News, Politics & Society

What Trump’s budget could mean for school vouchers

by Carol Zimmermann - Catholic News Service March 20, 2017

Currently, 27 states and the District of Columbia have some type of school choice measure in place and several states have legislation on the table for it this year.

Dispatches, Faith

Former Boston College President J. Donald Monan dies at 92

by Robert David Sullivan March 18, 2017

Father Monan led the Jesuit university for 24 years.

In this May 30, 2016 file photo, police work the scene where a man was fatally shot in the chest in Chicago (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune via AP).

Dispatches, Politics & Society

Outgoing Chicago U.S. attorney bemoans gun violence, urges reform

by Judith Valente March 18, 2017

In a five page “open letter,” Zachary Fardon traced problems in the city’s most troubled neighborhoods to neglect “rooted in ugly truths about power politics, race and racism.

St. Patrick is depicted in a stained-glass window at St. Aloysius Church in Great Neck, N.Y. Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, Northern Ireland, said that "as Irish people, we cannot think of St. Patrick without acknowledging the enormous humanitarian and pastoral challenges facing growing numbers of people who find themselves displaced and without status in our world." (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

News, Politics & Society

Irish archbishop: St. Patrick was an ‘undocumented migrant’

by Catholic News Service March 16, 2017

“Let us think about Patrick the ‘unlearned refugee’ (as he once described himself), the slave in exile, Patrick the undocumented migrant.”

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, addresses the audience during a discussion on March 15 in New York City on the first four years of Pope Francis' papacy. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

News, Politics & Society

Evangelization, mercy, encounter mark pope’s first four years, Nuncio says

by Beth Griffin - Catholic News Service March 16, 2017

“The raison d’etre of the church is evangelization. It’s not a business, it’s not an organization or an association for the defense of Jesus,” Archbishop Pierre said.