Signs Of the Times

In Flint, Mich., jobs have been scarce for years, but crime and foreclosures have been on the rise. Domestic violence and depression are household scourges, and a steady population decline has made the running of the city and even its long-term viability increasingly tenuous. As if these and many mo

Bishop Oscar Cantú of Las Cruces, N.M., urged Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Advisor Susan Rice to take renewed action to build on steps toward peace in the Middle East in separate letters on Jan 20. Bishop Cantú, who chairs the Committee on International Justice and Peace of

Use the power of communication to build bridges and heal wounds, not generate hatred or misunderstanding, Pope Francis said in his message for World Communications Day on Jan. 22. The Catholic Church must proclaim the truth and denounce injustice without alienating everyone in need of God’s he

Two U.S. bishops wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson seeking an end to deportation raids that rounded up more than 120 Central American immigrants early in the new year. “We disagree with the underlying rationale behind this action: that sending children and families back to the d

The Islamic extremist group Boko Haram killed 16 people in Nigeria on Dec. 25, continuing a gruesome tradition of village massacres on Christmas Day. • Delivering America Media’s John Courtney Murray lecture in New York on Jan. 12, Rabbi Dan Polish described 1965’s “Nostra Aet

As a mother of six, Leah Jacobson is watching other parents try to raise children in a society that no longer supports sisterhood among mothers. And that’s a shame, said the founder and president of the Guiding Star Project, a Duluth-based organization seeking to combine under one roof a varie

Belgium is embroiled in a religious freedom controversy after the new head of the country’s Roman Catholic Church demanded that church-run hospitals and nursing homes have the right to refuse to euthanize their patients. Euthanasia for terminally ill adults was legalized in Belgium in 2002 and

The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 12 said the state of Florida’s death penalty system is unconstitutional because it allows judges, rather than juries, to determine whether a convicted criminal should be given a death sentence. Michael B. Sheedy, executive director of the Florida Conference of Ca

With North Korea leading the way and Islamic extremism rapidly expanding, 2015 was the “worst year in modern history for Christian persecution,” according to Open Doors’ 2016 World Watch List, a ranking of the 50 most dangerous places in the world to be a Christian. Iraq was r